JESUIT EDUCATION DISSED

Colonel Pat Lang (ret) writes a hard nosed blog called Sic Semper Tyrannis, dealing with geopolitical and intelligence affairs. He appears every so often as an expert commentator on TV news programs.

His shtick is military professionalism.

Recently he wrote a little rant about national TV punditocracy “guiding” the political choices of non-coastal Americans.

It seems clear that the "pundits in chief" of American television have in mind to "guide" American voters to the election of a candidate who, in their collective "wisdom," is appropriate to the office of president of the United States.

Lang singled out Tim Russert and Chris Matthews.

It’s short, kind of a toss-off, but it ends with this weird, one-sentence paragraph:

Both Russert and Matthews are products of schooling that should have done better by them.

My guess is that the Jesuits running Holy Cross and John Carroll are proud to have Chris and Tim as alumnae.

Jesuits can teach bright kids how to attain positions of power. How the grads wield their power, whether for good or ill, well, that’s where prayer comes in.

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SYMMETRY

My impression is that these two completely agree on the WHAT.

And that they completely disagree on the WHO.

Anyway, both have their hands in a "something to hide" position.

Models of monarchy, they represent the good old days when men weren’t afraid to dress-up a little.

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DEAD OR BEHIND BARS

America’s most famous Jesuit, Father Donald McGuire, is in federal custody and prosecutors seem disinclined give him bail, they consider him a flight risk.

Does the U.S.A. have an extradition treaty with the Vatican?

McGuire, reportedly, had been an important spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa. Teresa was in the news recently when it was revealed that she didn’t really believe the Christ story stuff, especially transubstantiation.

So, I’m wondering, when these two frauds got together, what the heck did they discuss? I picture them at a table for two in the dining room of some retreat house:

Teresa: Father, I need to tell you something but you have to promise that you won't tell anyone. Ok?

McGuire SJ: Teresa, Of course, this is completely confidential, but I want to make the same request of you. I too want to tell you something that you must never tell anyone. Agreed?

Teresa: Yes, Father. But what could you…

(pause)

McGuire SJ: You first.

Teresa: Father, I know this is terrible, but I really don’t believe in the Blessed Sacrament. When I see the host up there in the monstrance, I want to believe that it’s the body of Christ. But as hard as I try, all I see is a piece of bread.

McGuire SJ: Is that all? Heck, I’m a serial child molester.

[Teresa can’t help but wince slightly.]

[Long awkward silence.]

McGuire: How’s the veal?

Teresa: You want a taste?

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JESUIT CREDIBILITY

The Society of Jesus (Jesuit) is built around “Ignatian Spirituality.” This sounds very esoteric.

Then, we’re told that Ignatian Spirituality is based on writings by Ignatius of Loyola called “The Spiritual Exercises.”

While I’m sure that The Spiritual Exercises contain, like the Bible, many embarrassing passages that are “not to be taken literally,” two leap out at us.

These two passages go to the heart not of Jesuit Spirituality, but of “Jesuit Credibility.”

They show that Jesuit preaching isn’t about truth, it’s about eliciting desired behavior from the masses. Behavior desired by whom? By the Pope, of course.

In the Spiritual Exercises Ignatius tells his followers to lie and sandbag for the Pope.

LYING: I always thought the “black and white” quote was apocryphal, but here it is:

Thirteenth Rule. To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed.

So, Rule 13 states that the Pope can authorize lying, and that the Jesuits ought to repeat the Pope’s lies as if they were true.

SANDBAGGING: In Rules 14 and 15, Ignatius addresses the notion of sharing “too much truth” with the masses. Here the “saint” makes clear that the purpose of talking to the masses is to affect their behavior, NOT to share truth or insight. So, if there is some truth that might affect the masses behavior in a way undesirable to the Pope or to the Pope’s local political allies, don’t reveal this truth to the masses.

Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.

Fifteenth Rule. We ought not, by way of custom, to speak much of predestination; but if in some way and at some times one speaks, let him so speak that the common people may not come into any error, as sometimes happens, saying: Whether I have to be saved or condemned is already determined, and no other thing can now be, through my doing well or ill; and with this, growing lazy, they become negligent in the works which lead to the salvation and the spiritual profit of their souls.

It’s kind of embarrassing for the RCC, the whole issue of predestination. Paul was a firm believer. Makes for a nasty God, creating people bound for hell.

The only solution to the intellectual quagmire of predestination is to give up the notion of hell. God HAS predestined all of us—to heaven!

But no. The RCC has so little confidence in Christ’s message of love it just can’t give up its reliance on fear.

Conclusion:

Q. Based upon the “Spiritual Exercises,” can we believe anything a Jesuit says?

A. No.

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NAZI POPE: MORE MARTYRS, PLEASE

By beatifying hundreds of Francoist thugs, Pope Benedict once again reveals his Nazi roots. The fact that the thugs wore Roman collars makes them saints. Read the appalling CWN story here.

The Pope says all Christians should be ready to suffer martyrdom.

This sounds a little tinny coming from a Pope who once swore personal loyalty to Adolph Hitler. The Pope’s apologists say that Ratzinger wasn’t really a Nazi—he swore the Hitler oath in order to save his own skin.

Also, we should forget that Ratzinger’s Wehrmacht unit shot at Allied pilots over Germany. We are to supposed to believe that Ratzinger didn’t really mean to hurt anyone.

Ratzinger’s response to the most overwhelming evil of our times was to go along with it.

One thing’s for sure: if you’re martyred in your youth, you’ll never grow up to be Pope.

In recent months the Pope has urged European Christians to have more babies. This has so much the flavor of Lebensborn, it now seems completely fair to call Benedict “The Nazi Pope.”

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BROM PLAYS CATCH-UP

San Diego bishop Robert Brom has sent letters, including return addressed donation envelopes, to all parishioners asking for $25M to cover part of the diocese’ priest child sex abuse settlement. (Union-Tribune story here.)

Brom is an embarrassment. He refers to the $183M settlement which he and his diocese had long delayed with bad faith negotiations and fraudulent bankruptcy filings as “compassionate outreach.” Such spin is sin.

Only after the Federal judge threatened to throw out the Church’s bankruptcy claim, and faced with the possibility of Brom himself having to testify under oath, did the diocese agree to pay for the damages suffered by the children it helped to abuse.

Presumably some of the victims and their relatives are still parishioners in the diocese. Will they receive donation requests?

Brom’s request is short sighted.

Why ask for only $25m? That just takes care of the cases settled to date. What about the sex abuse being perpetrated by priests now and in the future?

Why not set up a revolving fund to settle priest sex abuse cases as they occur?

It would be easier for parishioners to finance priest sex abuse on a pay-as-you go basis.

Payouts made immediately would be lower than in cases covered up and allowed to fester. Actuaries could calculate the size of the fund required.

A million a year, two million, whatever it takes, the parishioners would know what it’s costing, and, they wouldn’t have to worry about being walloped by another $183M bombshell.

