The Great Uncluttering

Michael Agger at Slate on

The best books, articles, and Web sites for helping you organize your life.

Textbooks find second home in Uganda

Amy Guckeen reported in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald, March 27, 2008. Anyone who's ever worked a used book sale knows used textbooks can be a problem. Fr. John Mary Ssozi, "a student at UW-Milwaukee and in residence at St. Robert Parish, Shorewood," heard of a need for textbooks for a new university library at Masaka in his native Uganda. So he started collecting them.

Donated textbooks have to be less than 10 years old, and must be college-level in a math and science field, Claire Anderson, pastoral associate at St. Robert said.

Got a box of textbooks? If they've gotten musty or are falling apart, just throw them away yourself. If they're in good shape, check if a used book sale might be interested. Be ready with a description of age and subjects and give them a call.

[I'm experimenting with the new scheduled posting feature in Blogger. Hope this works.]

Common Ground mirrors Catholic social teaching

Brian T. Olszewski reported in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald, April 17, 2008, on the founding convention of Southeastern Wisconsin Common Ground.

If you go to the Common Ground web site, there are FAQ, including,

What's Common Ground? It's one organization in a national network affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the oldest and largest institution for professional organizing in the United States.

IAF was established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. He discusses this extensively in his book Reveille for Radicals (1946).

"Our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald apparently decided all this wasn't worth mentioning. It does say,

One of the Catholic organizations to invest in Common Ground is the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Common Ground received local (archdiocesan) grants from CCHD of $5,000 from 2005 through 2007 inclusive. It also received a national CCHD grant of $40,000 in 2007.

It also tells us of a letter from Milwaukee's bishops to Common Ground.

"... The fact that numerous Catholics, 17 parishes, several religious congregations, as well as several Catholic colleges, are members of Common Ground demonstrates the vibrant faith of the Catholic community in southeastern Wisconsin," they wrote.

Deus ex papier-mache

The 2008 West Coast Regional Call To Action Conference Keynote Workshops included Leo Keegan on Vatican II Liturgy.

...Have the liturgical principles of Vatican II revitalized your parish celebration of the Eucharist? What wisdom is yet to be gleaned from the early church and the Sacred Constitution on the Liturgy to transform ministers - lay & clergy, men & women, young & old, toward an empowered, dynamic experience of prayer and celebration? Come take a look at some of the challenges before us as we move toward a renewed liturgy in our parishes. ...

Come take a look at some video CTA posted of the conference's closing liturgy.

Commenter Chris says the CTA site explained "Larger-than-life puppets call us to be larger than life in our work." Can't be far from that to "Who prays with More cowbell prays twice".

(via Amy Welborn and commenter Chris at Charlotte was Both)

Serving All and Sacrificing None

The Wisconsin Bishops on April 29, 2008 released a pastoral letter Serving All and Sacrificing None: Ethical Stem Cell Research.

It is scientists who have demonstrated that the single cell, or zygote that results from fertilization, contains the complete genetic information necessary for the development of a unique human being. It is scientists who have shown us that human development is a continuous, uninterrupted process, from zygote, embryo, fetus, infant, child, to adult.

These prevailing scientific opinions, they go on, are consistent with Church teaching.

We are persons whether our reasoning skills are developing or deteriorating, whether we are in the beginning stages of life or nearing life’s end.

Given that,

We are not seeking to “impose” narrow doctrinal beliefs, but rather to “propose” reasonable standards for the protection of human life and dignity.

The resources linked at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference website include a press release and a 14 minute video. The pastoral letter was covered in the May 1, 2008 Milwaukee Catholic Herald, Bishops' stem cell letter spotlights 'timeless Catholic teaching'. Perhaps it has been or will be discussed in some homilies.


P.S. The bishops tried to bolster their argument with this analogy.

