The Provincial Emails  |
HARK! THE HERALD Publisher, print thyself The May 22, 2003 issue of our Archdiocesan weekly is now on-line with the permanent links. In his column, Archbishop Dolan complains about press coverage of our Pope's recent Encyclical on the Eucharist. What is most troublesome is that, for the vast majority of people, Catholics included, all they will know of this powerful encyclical is what they saw in the dismissive headlines.I went back through the Herald's past on-line issues and could find no article on the Encyclical. I used the Herald's new search function, looked for "Eucharistia," and all I found was the Archbishop's column. His column does not have a link to the Encyclical. The website of the Archdiocese has our Archbishop's Easter message, which encourages us to go to Mass and receive Communion, but does not mention the Encyclical. I could find no mention of or link to the Encyclical on the site. Here it is at The Vatican.
READING NOTEBOOK "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy," by Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Marion Magid and Elizabeth Pollett Only now did Yentl grasp the meaning of the Torah's prohibition against wearing the clothes of the other sex. By doing so one deceived not only others but also oneself. Even the soul was perplexed, finding itself incarnate in a strange body.
Bob Hope turns 100 Our morning newspaper recently looked ahead to today, Bob Hope's 100th birthday. Here's a selective look at the high points of Hope's big-screen career:It also looks at television coverage commemorating the event.
SPEECH AND LECTURE LOG Heard Vicki Verhasselt speak at a luncheon meeting of our local chapter of the CPCU Society.
READING NOTEBOOK Phaedo, by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett ... I am very far from admitting that he who contemplates existences only through the medium of thought, sees them "through a glass darkly," any more than he who considers them in action and operation.
LAW LOG
We have said that litigants are entitled to a fair trial but the judge does not have to enjoy giving it. [citation omitted]
READING NOTEBOOK Crito, by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett Socrates: Then we must do no wrong? Apology, by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett
But I cannot in a moment refute great slanders; and, as I am convinced that I never wronged another, I will assuredly not wrong myself, I will not say of myself that I deserve any evil, or propose any penalty.
HARK! THE HERALD News hole and memory hole The May 15, 2003 issue of our Archdiocesan weekly is now on-line with its permanent links. This article reports on Cardinal Keeler's recent visit to give a lecture on Catholic-Jewish relations. Missing from the article was any mention of the Cardinal's involvement with the document Reflections on Covenant and Mission on that very topic. That document generated quite a bit of controversy, described in this item.
The Herald article does link to the text of the lecture at the Archdiocese web site.
The Herald reports on this year's Spring Priests Assembly in this article. According to some in attendance, the most moving part of the three-day assembly occurred Monday evening when the archbishop addressed the gathering. Another keynote speaker had been scheduled, but became unavailable shortly before the assembly. ...In this Archdiocese, at least, isn't "Archbishop gets standing ovation" like "dog bites man"? Fr. Esser described Archbishop Dolan’s tenure here as timely. “He’s made us laugh again. Hugging is back in and I thanked him from the floor (of the assembly) for that.It had escaped my notice that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee had developed a problem of insufficient hugging. Compared to hugging, even standing ovations are rare.
READING NOTEBOOK Leading Up: How to lead your boss so you both win (2001), by Michael Useem But for [the commander of the U.N peacekeeping force in Rwanda, Canadian brigadier general Romeo] Dallaire, the most chilling portents came from a well-placed informant. ... The informant coldly estimated that they were prepared to kill at the rate of 1,000 Tutsis every twenty minutes, and he himself had been part of an effort under way for the past three months ot register all Tutsis living in Kigali. ... INBOX A reader emailed, Re your last post, I'm sure you can guess the Hutu national anthem: Toot-toot-tootsie, goodbye.Can a sequel to The Producers be far behind?
HARK! THE HERALD (More?) planning planned The May 8, 2003 issue of our archdiocesan weekly now has the permanent links for its on-line edition. Its reports on the appointment of its new executive editor and associate publisher in this article. With circulation declining, [Archbishop] Dolan said, "as much as I hope we’re able to continue it, I’ve got to be realistic. ... It’s one of the questions I inherited, whether we can do our communications better. Consultation, research, and study might show we need to go in another direction."Perhaps that is a reference to the ongoing planning described in this article.
READING NOTEBOOK Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000), edited by William Irwin [J.] Peterman's appearance on Seinfeld could be seen to exemplify what Slavoj Zizek, a Marxist Lacanian [footnote omitted] calls "performance ideology." By "perfomance ideology, Zizek means a form of ideological consciousness in which we know that we are dealing with a fiction, but in which that fiction nonetheless regulates our actual real behavior.