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GOD AND SANTA

Our received Catholic faith seems to follow a developmental path similar to that of our received belief in Santa Claus.

Not so bad, really. Adolescence is always rough, but overall it's a good thing.

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PRETENDING TO SIN

I have to admit that as an adolescent and young man I did sex things with girlfriends and actually had intercourse with a woman.

Yet I represent myself as a gay man.

This is not such a big deal. Probably lots of gay guys had sex with girls when they were young, some even get married to women before they decide to follow their lust.

But reverse it—say a guy who’s had some youthful sex experiences with other guys, yet represents himself as straight.

I suggest it’s easier for a gay guy to admit he’s had sex with women than for a straight guy to admit he’s has sex with other guys.

Anyway, it’s never good for a man to say, “I am not gay.”

US Senator Larry Craig keeps saying it (to guffaws). Now a Vatican priest is saying the same thing.

It’s Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, videotaped making sexual advances toward a young man.

As the AP (via IHT) story says:

While there have long been allegations of gays in the Roman Catholic priesthood, the Stenico case is unusual because he is a relatively high-ranking Vatican official. Stenico heads an office in the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy — the main Vatican office overseeing all the world's priests.

Monsignor Stenico says he’s not gay—he was pretending to be gay as part of his “research.”

Not the behavior, not the hypocrisy, it’s the sheer stupidity of Monsignor’s explanation that most discredits the Church.

The Vatican ain’t buying it. They shitcanned him.

The story accurately states RCC’s position on gay people.

Vatican teaching holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with compassion and dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

I guess one way to express compassion is to tell gays and lesbians that they are “intrinsically disordered.”

Funny, I don’t feel intrinsically disordered. I don’t even feel bad about my sex-with-females episodes.

Every once in a while, when someone indicates they assume I’m straight, I’ll disabuse them. Usually I’ll just say I’m gay.

Sometimes, though, I’ll get all haughty and defensive and declare, “I am NOT straight!”

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WERNICH GETS LIFE; POPE SUPPORTED CRIMES

The upshot of this BBC story is that von Wernich (guilty) is the first of possibly many such Church related cases. According to BBC, the Catholic hierarchy in Argentina all condoned, and some actually participated in the Junta's dirty war.

Is there any reason to believe the Catholic hierarchy in any other part of the world is any better?

Here’s the Pope’s kidnapping-for-Jesus bit:

The most high-profile witness during the three-month trial was the Argentine Nobel Peace prize laureate, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, himself a prisoner under military rule.

He declared in court that he had told Pope John Paul II personally that the military was kidnapping the babies of women prisoners.

"The Pope put down the information I'd given him," he said. "Then he told me: 'You also have to think about the children living in communist countries.'"

So, Pope John Paul II approved kidnapping babies if it’s part of a fight against communism.

I guess if you're pro-capitalist, you just want to canonize that guy.

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HAMMER AND NAILS

Catholic priest, Cristian Von Wernich, according to this story on Latin America Press.Org, has been charged with 80 counts of murder and torture.

Von Wernich was chaplain to a group within Argentina’s military junta and is accused of thorough participation in that regime’s “dirty war.”

Von Wernich was charged in December 2005 after evidence surfaced of human rights violations, but the trial only began in early July of this year, when the prosecutor found there was enough evidence to try him for direct responsibility in seven assassinations, 42 cases of kidnapping and disappearances and 31 counts of torture.

This should come as no surprise to Catholic news followers. Instances of priests and bishops collaborating with totalitarian regimes are plentiful.

In Buenos Aires Father Wernich has found support from two Jesuits.

In June, when Von Wernich’s trial date was announced, Jorge Bergoglio, Buenos Aires” top cardinal, said that the “Church is the subject of persecution.” Bishop Andrés Stanovnik of the northern Chaco province timidly defended the priest: “I’m not going to make any value judgments on a brother. One mustn’t prejudge because Father Von Wernich has only been accused, not convicted.”

So we need a Salesian to express…

“I’ve questioned and I continue to question the Church’s role as an institution, above all in the hierarchy, because it wasn’t able to meet the challenge, which is to say, it wasn’t with the crucified,” said Salesian priest Rubén Capitanio, who testified against Von Wernich. “Von Wernich’s case is more than symbolic, because he put himself on the side of the crucifiers.”

Of course this brings up the deepest of contradictions: Christians sold out to the empire that crucified their savior.

The poor deluded Jews. They thought the Messiah would help them gain enough military power to throw off their oppressors, the Roman Empire.

Little did they know that Jahweh’s intent all along was to join up with the Roman Empire itself. As John the Baptist was to Jesus, so Jesus was to Constantine the Great, paving the way.

Holy Roman Empire. Holy Catholic Church.

So the Jewish people basically performed the role of unpaid surrogate mother--"thanks for giving us Jesus, now take a shower."

That’s the birthright Jacob swindled. Way to go, Jacob!

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--KEEPS ON GIVING

Over at Metrexius Journal, Vas Corp Por describes a boring metaphysics class, his hatred of someone named Plantinga, and Mike Tyson’s fist.

Vas' attention was grabbed when:

Somehow, this branched off into a discussion about sex. Evidently, my poor professor was educated by Jesuits for 8 years, and he claims to be completely incapable of conceiving of sex without guilt. As in, he can't imagine a sex act that doesn't involve guilt somehow, because the bloodsucking Jesuits taught him that even sexual thoughts are sinful. It's objectively wrong, they say. Cripes, that must be awful; I'll take my humanistic moral noncognitivism and guilt-free sex over their "complete metaphysics" any day of the week, thankyouverymuch. Tee hee!

I’m, like, “What he said.”

The title of the post: Gives “Mindfuck” a Whole New Meaning.

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THAT LYING BIBLE

The author of Saint Peter’s Second Epistle was not Saint Peter, at least according to the American Council of Catholic Bishops.

In their introduction to 2Peter in the New American Bible, they state:

Among modern scholars there is wide agreement that 2 Peter is a pseudonymous work, i.e., one written by a later author who attributed it to Peter…

The bishops list numerous reasons why 2Peter could not have been written by the Apostle Peter.

In the first chapter, the author of 2Peter claims to speak with authority because he, the author, was there with Jesus at the “transfiguration” described in Matthew 17.

The epistle-writer says:

16 We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, "This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

Clearly, the statements in boldface are outright lies.

That the Catholic Church at some historical point included 2Peter in the official Bible (which is the Word of God) could be seen as some sort of honest mistake.

The Church’s continued inclusion of this bogus, lying document as the word of God hurts the Church’s claim of authenticity, let alone honesty.

2Peter addresses the” scoffers.”

The early Church’s belief that the second coming would happen in their lifetimes was a gigantic misunderstanding. The people, apostles and such, who were actually there, living and traveling and talking with Jesus, completely misunderstood his promise to return soon.

How much else of Jesus’ preaching was misunderstood?