Furthermore, raising moral concerns is essential for genuine scientific progress. Consider the infamous biomedical case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Even after penicillin was discovered in 1947, medical researchers working for the U.S. Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Alabama, deliberately withheld the drug from infected African-American men—impoverished and mostly illiterate—without their consent, so that they could study the full progression of the disease.

These experiments happened to be the subject of Jonah Goldberg's May 2, 2008 column, Tall Tales About Tuskegee. The Tuskegee study began in 1932. Much later, when penicillin treatment for syphilis was developed, it does not appear to have been clear it would be appropriate for the study participants' advanced cases. The problem with Tuskegee, from today's perspective, was

They were told they were getting “treatments” when they were merely being studied.

That's not particularly pertinent to the issue of embryonic stem cell research.

The First Novena

Rocco Palma did say
Was nine days 'tween Ascension
And Pentecost Day.

And when he says First,
Its the nine days between,
As described in Acts 1,
Verses 12 to 14.


(via Kevin Knight at New Advent)

Blogging DRE uses technology to spread Word

Amy Guckeen reported in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald, April 3, 2008. Heidi Russell, director of Christian formation at St. Monica, Whitefish Bay, blogs at Theological Reflections, posting about once a week. It fits the common perception of blogs as a means of personal expression; while she's a DRE, she doesn't blog in that capacity.

That is not inherent to the medium; one could have a "blogging DRE" blogging as such for a parish, or see a parish weblog for that matter.

Why don't we see that? From my experience, suggesting that blogging software might be a way to post current information on the parish website would be received about like suggesting a parish launch a space station.

Fond du Lac forms single Catholic education system

Amy Guckeen reported in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald, March 20, 2008 on the merger of St. Mary's Springs High School with the Fond du Lac Area Catholic Education System [FACES]. The new body will eventually have a single governing board and administrator.

FACES was formed in 1992 when the six parishes of Fond du Lac and North Fond du Lac consolidated to form a single Catholic elementary education system. FACES is a two-campus system, with about 500 children in grades preschool to second grade at one site, and grades three to eight at another. Enrollment at St. Mary's Springs is almost 300.

Ms. Guckeen had reported in the December 6, 2007 issue on the dedication of the new church for Fond du lac's consolidated parishes, Holy Family Church is 'new beginning' in Fond du Lac. There appears to be a trend toward separating schools from parishes even as schools merge and parishes merge.

Toward a Just and Peaceful Solution in Iraq

A Policy Paper on the War and Occupation of Iraq prepared by Pax Christi USA (March 2008) details the cost in American lives and money (p. 1). When it comes to solutions, it assumes a great many things falling into place as hoped. Meanwhile,

the U.S. should provide substantial financial resources and possibly play a limited operational role... (p. 3)

If limiting that role is contingent on "A revitalized Iraqi government working in concert with the United Nations and regional actors, including the Arab League" and "directly engaging the countries bordering Iraq, including Iran and Syria, as well as internal diplomacy and reconciliation to bring all factions within Iraq 'to the table'", it might not be that limited.

(via Catholics for Peace and Justice)

Notes from a Thessalonian pilgrimage

Bishop Richard J. Sklba in the Herald of Hope column in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald, March 13, 2008, recalls a recent visit to Thessaloniki and to Thesaurus.

Sitting before the great icons of Christ Pantokrator and Mary the God Bearer (Theotokos) as I did each day, I kept thinking that the current throne of the Archbishops of Thessaloniki was in fact the "throne" of Paul himself, for the Apostle had founded the church and presided over its life sometime back in about 49 AD! I wondered about the responsibility of presiding over a truly apostolic church.

The 'wow!' factor

Mary Louise Schumacher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel architecture critic, reported May 1, 2008, on the Design Awards presented yesterday by AIA [American Institute of Architects] Wisconsin.

The first post-Whitney Gould cube-of-the-month is Merit Award winnner Cantilever House (in slideshows), Fox Point, by La Dallman Architects of Milwaukee.

