The Gibbons Equality

A lot of blog posts about the USCCB emphasize the limited competence of bishops when dealing with practical political matters.

At the same time, a lot of other blog posts emphasize the doctrinal authority of bishops when they teach about the application of morality to political matters.

And I mean "at the same time" literally. Which kind of post shows up on which blog on any given day depends on which political party's interests are in any way being met with uncooperative behavior by the bishops. But if you find one kind of post on one kind of blog, you will find the other kind of post on another kind of blog.

Hence, the Gibbons Equality:

On any given day, the likelihood of a "limited competence" post on a conservative Catholic's blog equals the likelihood of a "doctrinal authority" post on a liberal Catholic's blog.

Equivalently,

On any given day, the likelihood of a "limited competence" post on a liberal Catholic's blog equals the likelihood of a "doctrinal authority" post on a conservative Catholic's blog.

--"John da Fiesole"

The Blogging of the Candidate

Deborah Solomon has questions for blogger Mickey Kaus about his planned run against Senator Barbara Boxer in the California Democratic primary.

As with William Buckley's issue-raising campaign for Mayor of New York, better he should just keep doing what he's been doing.

Arch Madness

At Whispers in the Loggia, The Big Dance, Church Edition, including a chart of the selection brackets and seedings for Archbishop of Los Angeles.

Back to front

Yesterday's Living Our Faith television program concluded its second segment with this.

Fr. Mark Brandl, associate pastor, St. Alphonsus Parish, Greendale, shares the story of his journey from lapsed Catholic to Catholic priest and explains how to help others who have drifted away from the church to find their way back.

He also blogs.

Reclusive author, hidden scrolls

Recluseland, by Mark Steyn

Why Orwell Endures, by George Wheatcroft

‘Mad as a Hatter’: The History of a Simile, by Pat Ryan

In Our Time - Calvinism, BBC Radio 4 (via Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor)

Voice of Reason: A message for Jews and Christians, The Economist, review of 'The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous Discovery and True Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls', by Geza Vermes


Reading Rat: Recommended reading by these authors.


Also of interest: Library Science, by Pagan Kennedy, review of 'This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, by Marilyn Johnson

Integrating our energized vibrancy

Back to planning at Parish Council


CMMI: Capability Maturity Model Integration

A hundred sheep, but who's counting

We were invited to the recent Campanile Society dinner for selected donors to last year's Catholic Stewardship Appeal. That was even though my contribution was at an unlisted (Acedia?) level of giving.

Archbishop Listecki later sent those of us who declined to attend a letter of thanks for our donation, and a pitch for this year's appeal.

I need your help to ensure the Church's mission of teaching, serving and sanctifying, and passing on the gift of faith to our children and all God's people (680,000 in our archdiocese!)

Not to mention needing someone to check the form letters against Archdiocesan statistics, see Milwaukee Catholics down 38,000 in 2009.

Wee-weed the People

The baleful fact is that the country suffers from a surfeit of democracy -- a gazillion interest groups, a gazillion blogs, a gazillion talk shows and all of them insisting on transparency so a gazillion eyes peer over the shoulders of politicians. --Richard Cohen

I've said it before and I'll say it again, democracy simply doesn't work. --Kent Brockman

Juan y Maria Catolica

David Lewellen reviewed last month's concert in the Early Music Now series: Ensemble Lipzodes makes Guatemalan music timeless.

The performance at All Saints Cathedral showed that music written in the New World during the early days of colonization sounds similar to what the Old World was producing at the same time, which may be the most remarkable thing of all. Music written for isolated churches in remote mountains in Guatemala has every bit as much passion, energy, and magic as anything the great musical centers of Europe were hearing.

The contrast between church music then and now is as great in Guatemala as here; compare these videos of a performance of Ensemble Lipzodes to the music from this prayer service on our 2007 mission trip.

Far Left behind

see more Epic Fails

Play midsty for me

When Adoremus Bulletin reported US Bishops Approve Missal Texts, there was this local angle.

Bishop Richard Sklba, auxiliary bishop of Milwaukee and past president of CBA [The Catholic Biblical Association of America], also strongly objected to Liturgiam authenticam’s insistence on fidelity to the original text: “I’ve been very clear about my own conviction that the use of inclusive language translations, both in Scripture and in liturgical books, particularly when resulting in more faithful renditions of the original author’s intent, is an obligation for the Church. I do not see this as merely a question of option” (Milwaukee Catholic Herald, May 21, 2001).