Per the statue pictured above (click on image for source) St Peter had a great physique with a nice net. But he did not write 2Peter.

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BILL OF PARTICULARS

A new conservative blog, Reforming the Jesuits, has emerged.

It’s first post, Why Do You Think the Jesuits Need Reformed [sic], is a nifty bill of particulars, beginning with someone named Bollard who

told interviewers on "60 Minutes" that during his seven years as a Jesuit, at least 12 priests made unwelcome sexual advances and invited him to cruise gay bars.

Presumably Bollard’s complaint to Provincial John Privett, S.J. was that 12 advances in 7 years was too many. Others in formation might find such numbers disappointingly low. It’s difficult to satisfy everyone.

Conservative blogs such as Good/Bad and RtJ provide much fodder for Jesuit Watch.

We all see discrepancies between policy and practice.

As an example, it’s the policy of the RCC and by extension the Jesuits that homosexual acts are sinful, yet, in practice, many Jesuits are actively homosexual.

Conservatives want the Jesuits to change their practices to make them comply with their policy. These folks want the clergy purged of all practicing homosexuals.

Liberals, including this blog, want the Jesuits to bring their policy into conformance with their practice. We want the RCC and by extension the Jesuits to proclaim that gay sex is licit and potentially sacramental.

The church faces danger if it moves in either direction. Thus, the status f*cked-up quo.

Interesting about Reforming the Jesuits is it’s author, Roberto Bellarmino, “Born in 1542 in Montepulciano, Italy.”

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MORE BIBLE BABBLE

SCRIPTURES, n.
The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished

from the false and profane writings on which

all other faiths are based.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

A gay softball teammate one time mentioned that he had been a Catholic seminarian. He said it was mostly the stupid internal politics, corruption, and general nastiness that drove him away.

Somehow I mentioned the Bible and he said the seminarians were discouraged from reading it, let alone considering it. The only purpose of the Bible, they were told, was to legitimize the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.

Here in the United States we associate Bible-reading with religious wrongheadedness.

If you open the Bible randomly there’s no telling what kind of garbage you might come up with—snake handling, speaking in tongues, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Second Coming, polygamy, child sacrifice, the list goes on and on.

Take the Fugitive Slave Act (please). Paul’s epistle to Philemon supports what must be God’s law: that runaway slaves should be returned to their masters. Oh, he also says that Philemon should treat the slave well—wink, wink.

(Is there a sex angle here? Did Paul like women at all? Do you suppose he ever really “got it on” with anyone?)

I love the American bishops’ explanation in their New American Bible. Of Paul:

He does not attack slavery directly, for this is something the Christian communities of the first century were in no position to do, and the expectation that Christ would soon come again militated against social reforms.

This might explain the fugitive slave thing but it points out a much more glaring discrepancy: the early church thought that the second coming of Jesus would happen in their lifetime or shortly thereafter.

They thought that Jesus had promised this to them.

They were completely wrong.

As silly as the Millerites.

Was there some miscommunication?

And what about slavery? Was it ok then, but wrong now?

See, kiddies, don’t open the Bible, it will only confuse you.

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CHINA LEADS THE WAY

Two men were ordained bishops in China yesterday. These men were not selected by the pope. According to this CNS story, however, the pope approves:

The Vatican newspaper indicated that both ordinations had been carried out with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI. The local Catholic communities, who elected the bishops, had indicated to the Vatican that they were worthy candidates, the newspaper said.

If Catholic communities in China can elect their own bishops, why not communities in Europe and America, too?

The whole totalitarian, monarchical, hierarchical structure of the church is a little passé. Countries organized that way are called dictatorships.

A true democrat would tell any silk-slippered potentate to kiss his own damn ring.

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KEEP GIVING, FOLKS

As the total US priest sex abuse payouts, cumulative from 1950, pass $2 Billion, we are seeing more and more reports of financial crime within the RCC.

Right wing commentators point to mutual blackmail contributing to the administrative coverup of the priest sex crimes, but the blackmail need not be sexual.

Evidence that a superior has been embezzling could protect a priest sex offender from exposure.

This story from the Darien News-Review is way creepy. Although blackmail isn't mentioned, someone must have known. Lead:

The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, who resigned last year as pastor of St. John's Roman Catholic Church after he allegedly stole at least $1.4 million in parish funds, pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal fraud charge.

Somehow the faithful keep donating. I guess that’s why they’re called “faithful.”

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TSK, TSK

So some Jesuit universities are shilling for student-loan lenders—what’s the big deal? Lots of universities around the nation have been caught doing the same thing. There’s no reason to expect better from the Jesuits, is there?

According to this story in Fairfield University’s student newspaper, the Mirror,

Late this summer, it was reported that Fairfield, as well as two other Connecticut colleges, had an agreement with The College Board, Inc. to make the company one of its preferred loan providers in return for thousands of dollars in software discounts.

This is another example of the cryptic nature of Catholic moral theology. The sum total of the two testaments plus two millenia of explication couldn’t help the padres at Fairfield figure out if bribery was ok. But not to worry:

Though the University admits to no wrongdoing, it agreed to follow a financial aid code of conduct to prevent similar scandals in the future.

Gotta prevent those scandals!

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HEAVENLY BODIES

Admission to one’s eternal reward is instantaneous upon death. One’s soul goes immediately into the presence of God, or to H – E – double hockeysticks.

But wait, there’s more (as if there need be). At the end of the world, our bodies will be resurrected and reunited with our souls and earth will be transformed. We’ll walk around and experience things the way we did in mortal life, except everything will be really, really great. And the people in hell will have physical as well as emotional torment.

So, where exactly is Jesus’ body right now? He ascended, but where? Physical, bodily heaven awaits the end of the world.

And where is Mary’s body. It was “assumed” into… where?

So there are two human bodies floating around up there somewhere, keeping each other company.

Do they long for additional human biomass to join them?

“Selflessness” is a tough little paradox.

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HOLY SONNET XIV

Mr Richard McCurdy, S.J., told our sophomore honor class that Donne’s sonnet, Batter My Heart…, was a little “grown-up” for kids our age, but he thought we could handle it.

Also, since he was teaching it to a senior class at the time, it allowed him to kill two birds with one lesson plan.

I always think of Batter My Heart as a “terrible sonnet.” Then wikipedia reminds me it was Hopkins who wrote the terrible sonnets, although Batter… is every bit as terrible as say, Carrion Comfort.

Actually, some rhythmic riffs in Batter… foretell Hopkins’ sprungness.

Here’s a little scorecard to help tell the two apart.



BTW: According to wikipedia Donne wrote a polemic titled Ignatius and his Cohort which takes place in, and numbers Ignatius Loyola among the residents of, hell.

I wonder what pissed him off.

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SAINTHOOD MATH

Just the mention of Mother Teresa gets this blog’s juices flowing. We agree with Hitchens, et al, that this purported saint was anything but.

Like the witches inside Hans Castorp’s Magic Mountain, her vocation fed on a high birth rate.