Pilot parishes key to campaign's $16.7 million start

Brian T. Olszewski reported in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald, March 6, 2008, on the first stage of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's $105 million Faith In Our Future capital campaign.

As of Feb. 25, according to the archdiocesan development office, revenue raised in 12 pilot parishes and through major gifts totaled $16,770,229. Donations have come from 4,937 people. Collectively, the pilots have raised 90 percent of their combined benchmarks.

Results were mixed at the individual parishes examined in more detail.

The Mass Series

This seven part series by Father Tom Margevicius has also been published in "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald.

Part I: What we believe is what we pray and live

Part II: Entrance rites - Getting ready to meet God

Part III: Christ is present in the word proclaimed

Part IV: Presentation of the gifts: Bread, wine and ourselves

Part V: The miracle of the Eucharist: 'My flesh is true food'

Part VI: Communion rite: Joining ourselves to Jesus

Part VII: Closing rites: The ending is just the beginning

The Gift of Scripture

Joseph S. ["Spirit of Vatican II"] O'Leary posts the text of his talk given at Durham University, April 20. 2008 which begins,

In 2005 the Bishops of England and Wales produced a teaching document titled The Gift of Scripture (CTS). If you search for it on the internet you will not find the text but instead you will find it denounced on countless Catholic blogs...

Why don't we find the text online? The blurb for it said

...This document is offered to Catholics, to other Christians, and to all who value the 'gift of Scripture'...

but this appears to have meant offered for £3.95.

2007 a time of change for Milwaukee Archdiocese

Continuing a Spring cleaning of back issues, I came across this year in review in the January 3, 2008 issue of "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald.

Despite fewer donors, CSA tops $7.6 million goal

Quite a few issues of "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald have piled up on "my" my desk. In the December 6, 2007 issue Brian T. Olszewski reported on the results of last year's Catholic Stewardship Appeal. The Appeal's director, Robert Bohlmann, had announced it had exceeded its $7.6 million goal.

"Despite the fact that we're down 2,600 donors, I'm really inspired by that and encouraged, because I think it is an incredible achievement in light of the fact that we have had fewer people give," he told your Catholic Herald.

A couple of years back when Debra Lethlean was appointed director of development of our Archdiocese, she then attributed the decline in donors to the pedophilia crisis and the retirement of Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland (see this earlier post). A decline now might still indicate these two issues have not been addressed to people's satisfaction. On the other hand, if the number of donors declines to one, yet that gives a greater total, perhaps this will still be said to inspire and encourage.

No "Day of Silence" at Marquette University High School on April 25

The April 2008 newsletter of the Milwaukee chapter of Cathlics United for the Faith included this item.

A FALSE report that Marquette University High School is taking part in the national “Day of Silence” (DOS) has appeared on the internet. It is simply not true, nor has MUHS ever taken part in this activity in the past.

Decades ago Marquette students sometimes did affect an aversion which might be termed homofauxbia.

The DOS is sponsored by an activist homosexual group, and claims to show support for homosexual students. Many believe, however, it is a push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in our high schools. (Pius XI High School has supported the DOS in the past, and is reported to support this year’s effort. A phone call to the school was not returned.)

One of the student clubs at Pius is the Gay Straight Alliance. Marquette doesn't have an equivalent club listed, at least not explicitly.

Jarman stunning as Giulietta in Florentine production

Elaine Schmidt in the April 27, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviews last night's performance of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi by the Florentine Opera Company.

Bellini's music, the apex of the bel canto (beautiful song) style of writing, is what gives this abbreviated telling of the story its passion and depth - that, and the fact that we know these characters before the curtain rises.

The part of Romeo was sung by mezzo-soprano Marianna Kulikova. Corliss Phillabaum's Program Notes inform us "The use of female singers for romantic heroes of the early 19th Century by composers such as Bellini and Rossini derived from a combination of traditions that were well-established before 1800." Perhaps drama departments offer courses in distinguishing when cross-dressed casting is traditional or avant-garde.