During the November meeting, Bishop Trautman’s effort to delay approval of the Missal received vocal support from Bishop Sklba, who said, “In my judgment the text is still unfinished, filled with awkward grammatical phrases, over which I stumble every time I attempt to pray the text aloud”. Commenting on the Holy See’s recent gesture to Anglicans (the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus) Bishop Sklba said,

This will certainly have some consequences. One of which, I submit, will be the more public presence of the Book of Common Prayer in our midst as a living reality. The language of the Book of Common Prayer is elegant. It’s elegant in its phraseology and its cadence. So fine that it influenced and shaped our English language for almost five hundred years. Our proposed liturgical texts will be compared to that historic one, critically, I’m afraid, and with less than positive result. I still believe we need more time to produce and refine a text worthy of worship of our Church. So I ask that we continue to take the time we need.

On inclusive language, a recent Sunday's Gospel reading and homily at my parish demonstrated more effort at various evasions of the word "men" than the net effort at evangelization in a couple of decades.

On the new translation, English-speakers will, I submit, find it no more awkward grammatically than the phrasing "the more public presence of the Book of Common Prayer in our midst as a living reality." See Diachronic apostolicity.

Saints be praisized!

Joseph O'Leary on the controversy over pending liturgical changes.

Why were the likes of Bishop Donald Trautman ridiculized...?

Caught in the Acton

The Economist reported on two studies.

Taken together, these results do indeed suggest that power tends to corrupt and to promote a hypocritical tendency to hold other people to a higher standard than oneself.

That is, "Power corrupts, but it corrupts only those who think they deserve it".

Ask the Archbishop

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel religion writer Annysa Johnson and other local media will pose questions to Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki at a Newsmakers Luncheon March 9 at the Milwaukee Press Club. In an effort to represent the community, we'd like to know what you'd like us to ask the archbishop. Send your questions to Annysa...

Not on the list

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that a Controversial bishop will be at Marquette on Thursday.

Retired Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who has been blocked from speaking at some churches, including Milwaukee's Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, because of his views on women's ordination and homosexuality, will speak on "Justice in the Church and Society" at Marquette University on Thursday for the annual Faber Lecture.

Given the recent controversy over who participated in the installation of Archbishop Listecki at the Cathedral, this creates an opportunity for explanation of Church teaching in the bishops' column in the Milwaukee Catholic Herald. Archbishop Weakland could interrupt his retirement to explain the errors of Bishop Gumbleton's views on homosexuality. Bishop Sklba could explain the errors of Bishop Gumbleton's views on women's ordination.

From the ashes

Berlin, Germany, February 17, 2010

On our morning jog around the immediate neighborhood no buildings clearly date to before the war. Buildings are all several stories tall, immediately adjacent to each other. We pass a church, but it's almost indistinguishable from the buildings on either side.

The hotel has a complimentary breakfast buffet. It's Ash Wednesday, so I avoid the bacon and sausage and stick to eggs and what look like little breakfast potatoes. The latter turn out to be mini-wienerschnitzel.

Today is a museum day, so we subway east to Museum Island. Berlin's must-see museum is the Pergamon, which includes displays of the Pergamon Altar, Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate. While I took photos, everything's already at Wikipedia Commons.

We took a break at the museum cafe. I ordered the special, Pfannkuchen (Berliner) und Kaffe. A Berliner is topped with powdered sugar rather than covered with granulated, so it isn't as sweet as an American jelly doughnut; advantage U.S.A..

Next we go to the Neues Museum (New Museum), heavily damaged in the war, and not reopened until last year. It features Egyptian antiquities. The prize exhibit is the Nefertiti bust.

As we leave we cross the street to the Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden) which is actually just a nice little park.

Beyond it is the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral). Repairs of war damage were finally completed in 1993.

Across another street and we're at the Marx-Engels-Forum. East German kids would, before Christmas, sit on Karl's lap. They knew if they asked for an AK-47 he'd reply "You'll shoot your eye out", so instead they asked for the Workers Paradise, but it never came.

The figures have their backs to the site of the East German Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic), its parliament building, demolished after reunification. They face toward Alexanderplatz, which was downtown East Berlin. [Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) by Alfred Doblin had been another possibility for vacation reading.] While we never quite made it to the platz itself, we couldn't miss the Fernsehturm (television tower).

We continued east to the Nikolaiviertel (Nicholas Quarter), the oldest remaining section of Berlin, surrounding St. Nicholas Church, now also drawing tourists for shopping and some restaurants. It's not near a subway stop and we wind up walking all the way back to Potsdamerplatz, missing by a block or so a remnant of the East German border wall. (The Berlin Wall ultimately included the "border wall", the "hinterland wall" within East Germany, and the "no man's land" or "death strip" in between.)