Our seating plan for the eternal banquet called “Heaven” has Mother Teresa sharing a table with Pedro Arbues, Paul of Tarsus, and Augustine of Hippo—the “Mirth Group.”

The current press notice of her letters regarding the emptiness of Catholic theology focuses on Teresa’s hypocrisy—she adamantly preached things she didn’t really believe.

The Roman Catholic Church, by contrast, touts her perseverance in performing good works even in the face of dark doubts. This belies, however, the church’s contention that charity is connected to belief in Jesus God.

Let’s do the math:

Accept, for the sake of argument, that Mother Teresa’s public ministry can be called “good works.”

According to her letters, during some time periods of her ministry she had a clear belief in Jesus. During other times she did not have this belief.

Of course we find it despicable that Mother Teresa wanted her letters destroyed.

We at Jesuit Watch consider the experience of emptiness and darkness and meaninglessness as the starting point of adult spirituality, not something to be ashamed of. Sharing such experiences with others is the essence of “church.”

We surmise that for Mother Teresa to express her doubts publicly would have been an awkward career move.

[Note: The second picture is of Olivia Hussey portraying Mother Teresa in an eponymous made-for-TV movie.]

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JUST DOING THEIR JOB

One of the dumber sayings to come out of the 1960’s youth explosion was, “Don’t trust anyone over thirty.” It’s good advice only if you add, “…neither trust anyone thirty or below.” I heard a Jesuit twist it to: “Don’t trust anyone over thirty-three, unless they’ve been crucified.”

Poor Cardinal Bertone has been whining again about negative press coverage. Like the great majority of Enron employees who were hard-working and law-abiding, the Catholic Church is made up of mostly good people. Heck, even Hitler’s army was made mostly of people like our current pope!

“…the men and women of the church, have done and continue to do an immense volume of good in every part of the world," Bertone said.

SFW! To say anything less would be condemnation. The whole purpose of the church is to do good. The fact that it is doing some good should come as no surprise.

Bertone, in the CNS article, stupidly compares the Catholic Church to the newly restored Sistine Chapel ceiling. If only it were so easy!

Anyway, two Catholic priests are in the news for doing their magisterial duties.

Father Steve Kelly, S.J., and Franciscan Father Louis Vitale are facing federal trespassing charges in Fort Huachuca, near the Arizona-Mexico border.

Fathers Kelly and Vitale tried to enter the Fort Huachuca Army base with the intent of instructing the soldiers there about the evil of torture.

Jesuit Watch' position: there is no contingency that justifies torture.

The action of the two priests is elegant symbolism. They weren’t chaining themselves, or blocking entrances, they were simply doing their job, teaching people to avoid the unhappiness associated with mortal sin.

The CNS piece says that Father Kelly, S.J., had been associated with a Catholic Worker group in Northern California, and that Father Vitale is retired from St Boniface Church which for decades has served the down-and-out in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

In the picture below Jesuit Kelly says mass in a setting that almost resembles that of the Last Supper, more so, at least, than say, St Peter’s in Rome, or the Sistine Chapel with Michaelangelo’s cartoons that the Cardinal is so proud of.

And Father Louis Vitale dresses the part, he's no stranger to police tape, and he doesn’t scare the children.

Bertone is right. There are lots of great Catholics.

BTW: One of the smarter sayings from the 1960’s was “Turn on, tune in , drop out.” Leary’s message repeats the message of Jesus, at least that of the hippie, contrarian Jesus as educed by the Jesus Seminar.

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BAPTISTS JUST AS BAD?

Don McGuire, S.J., might be the most famous Jesuit priest in America today. Freed by the court while appealing his felony child molestation conviction, Father McGuire has been jailed twice for violating the terms of his release.

According to this Chicago Sun-Times story, a new civil suit has been filed against McGuire and the Jesuits, by a John Doe.

The suit alleges that Jesuit priest Donald McGuire abused a boy over a three-year-period, beginning in 1999, when the victim was 13 years old and living periodically with the priest at Canisius House, a Jesuit residence in Evanston.

A spokesman for the Chicago province tried to pick a hole in the allegation:

"It is highly unlikely that a minor or a non-Jesuit would be living in a Jesuit residence in any capacity," said Jeremy Langford.

I guess that wouldn’t include, technically, the two mentally retarded live-in dishwashers who were serially raped by multiple Jesuits at their Northern California retreat center.

Notable in the Sun-Times story about Father McGuire is John Doe #116’s legal team—one of his attorneys is a nephew of Father McGuire.

"I'm ashamed of my uncle and I'm unmasking him for the child predator that he is," said [Kevin] McGuire, a personal-injury lawyer from Newport Beach, Calif.

McGuire, S.J., is old and fat and probably just doesn’t give a shit. He managed to touch some lovely stuff in his career.

Google image search turns up few images of Father McGuire. Here he poses, years ago, with a family that’s associated with Gonzaga. The little boy isn’t smiling.

There’s a story in recent news about a Chicago area Baptist congregation hiring a minister who is a convicted child molester. The Sun-Times story is here.

It’s kind of touching, and pathetic, that congregants believed so much in the transformative power of faith that they were willing to trust their children with a convicted sex offender.

There were sound-bites on the news last night of a woman who tracks clergy abuse in American Protestant denominations (or maybe just Baptists).

It was her contention that clergy child sexual predation was as big a problem in the Baptist churches as in the Catholic Church.

Catholics, including Jesuits, set the standard.

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SOME GAY HISTORY

[This article is reposted from sfwillie's blog.]

David Patrick McIntosh, my boyfriend at the time (1970-72), founded the first Gay group in Nebraska, actually two groups:

Lincoln Gay Action Group (LinGAG)

University of Nebraska Gay Action Group (UNGAG).

I’m proud of the important role I played but the driving force was David. He was my first love. We were both Jesuit-trained poets, as evidenced by the catchy acronyms for the two groups.

I’m reminiscing because of the Democratic presidential candidates forum last night that was sponsored by a gay group and addressed gay issues (according to reports, I didn’t watch it.)

I’m having a how-far-we’ve-come experience.

It had to be the summer of 1972, pre-convention, George McGovern was gaining inevitability as the demcand, and he was swinging through Nebraska and there was a townhall thingie in Lincoln that David attended.

David came home that night excited. During the Q&A he was able to get to the microphone and he asked George McGovern this elegant question:

“What is your position on Gay Rights?”

David said that McGovern sputtered, and sputtered some more, and embarrassingly sputtered some more before coming up with some sort of general platitude.

According to David it was abundantly clear that McGovern didn’t have a position on Gay Rights—never thought about it.

So, I would surmise that my boyfriend, David Patrick McIntosh, was the first person ever to ask this question of a presidential candidate. In those days what David did took guts.

The Jesuits should be proud.

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HAPPY JUST WAR DAY

According to Wikipedia, Nagasaki, in 1580 was a colony of the Society of Jesus.