The production was dedicated to the memory of Dominic Frinzi who had long advocated for a Florentine production of a Bellini opera, but died earlier this year before he could see this one.

Also by Phillabaum, "For the Ear and the Eye: I Capuleti e i Montecchi on CD and DVD.

Bill Moyers plays Whiffleball with the Rev. Wright

Karl at Protein Wisdom on yesterday's Bill Moyer's Journal interview of Rev. Jeremiah Wright

If Moyers had any journalistic integrity he might have gone beyond a bumper-sticker understanding of Black Liberation Theology and asked about the underlying Marxist frame work of liberation theologies in general.

(via Althouse)


Update: Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Rev. Wright's appearance at the National Press Club, Wright says criticism is attack on black church.

In a sermon days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Wright said "America's chickens are coming home to roost" after the United States. Asked what he meant by that, Wright challenged the reporter questioning him.

"Have you heard the whole sermon?" he responded. "No. You haven't heard the whole sermon. That nullifies that question."

Update: A vast Wright wing conspiracy? Amy Holmes suspected as much at The Corner, March 18, 2008, Obama's Pastor Plan.


(via KausFiles)

Dolan reportedly up for coveted N.Y. post

Tom Heinen reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on renewed speculation on who will succeed Cardinal Edward Egan as Archbishop of New York.

John Allen, a widely respected American author and journalist who covers the Vatican for the National Catholic Reporter, said Thursday in a telephone interview from Rome that "the two names that I hear talked about the most, kind of around the water cooler, would be [Archbishop] Tim Dolan of Milwaukee and (Archbishop) Wilton Gregory of Atlanta." But he also cautioned against putting stock in "the buzz meter," saying predictions of bishops' appointments often are wrong.

...

Others who Allen thinks will be considered include: Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J.; Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.; and Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Walsh of New York.

A Populist Shift Confronts the U.S. Catholic Church

by Fernanda Santos in The New York Times, April 20, 2008

As Pope Benedict XVI completes his visit to the United States on Sunday with a Mass at Yankee Stadium, in a borough that has been home to generations of Latinos, he does so facing something of a growing challenge to the church’s immigrant ranks.

For if Latinos are feeding the population of the church, many have also turned to Pentecostalism, a form of evangelical Christianity that stresses a personal, even visceral, connection with God.

The story cites the recent Pew survey as indicating 1.3 million Latinos in the U.S. have left the Catholic Church for Pentecostalism.

"Rembert Weakland - A Journey of Faith to Air"

As punctuated at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website, a reminder for the March 29, 2002 rebroadcast of Mark Siegrist's public television documentary.

Pope Delivers Yankee Mass

American Voices, at The Onion

Liturgy and Sacred Music

by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, delivered at the Eighth International Church Music Congress in Rome, November 17, 1985, subsequently published in Communio: International Catholic Review (Winter 1986, pp 377-390, translated from Italian by Stephen Wentworth Arndt), Adoremus, April 2008

In what has just been described, an all too widespread opinion today holds that so-called creativity, the action of all present, and the relationship of group members who know and address one another are the genuine categories of the conciliar understanding of the liturgy. Not only chaplains, but sometimes even bishops, have the feeling that they have not remained true to the Council when they pray everything as it is written in the Missal; at least one “creative” formula must be inserted, however banal it may be.

The evil of banality!

And the civil greeting of those present, with friendly wishes at the dismissal, has already become an obligatory ingredient of the sacred action which anyone would hardly dare to omit.

I've seen priests get so caught up in the opening monologue that they forget the opening Sign of the Cross, and so caught up in closing the show they forget the final blessing.

Hard-Liner With Soft Touch Reaches Out to U.S. Flock

Ian Fisher and Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times, April 13, 2008, describing the Church as Pope Benedict XVI would find it.