Jet lag day

Berlin, Germany, February 16, 2010

We've seen it recommeded that travelers should use their first day for light activities until as close as possible their usual bedtime in the new time zone. Shopping wins a 1-1 vote, and we set off by U-bahn (subway). (As visitors we find a city's subways the fastest and easiest to understand though least scenic way to get around.) An entrance for the nearest stop on the U2 line is in the median of the street almost directly in front of our hotel.

We arrive at Potsdamer Platz, "The Platz To Be". Berlin is almost too full of history. The platz is 750 meters south of the Brandenburg Gate, even closer to the all-but-unmarked site of the Fuhrerbunker, and preserves a short segment of the Wall. Today the platz is surrounded by office towers, has a free-standing elevated hair salon, and is a block from our destination Arkaden (shopping mall).

In the middle of the mall is a ticket booth for the Berlin International Film Festival, then in progress. Some stores are familiar, like Aldi [sud], where I find Berliner Pfannkuchen, subject of the Jelly/Jam doughnut urban legend about President Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Others are similar to U.S. chains, like the office supply store McPaper. Aldi doesn't take credit cards, so we buy most of our hotel snacks at Kaiser's.

Back outside, no indication of mardi gras. Back at the hotel, a fine selection of television channels, in German.

Ich bin in Berlin

Berlin, Germany, February 16, 2010

Off-season travel to Europe is a bargain, not entilrely surprising given what is off about the season. There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Berliners do not believe in clearing their sidewalks after it snows. Instead they shovel a path, and leave the rest of the snow to turn into a layer of ice on which they scatter gravel, I assume until spring. Temperatures were around freezing around the clock, cloudy to partly cloudy skies, occasional snow flurries or drizzle. Wearing a sweater, blazer, and winter topcoat, I was never too warm outdoors.

Perhaps due to the initial flight delay and missed connection, our hotel room was available and we could unpack.

Central Berlin spreads east to west, with a main street (under several names) running through it. Our hotel was in Charlottenburg, to the west, on Bismarckstrasse as that main street is called there. If you go straight east that main street runs through the Tiergarten, Berlin's central park, then through the Brandenburg Gate, and becomes Unter den Linden in Mitte, to the east.

But no sprouts

Brussels Airport, February 16, 2010

Losing post title: If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium.

The passport check official greets us with "Ah, here come two Americans." The ensuing chit-chat includes him telling me that the origin of metal sleeve buttons, like those on my blazer, was military; soldiers used them to wipe their noses. (But see Wikipedia)

One gift shop sold packages of what we call Belgian Waffles.

Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen.

Now, where was I.

Chicago O'Hare Airport, February 15, 2010

Books in carry-on bag; check. Travel sport coat with books in pockets; check. Overcoat with books on pockets; check. Books include at least one set in our destination; Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood, check.

Among the departure delays there was one new ot us. Just after push-back a passenger tried a self-upgrade from Coach to Business Class. It was announced he had tried this or caused some other problem the day before, and our plane returned to the gate to remove him. Hearing it so many times lead me to finally look up What's a 'cross-check'?

Blogger Mayday

Blogger has announced that the small percentage of weblogs using its software but not hosted on its Blogspot servers will lose FTP support. The change has now been postponed to May 1, 2010.

Since this blog is hosted elsewhere, I will have to decide whether to switch to other blogging software, move the blog to Blogspot, or discontinue it.

Switching to, say, WordPress involves a conversion that might be supported by my hosting service, but will take some time.

Moving to Blogspot is unappealling for a couple reasons. Cross-reference links will go dead unless changed. There is no support for pdf documents.

There's always the option to end the blogging experiment, though there are a few other things on the website that would lead me to keep the rest of the site up. I don't know how accessible the blog archive would be.

Mulling; meanwhile comments moderated.

Book travel: Dresden

A Fair Maiden, review by Todd VanDerWerff, of 'A Fair Maiden', by Joyce Carol Oates

Getting to Slaughterhouse Five in Dresden, Germany

Better to React Than to Act, by Tim Wogan (via Joe Carter at First Things)

Ring Lardner, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The New Republic, October 11, 1933

Wallace Stevens, New York and Modernism, conference March 4-6, 2010, Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1 Washington Place, New York, NY

The Rage of Virginia Woolf, by Theodore Dalrymple (via Jay Nordlinger The Corner)


Reading Rat: Recommended reading by these authors.


Also of interest: Darrell Huff and Fifty Years of 'How to Lie with Statistics', by J. Michael Steele (via Wikipedia)

One less school bell to answer

Our Archdiocesan weekly reports St. James School, Mukwonago to close.

At the other end of the Archdiocese, it is claimed that last year's Merger ensures future of Catholic education in Fond du Lac.


See Catholic Schools Remaining Week