Jesuit influence in, and actual rule over Nagasaki came to my attention a few months ago when the Society complained about incorrect statements in a wiki-entry about some rebellion in Japan and the involvement of the Jesuits. The Jesuits never mentioned Nagasaki, but that's where the action took place.

Tomorrow we remember another milestone of western influence in Japan, as we contemplate the Catholic just-war theory, which amounts to, “Hey, it’s just war!”

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HARDWARE

Many years ago when I was almost young the New Yorker did a three-parter on the profession of Marketing.

To illustrate the effects of marketing the author chose an industry that is heavily marketing driven: pet food.

The assumption is that no healthy dog or cat will starve to death in the presence of suitable food. Also assumed is that most reputable brands of dog and cat food provide basic nutrition that supports normal health and lifespan.

So, as the premise goes, a consumer’s choice of one pet food product over another is purely psychological.

A rational pet owner will buy whatever is cheapest.

For the rest it’s emotional: how much do they love their pets? How much do their pet’s love them? Etc.

I assume the same applies to altar equipment. How much you (or your parishioners) pay for a chalice or monstrance, reflects upon how much they love the Blessed Sacrament which equals Jesus which equals God.

So our young God-loving priest, charged with founding a new congregation in some outback-bush, goes on line to buy the basic altar equipment for his new church. Like the RCC, our guy is in it for the long haul and wants to buy lasting value.

Our young priest finds what he likes at St Andrew’s Church Supply. [Note: Click on a picture for a description of that item.]

Tabernacle $44,500.00

Monstrance $17,255.00

Chalice $10,420.00

Ciborium $10,420.00

Intinction Set $7,950.00

Total $90,545.00

This might seem pricey, but the timber alone on the native’s land is worth many times that.

And you have it admit, it’s beautiful stuff.

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ANOTHER ONE WISES UP

Rentapriest blog provides a story about a Swiss Jesuit, Father Lukas Niederberger, who is leaving the priesthood in order to get married.

The gist of the article is that Niederberger’s vocational decision coincided with his growing disaffection with Ratzinger and what Ratzinger represents.

His decision was announced on the same day the pope issued Motu Proprio.

The article continues about Niederberger’s theology—he was a devotee of Hans Kung.

He doesn't see Christianity as a superior religion to others. "I like the image that the Baha'i have of other religions. For them, each religion forms a chapter in a book. And each chapter has its value. Therefore it makes no sense to say that one chapter is better than another. Each one is necessary for the cohesion of the whole book. For me, religious pluralism in the world is part of God's plan. It's His will."

If Father Niederberger is correct about God’s plan for religious pluralism, then the RCC’s aggressive, coercive evangelization of less developed non-European peoples was and remains a horrendous sin.

I love the way Niederberger talks about the "second half" of his life.

"For several years I have been asking myself what I want to do with the second half of my life. But there has been almost no sign of opening in the Catholic Church for the last twenty years," he says. "John Paul II has made it into a monolith that tolerates no diversity. And I don't see any hope of change with the present pope, nor in the future. Progressive Catholics are generally over 65 years old. And the next generation is that of John Paul II. The young priests are very clerical and not at all critical of the hierarchy."

I think one has to repeat the word “vow” only a very few times before it loses meaning and becomes just a sound. Let’s try it: vow vow vow vow vow vow vow…

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COWABUNGA!

Geronimo Cuevas was arrested for misdemeanor sex charges in an outdoor “tearoom.”

A tearoom is a public place where men go for anonymous sex with each other. Apparently the danger involved is a sexual stimulant.

The department said that the parking lot and trail areas near Pirates Cove, which is close to Avila Beach, have a history of sexual solicitation problems. Deputies are periodically sent there to monitor the area.

Such activities and arrests are nothing unusual. I once knew a guy in L.A. who was getting arrested in the same tearoom (toilet in North Hollywoood park) once or twice a year.

The reason Geronimo’s arrest made the news is he’s a Catholic priest.

So, (if the allegations are true) Father Cuevas a little pervy, not a big deal, but he’s a goddamned hypocrite, which IS a big deal.

Pathetic detail from the story in SanLuisObispo.com:

When he was booked into County Jail on Wednesday, Cuevas stated he was unemployed and lived in Las Vegas, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Brian Hascall.

It’s unclear why the priest listed himself as a Las Vegas resident when the diocese and church acknowledged he was serving at St. Joseph’s.

Judging from the Church’s reaction below, Father Cueves’ assertion of unemployment was not so much incorrect as premature, almost prescient.

The diocese released a terse written statement Friday afternoon, saying Cuevas was placed on administrative leave and “no longer has any faculties to function as a priest.”

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THOMAS JEFFERSON - TEN QUOTES

One of the Big Lies pounded into American ears is that the United States is a Christian nation, founded on Christian (sometimes they ignorantly say “Judeo-Christian”) principles.

My friend Jim, who introduced me to the Cockettes and is revered by many Fomers as a prophet, sends along these ten quotes from Thomas Jefferson about religion. Jim is a real artist. Check out his Blue Elephant blog.

Thomas Jefferson probably qualifies as an American “Founding Father.”

Not only did Jefferson famously pen the Declaration of Independence, he served as the nation’s first Secretary of State, second Vice President, and two terms as President.

Plus he did a lot of other stuff, some of it unsavory and sinful.


TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

There are eleven quotes below. Ten of them are attributed to Thomas Jefferson, one of them is attributed to another American Founding Father. Can you pick out the non-Jefferson quote? Can you name it’s author. Answer in Comments.

1. Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

2. Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies.

3. This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

4. Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.

5. The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust.

6. The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible.

7. If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, then and only then will truth, prevail over fanaticism.

8. The loathsome combination of Church and State…

9. In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.

10. On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

11. We discover (in the gospels) a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication.

This is all very tame compared to, say, Denis Diderot:

“Let us strangle the last king with the entrails of the last priest.”

Of course, Diderot, Jefferson, and Guess-who lived in a long-ago era called “The Enlightenment.”

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GOD'S GRANDEUR - HOPKINS

Regarding the musicality of God’s Grandeur, my best friend, Pudinhand Wilson said, “It croaks like a syncopated frog pond—don’t you love it!”

We were enthusiastic about poetry back in high school. I think it was then Mr. Dick McCurdy, S.J., who made us memorize it.

It’s kind of hard to swallow the Holy Ghost thing, but obviously Hopkins was more interested in the warm breast part and the bright wings part.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (wiki-link) was self tortured about (homo) sexual issues, poor guy. But heck, everyone’s got some sort of issues.

I explain the weird imagery of God's Grandeur thusly: Father Hopkins put off saying his daily prayers, this was a weakness of his, because he was immersed in Popular Science type magazines.

He fell asleep in the middle of his prayers and God got mixed up with the oozing oil and crushed foil phenonema he'd been reading about.

Hopkins was a major innovator in English prosody. We salute the Society of Jesus for associating themselves with this great man.