HARK! THE HERALD Clerical job This morning's newspaper reports on changes at our Archdiocesan weekly. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan has appointed Father Thomas Brundage to temporarily replace the Catholic Herald's top editor, who left last week to take another job, marking the first time in decades that the traditionally independent, lay-led newspaper has been run by a cleric.If the Archbishop appoints the editor, you might wonder from whom or what the Catholic Herald was supposedly independent. The appointment of a priest who has no professional journalistic experience alarmed some journalists in the Catholic press. Some activist Catholics were concerned, too, because it followed an unusual incident in which both the newspaper and a parish priest apologized in print for their separate handling of a March 25 prayer service marking the annual World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination.Who had been "surprised" that such a service was permitted in a Catholic Church. The archbishop is the newspaper's publisher, but former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland never intervened in news decisions, said retiree Ethel Gintoft, [departing editor Laurel] Nelson-Rowe's predecessor.Perhaps, then, the idea was to have the Herald be "independent" like a theologian on the faculty of a Catholic university; what's said might be heresy, but there's nothing the Archbishop can do about it. Terry Ryan, regional coordinator of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic reform group, said, "The clarifications in the Catholic Herald were disturbing. Many of our members have questioned how authority was exercised."How it was exercised or that it was exercised? For the Herald, the larger question now is the survival of the 21,000-subscriber weekly newspaper. Its Legal Board has been concerned about low circulation and rising costs for years.Not only are people not showing up for Sunday Mass, they aren't subscribing to the Herald. And Dolan said a comprehensive study would be made on how to better communicate with the 10-county archdiocese's more than 200,000 Catholic households.What about using our priests to communicate? Oh, yeah, the prayer service. I would have thought radio would be listed. There's an ostensibly Catholic station in the works. The Archbishop's brother Bob has a morning radio show locally. and a switch to a monthly magazine.To be called Milwaukee Catholic, most likely. Seems like publications always get renamed to something like that. [Former Editor Ethel] Gintoft said that the Herald had a balanced budget when she left and that its circulation had been hovering around 22,000 to 23,000 for years.Trying to increase circulation would be like evangelizing. No way we were going to see that. "My only mandate is to try to find a way to more effectively communicate and evangelize," Brundage said.Effectively and profitably, it appears.
"My own personal vision is that the Catholic Herald is one of the pearls of the archdiocese. It has tremendous historical significance and, as I told the staff, I see it as my task to keep (its) tradition going forward well into the future."When someone at the Archdiocese talks like that about your organization, and is going to conduct a study regarding it, odds are they're going to be closing it before long. Asked how much control he would exert, Brundage said, "This is the first time I've done anything like this, so it's premature to say what my role will be. I wouldn't talk in terms of riding herd or anything like that. I would consider myself to be a hands-on administrator."Not riding herd, but hands-on? Sounds like a rodeo. Maybe there'll be a little hog-tying at the Herald. The Prophet and Power Point Over at the Herald, the May 1, 2003 issue now has its permanent links to articles. On the ecumenical beat, there's this article. Islamic scholar Scott Alexander outlined key components of the Muslim myth, prophesy and tradition recently at Saint Francis Seminary. He introduced Mohammed as a mythical figure, in the way that any religious historian would bring any great individual to light.I would have thought a religious historian would introduce Mohammed as an historical figure. While some Muslims consider it blasphemous to portray the prophet in an image, Alexander had a slide of a young boy smiling, adding that this is what he imagined that the prophet must have looked like.I would have thought he'd say that since some Muslims consider it blasphemous to portray the prophet in an image, and it was not essential to his presentation that he do so, he would not. Alexander, a religious historian who earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a master's and doctorate degree from Columbia University, indicated that Mohammed was an "odd ball."Maybe that can be the caption for the image. During his Power Point presentation ...For those of you unfamiliar with this software, here's an example. Mr. Alexander went on. "I contend that Quranic usage of 'islam' and 'muslim' are existential categories of Islam," Alexander said. "For example, 'Islam' means to submit to Allah God and 'Muslim' is one who submits to God. 'Are you Muslim?' is 'Do you submit to God?' in my mind."Those are the only meanings I've ever heard for the terms Islam and Muslim, so it's hard to see why he'd need to contend for them or that they'd be only in his mind. Humanity's great flaw has been forgetfulness, he said. "As a community grows, it will take a stone away with it to bring it with them," Alexander said. "Then they begin to worship the stones. What was originally the shrine's housing becomes the shrine of many deities."At this point, I have to doubt the accuracy of the reporter's account of what Mr. Alexander said. Otherwise we have people going from a stone as reminder of belief in a deity to the stone being believed to be the deity itself, and numerous stones built into shrines would be the origin of polytheism. This seems to say that polytheists worshipped shrines, rather than worshipped in shrines. He said that this is true of Judeo-Christians as well.I suppose that argues that the stone the builders rejected has been carved into an idol. "There are profound things about Islam that can't be articulated in a Power Point presentation."A better point for the introduction than the conclusion.
Bing Crosby centennial Bing Crosby was born 100 years ago today. Last month, our local daily newspaper reviewed his career in this article. Crosby's success was as much technological as it was personal. Before Bing, singers either played to the balconies - think Al Jolson or Ethel Merman, belting out Broadway tunes at the top of their lungs - or resorted to a megaphone to make themselves heard.Steven Lewis operates the Bing Crosby Internet Museum.
HARK! THE HERALD The April 24, 2003 edition of our Archdiocesan newspaper tells of its web site redesign in this article. The change took effect May 1st so you can compare the old look from the article to the new look. The article describes the changes. In addition to the refreshed design and a consistent, easy-access approach for visitors beginning Thursday, May 1, the Web site's content will include more information. Three popular special sections -- Catholic Weddings, Mature Connection/Retirement Living, and Vocations -- which are regularly produced and distributed in print with the Catholic Herald newspaper will be carried on the site throughout the year.The redesigned on-line edition still does not include the editorial, the columnists, or letters to the editor, nor is there an increase in the news content.
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