Some kid wrote a diatribe (in verse, of course) against Hopkins’ rhythms. It went on and on, but I still remember the refrain:

Spring, sprang, sprung--
Hopkins, hold your tongue.

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PARISHIONERS MUST PAY

LA Archdiocese’ out-of-pocket contribution to the $660 million clergy sex predator settlement equals approximately $1 million per parish.

Special collections won’t be needed (what would the church call them?) because the Archdiocese owns $4 Billion in non-parochial real estate.

But it’s all collection-plate money, current or past.

Some think it unfair that honest, humble parishioners should have to pay such huge sums for the misbehavior of a few pedophile priests.

But the huge sums are generated not by the evil of the molesting priests but rather by the evil of the Church hierarchy who protected and enabled the offending priests to continue fucking children, and in many cases to escape the sanctions of secular criminal law.

Unfair is that no bishops (or superiors) have been arrested for conspiracy to commit child rape, a charge to which they open themselves by knowingly moving rapist-priests into victim-rich environments.

It is the parishioners, however, who enable the corrupt hierarchy by their obedience, financial support, and consent to be governed.

Roman Catholics choose to belong to an authoritarian organization. The authority they grant their bishops and popes can be rescinded. Those who blindly support the hierarchy share the culpability.

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A FEW SURMISALS (FOME)

Recently we referred to one of FOME’s (Familiars of Mineral Existence) surmisals.

FOME is a dogma-free karass. The closest we get to doctrines are “surmisals.” Surmisal is a variant of the noun surmise. According to poopie Webster, a surmise is a thought or idea based on scanty evidence.

Thusly, a surmisal, per an even more spurious online dictionary, is the expression of a belief that is held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.

We like how the last syllable of surmisal hints at schlemiel and schlimazel.

The previously mentioned surmisal, is
There’s no such thing as hell, everyone goes to heaven.

Another important surmisal is the FOME trinity:
God is love.
God is fun.
God is totally stoned (mineral).

On Reverence
Somethingness in addition to nothingness is awesome, compared to just nothingness.

On Truth
True surmisals are both unnumbered an un-umbered.

On Sainthood
A saint is someone who creates activities that are fun for all.

On the End of Man
Teleology is for chumps.

On Death
Death is “the great relaxation,” (compared to orgasm which is “the lesser relaxation”).

FOME Membership
Includes unlimited in and out privileges.

And, being pacifists (unless totally pissed off), FOMEs abjure canons.

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ON HERESY

From the Third Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council, on heresy, (Innocent III, 1215):

Let secular authorities, whatever offices they may be discharging, be advised and urged and if necessary be compelled by ecclesiastical censure, if they wish to be reputed and held to be faithful, to take publicly an oath for the defense of the faith to the effect that they will seek, in so far as they can, to expel from the lands subject to their jurisdiction all heretics designated by the church in good faith. Thus whenever anyone is promoted to spiritual or temporal authority, he shall be obliged to confirm this article with an oath. If however a temporal lord, required and instructed by the church, neglects to cleanse his territory of this heretical filth, he shall be bound with the bond of excommunication by the metropolitan and other bishops of the province. If he refuses to give satisfaction within a year, this shall be reported to the supreme pontiff so that he may then declare his vassals absolved from their fealty to him and make the land available for occupation by [good] Catholics so that these may, after they have expelled the heretics, possess it unopposed and preserve it in the purity of the faith…

These are the words (emphases mine) of Christ's Vicar on Earth.

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JESUIT SNITCH

I have all these great things to say about the Jesuits, but I keep getting sidetracked by stuff like this in Catholic World News item titled: Polish priest at Vatican Radio accused of collaboration.

Warsaw, Jul. 3, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Father Andrzej Koprowski, the programming director for Vatican Radio, was registered as a collaborator with the Polish secret police during the Communist era, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports.

Jesuit Watch did any earlier post about Polish Catholic Priest who spied on their fellow Catholics and snitched to the Communist secret police. The issue came up when Nazi-collaborator Ratzinger tried to appoint another Polish secret police snitch to be the head Archbishop in charge of all Poland.

Now Koprowski, a Jesuit, has admitted being a snitch for the communists.

Father Koprowski says that he met with officials of the secret police with the knowledge and permission of his Jesuit superior.

According to another story, from CNS, on this issue: Polish church commission: One in seven bishops was police informer.

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72 VIRGINS OR ... A NIGHT LIGHT?

I came across a section of the Baltimore Catechism that recommends certain prayers be said daily. Nothing too exceptional, but this little ditty caught my eye.

FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED

Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

This is familiar language to Catholics, but, wait a second! Is “eternal rest” all we get?

I thought the faithful departed were supposed to enter into the presence, eyeball to eyeball with God.

But, “eternal rest” sounds like lying in the grave for a real long time.

One childish notion of heaven is that if we deny our sinful cravings here on earth we will be able to satisfy them in heaven. Take, for instance, a guy who for some cockamamie reason is sexually attracted only to sheep. But he’s a good Catholic and, difficult as it can be, he lives his whole life virtuously and never commits bestiality.

So, when the guy gets to heaven, he will be able to have all the sex he wants with an unending supply of incredibly beautiful sheep. No?

Come to think of it, we don’t hear much about the Christian heaven. The RCC has chosen instead utilize the threat of eternal damnation as a way of coercing desired behavior from those under its thumb.

And those who still don’t cooperate, just kill them, that’s how Pedro de Arbués earned his halo. Those who go to Catholic heaven get to rub elbows with this sainted Inquisitor Provincial of the Kingdom of Aragon.

Jesuits could gain some credibility by repudiating the cannonization of this murderer-for-Jusus.

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NERVES IN PATTERNS

It’s common to hear Catholics describe prayer as a “conversation with Jesus.” We hardly bat an eyelash when someone says that "Jesus spoke to" him or her.

But what of the Buddhist who “has conversations with Buddha”?

Or the Scientologist who daily communes on a higher plane with the spirit of L. Ron Hubbard?

How about a Moslem whose prayer consists of “a conversation with Mohammad”?

Or a Mormon who claims to take instruction from the angel Moroni?

Are all these people telling the truth? Are some not?

How about the devout Protestant who hears Jesus tell him “resist the Pope!”

With advances in neuro-imaging we’ll soon be able to locate and quantify the brain activity of a lesbian praying to Gaia, versus, say, a Jesuit praying to Jesus.

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RAW NUMBERS

I saw this blurb-size story in Catholic World News this morning, headed Women one-sixth of Vatican workforce.

Vatican, Jun. 25, 2007 (CWNews.com) - About one of every six workers at the Vatican is female.

Father Sandro Bianchini of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See announced that roughly 600 Vatican employees, 16% of the Vatican workforce, are women.

Seemed kind of deadpan. So I found some context.

According to the UN’s Statistical Yearbook of the Economic Commission for Europe 2003 publication, the Italian workforce (as of 2001) is 38.9% female.

Comparing 16 to 38.9 we see that the Vatican hires women at a rate less than half that of the average Italian employer.

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JESUITS RAPED MENTALLY RETARDED

Gosh darn it! I was going to write some light stuff about John Donne and his attack on Ignatius. I was going to praise the Jesuits for giving us both Donne and Hopkins.

Also, I was going to articulate a basic FOME tenet: Everyone goes to heaven, there’s no such thing as hell, which we think of as "really" good news.

Then this.

Just when I think I can’t be shocked, a grotesque horror story comes to my attention. I got to it through Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit (I think).

According to the story, Jesuit priests and one brother serially molested two mentally retarded men who lived and did menial work at a Jesuit retreat center in Los Gatos. Price tag: $7.5 million.

Molesting mentally retarded people is a felony in California. The California Jesuit hierarchy covered up the ongoing felonious behavior, thus facilitating it.

Particularly obnoxious in the LA Times story is a Jesuit superior named Smolich. His puling denials and claims of ignorance and blindness are as unacceptable as those of any corporate crook. He’s in charge but he don’t know nothin’.

Here’s an article about SNAP protesting an honor being given to Smolich.

There are three groupings, at least, of Jesuits who are culpable in this and the other sex abuse cases.

1. The actual Jesuit personnel who did the raping and related crimes.

2. The Jesuit hierarchy who covered up and enabled (promoted) additional raping.

3. Every other Jesuit who had any knowledge or any suspicion of any sexual misconduct with vulnerable populations by fellow Jesuits, and failed to take action sufficient to protect actual and potential victims.

My assumption is that group three is the most populous. My guess is that, at least in America, that the total of the three groups equals a huge percentage of all Jesuits.

The various bishops and heads of orders have so persistently hidden evidence, and in many cases helped accused priests abscond, that the only way it get to the bottom of the problem is through RICO prosecutions of the very highest Church officials reachable by US law.

The bishops and the raping priests are not the worst of the problem. It’s group three that makes the organization truly corrupt.

There’s a cross-dressing motif that would make a hilarious satyr-play to this tragedy if it weren’t for the seriousness of the case.

According to this story, one of the Jesuit priests accused of molesting the two retarded guys, Father Angel Mariano, S.J., is a transvestite who had earlier been arrested for performing sex acts on teenage boys while dressed as a woman.

Of course, the conviction and jail sentence hadn’t cost him his job with the Jesuits.

So the subtext is one of incredible insult to women. The Jesuits consider this clown, Mariano, who must register with local authorities as a sex offender for the rest of his life, more worthy to be a priest than the holiest, most erudite, most competent woman in the world.

According to numerous reports, increasing percentages of priests being ordained in the USA are from second and third-world countries, where the priesthood is still seen as a respectable, even prestigious profession.

Pathetic that the Catholic priesthood has become one of those “jobs that Americans won’t do.”

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JESUIT WATCH, LITERALLY!

A man and a woman have been missing in Oregon for almost two weeks, according to this Chronicle story.

The missing woman is a 61 year old civil servant from the Bay Area. The missing man is a Jesuit priest, 52, from Southern California.

Described as “traveling companions,” and “old dear friends,” the two seem to have been sharing a motel room.

The two kept a detailed journal and left an itinerary with the priest's mother, Kent said. Police found the journal in their hotel room Tuesday, along with their luggage…

I know what you’re thinking, but, scandal-schmandal!

Just because they’re sharing a hotel room doesn’t mean they’re having sex. And, taking separate rooms (at considerably greater expense) would not mean that they weren’t having sex, although it might have made such a claim more plausible.

But, who cares! Given their ages it’s kind of charming, like Charles and Camilla.

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SOUTH VIETNAM--DEDICATED TO VIRGIN MARY

America’s neo-colonial war of aggression on the people of Vietnam was spearheaded by members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ngo Dinh Diem, first president of South Vietnam, not a country but a short-lived cartographic fiction, was a Roman Catholic, a protégé of America’s prince of darkness, Francis Cardinal Spellman.

Diem’s brother was a prominent Catholic priest in Vietnam (later Cardinal). Diem’s family had converted to Catholicism in order to suck French colonial (Catholic) ass.

Diem did many bad things including suppression of the Buddhist majority. At least 70% of South Vietnamese were Buddhist. From Wikipedia:

The Catholic church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities, were not repealed by Diem. The land owned by the Catholic church was exempt from land reform. Catholics were also de facto exempt from the corvee labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform and distributed US aid disproportionately to Catholic majority villages. Under Diem, the Catholic church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, Diem dedicated his country to the Virgin Mary.

It was this suppression of Buddhists by Diem’s Catholic regime, including raids on their temples, that inspired the monks to immolate themselves so famously in the Streets of Saigon.

Read about Diem, another devout Roman Catholic/mass murderer, in Wikipedia here.

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NORBERT WHO?

The tone of Jesuit Watch can be sharp, even harsh.

Sometimes I feel like a mean old man snatching teddy bears from the arms of terrified children, leaving them with nothing but their fears.

A commenter recently stated that the Roman Catholic Church has done way more good than bad in the world.

And we all sort of let that statement go. But it deserves to be harshly refuted, so:

I assert that the world would be a better place if the Roman Catholic Church had never existed.

What’s a Roman Catholic to do, who wakes up to find:

-the whole Bible story, from Eden to Pentecost, is poppycock,
-the RC hierarchy is corrupt, hypocritical, self serving
-the American (possibly worldwide) RC hierarchy has promoted and now covers up child sex abuse by priests,
-the RCC is totally messed up on the sex thing,
-the liturgy is no fun, and,
-most importantly, the love shared among the congregants is minimal.

Well, first thing, leave the church.

Then what?

Find something else to do with your time. This could include the exploration of spiritual issues through philosophy, art, or other religious traditions. Find your karass(es). The RCC, according to Bokononism is a granfaloon.

A group I keep coming across is the UUs. They’re a non-religion in the etymological sense of ligature. They seem to be in favor of religious freedom and the sharing of spiritual truths and insights whatever their source.

I came across a website by a UU guy. I think he’s some sort of UU minister. His voice, in describing his visit to a Gay Pride parade, is cheerful and demonstrates the neglected middle virtue.

I followed a link on that site to a biography of Norbert Capek, a hero of Unitarian Universalism. You gotta love the bow tie, and he DIDN’T cooperate with the Nazi’s.

Capek started as a Catholic, became a Baptist, then became a powerhouse in the Unitarian Universalist movement.

A couple of quotes from the bio.

The church's task, he felt, "must be to place truth above any tradition, spirit above any scripture, freedom above authority, and progress above all reaction."

His was a sun-drenched, pre-Holocaust faith, one that sustained thousands of his compatriots during the darkness of Nazi occupation, 1939-45. His faith enabled him to endure his own martyrdom with an equanimity and heroism confirmed by survivors of the concentration camp in Dachau who knew him there.

UU won’t work for people who love the authoritarian structure of the RCC. For them there are plenty of other authoritarian organizations to choose from.

The homepage of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (UK) contains this blurb:

WE BELIEVE THAT:

– everyone has the right to seek truth and meaning for themselves.

– the fundamental tools for doing this are your own life experience, your reflection upon it, your intuitive understanding and the promptings of your own conscience.

– the best setting for this is a community that welcomes you for who you are, complete with your beliefs, doubts and questions.

It sounds like a religion for grown-ups.

Contrast that with the Balitmore Catechism:

10. Q. How shall we know the things which we are to believe?
A. We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic Church, through which God speaks to us.

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THE LAST JESUIT

Below is a little blurb from CWN.

Jesuit order diminishing in numbers

Rome, Jun. 14, 2007
(CWNews.com) - The Jesuit order diminished in size by 364 men in 2006, the Fides news service reports.

In the last calendar year, 486 men joined the Society of Jesus. But 472 Jesuits died, and 378 men left the religious order, accounting for the drop in numbers.

There are 19,216 Jesuits in the world today, by the latest count. The average age among Jesuits worldwide is now over 57.

The spreadsheet below summarizes the figures in this story and calculates, based on the 2006 rate of decrease, that in 2061 the last Jesuit will die or leave the order.

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FAMILY

We, of Nature’s cruelest choosings, are
the favored heirs, our wealth the savage gift
of mere existence—cold, tainted cash
we fear to spend, but take weird pride bequeathing.

© Copyright 2007 William Morrissey All Rights Reserved

[Previously posted on sfwillie's blog.]

BEST ADVICE

One day Jesus addressed a group of small-businessmen, something about mustard seeds.

After the talk there was time for questions and answers. One of the businessmen seemed to speak for the group. “Jesus,” he said, “ we think you’re a great guy, and what you say sounds good. But we’re all busy, day and night, trying to support our wives and children. Margins are thin, taxes are fat, we're struggling just to stay in business.

“We want to do the right thing when it comes to God and religion and all, but it seems so complicated. We aren’t bible-scholars, we’re traders and craftsmen. We’d like to study more, and pray more, but heck, there’s only so much time in the day.

“Could you, Jesus, gives us your one most important piece of advice?”

“Sure,” Jesus said, “Actually it’s two pieces of advice, but they’re related.

“First,” Jesus said, “love God as much as you possibly can.

“Number two—love other people just like you love yourself.”

Another attendee stood up. “That sounds too simple, what about the rest of the laws and teachings?”

“Just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo invented by lazy priests to justify their existence,” Jesus said.

The last statement was removed from the New Testament, for obvious reasons, but it really pissed off the high priests and eventually got Jesus killed.

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GAY PRIESTS

The most disturbing article I’ve read since starting Jesuit Watch appeared on the blog Clerical Whispers.

The Gay Priest Problem, discusses (and criticizes) the persistence of homosexual activity by and among American Catholic priests and seminarians. It comes out swinging. In the second paragraph it references a Kansas City Star report:

The death rate of priests from AIDS is at least four times that of the general population, the newspaper said. Kansas City Bishop Raymond Boland says the AIDS deaths show that priests are human.

This is something I never really thought about—gay priests and seminarians who engage in anal intercourse should use condoms, just like the rest of us.

If you’re one of those who think the whole celibacy thing is creepy, this article explains why your skin sort of crawls.

The author is attacking the Catholic hierarchy hard, but from the right, as in this bare-knuckle passage:

From almost all sides one heard the complaint “Why doesn't somebody do something?” Why not indeed.

A large part of the answer is implicit in the remarkable response to the situation tendered by Bishop Boland. To aver that a priest shows he is human by dying of AIDS is to say either that yielding to this sort of temptation is something that might happen to any normal person or that it is somehow natural to our human state to engage in acts of passive consensual sodomy, from which the resultant infection takes its predictable course.

The author’s solution to this problem is to purge the clergy of all homosexuals and all who support gay sex in any way.

The solution proposed by Jesuit Watch is for the Catholic Church to completely revamp its sexual morality. [Catholic sexual morality would make sense if humans had the sex drive of pandas.]

Clerical Whispers estimates the number of gay priests at shocking levels.

Gay priests themselves—who, though admittedly partisan, admittedly also have unique access to the facts—commonly assure us that they are legion within the priesthood in general and well-represented even among bishops.

Obviously, they have an interest in exaggerating their numbers—for both psychological and political reasons. But the Kansas City Star series mentioned above notes that, of 26 novices who entered the Missouri Province of the Jesuit order in 1967 and 1968, only seven were eventually ordained priests. Of these seven, three have (to date) died of AIDS, and a fourth is an openly gay priest now working as an artist in New York.

Later, the author proposes specific steps. Talk about a hard-ass:

Restore simplicity to priestly life. Physical comfort is the oxygen that feeds the fires of homosexual indulgence. Cut it off.

When you enter a rectory, take a look at the liquor cabinet, the videos, the wardrobe, the slick magazines, and ask yourself, “Do I get the impression that the man who lives here is in the habit of saying no to himself?” If the answer is negative, the chances are that his life of chastity is in disorder as well. It goes without saying that reforming bishops should lead by example in this department and not simply exhort.

I believe it was J Sobrino, S.J., who scoffed at the idea of theology being written in air conditioned rooms.

Recently I mentioned this article to a lady (Lutheran) in my tennis group. “Oh,” she exclaimed, “my husband spent a year in a Paulist seminary. He said it’s all gay.”

Her kids went to St Ignatius, my alma, “but the Jesuits teach contraception,” she assured me.

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DID POPE KILL ALLIES?

According to Wikipedia he was in an anti-aircraft unit of the Wehrmacht then in some infantry unit. This AP whitewash published in 2005 emphasizes that while J. Ratzinger, Jr, indeed was a member of the Hitler Youth and then Hitler’s Army, he was always unenthusiastic.

Not mentioned is any instance of any sanction he received for doing anything other than participate loyally in the two organizations.

Also not mentioned are the future pope’s actual duties in the German Army. Did he ever actually fire a gun or cannon or missile or ack-ack at any Allied soldiers or airmen?

If so, did he ever hit one of them? Maybe kill a British or Canadian or American soldier? Or two, or three?

I grew up on stories of early Christian martyrs devoured by lions for refusing to place the pinch of salt. We were taught that death is not bad, sin is bad.

According to the AP article, the young Ratzinger couldn’t resist the Nazis in any way because there would have been negative consequences.

Now Ratzinger in his role as Pope is honoring the death of an Austrian man who was beheaded for refusing to join Hitler’s army. Here’s the Yahoo/AP lead, story here.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI approved recognition of martyrdom for an Austrian who was beheaded by the Nazis for refusing to serve in Hitler's army, a step toward possible sainthood.

This leaves young people with contradictory models. When faced with the requirement to join the army of a genocidal madman bent on world conquest, should one:

A) Refuse, like Franz Jaegerstaetter, and become headless, or

B) Comply, like Josef Ratzinger, and become Pope?

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