“Doctrinal purity would not be high on the list of 95 percent of U.S. Catholics,” said Sister Christine Schenck, executive director of FutureChurch, a coalition of Catholics who want the church to be more open to change. Rather, she said, American Catholics worry: “Is my parish going to stay open? Another is, ‘What about my adult children, for whom religion doesn’t mean anything?’ I’ve had parents tell me, ‘My child had 14 years of Catholic education and the church doesn’t connect with them.’ ”

If doctrine is regarded as unimportant, there's no reason to expect parishes to remain open, and no reason to be surprised if "Catholic education" leaves people unconnected.

St. Alphonus Parish Council Minutes March 3, 2008

Posted on the bulletin board in the church foyer. You might recall our associate pastor is retiring and our pastor decided to do without a replacement rather than select from the "incompatible" younger priests available. In the previous month's minutes it sounded like there was to be only one regular fill-in priest. In these latest minutes in New Business is "Priest schedule".

Fr. Demene will be limited to Saturday only.

Assuming I'm interpreting this cryptic entry correctly, it sounds like instead of a full-time associate pastor there will be a priest to fill in on one day.

From the Lab to the Museum

Plastic people!
Oh, baby, now you're such a drag
--Frank Zappa

The Marquette University Alumni Association, Sunday April 20, 2008 at 1:00 PM

The College of Health Sciences and the Marquette Club of Milwaukee invite you to

From the Lab to the Museum: A private tour of Marquette's Clinical Anatomy Lab and Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS 1: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies

with Opening Remarks by Dr. William Cullinan, Dean, College of Health Sciences

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has posted a BODY WORLDS Reflection Paper.

The BODY WORLDS exhibition opens human bodies and exposes the interior parts of those bodies, revealing the bodily interior of the matter; matter that even though is human it does not look human, but “plastic.”

Perhaps MU needs a department for such nonmaterial concerns.

Leadership needed to make a great Milwaukee

This opinion piece by James Casey in the April 20, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel includes this statistic.

In 1957 ... there were 10 homicides citywide.

The secret link: Sexual victimization came first

In this April 13, 2008 editorial, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said,

When what is abnormal becomes normal, harm soon follows.

Update: From another context,

But what is normal? The standard is constantly changing, and these socialites and celebrities are on the leading edge of that change.
--Ann Althouse

A Eulogy for WFB

Posted by Joe Malchow at Dartblog, April 11, 2008, Christopher Buckley's eulogy for his father, "Delivered on the occasion of the Memorial Mass for the Repose of the Soul of William F. Buckley Jr. on April 4, 2008, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral."

Pope Benedict will be saying Mass here in two weeks. I was told that the music at this Mass for my father would, in effect, be the dress rehearsal for the Pope’s. I think that would have pleased him, though doubtless he’d have preferred it to be the other way around.

And for us "medium air rated" sailors of warm inland lakes,

He was — inarguably — a great man. This is, from a son’s perspective, a mixed blessing, because it means having to share him with the wide world. It was often a very mixed blessing when you were out sailing with him. Great men always have too much canvas up. And great men set out from port in conditions that keep lesser men — such as myself — safe and snug on shore.

(via Todd Zywicki at The Volokh Conspiracy)

Between Medieval And Folk, Two Mass Audiences

In connection with Pope Benedict XVI's visit, Hank Stuever reports in the Washington Post, April 16, 2008.

"You know, just today I received a publication from a mainline Catholic music organization, and there are aspects of it that seem like the musical version of the AARP quarterly, if you know what I mean," says Jeffrey Tucker, 44, a choir director who lives in Auburn, Ala., and is the managing editor of Sacred Music, a journal of the Church Music Association of America. "There is no question that we are talking about a generational issue here. The young priests and the young people just can't seem to get 'hep' to the whole 1970s thing, and the old people just don't understand why."

I'd be exaggerrating if I said that the audience at meetings of progressive Catholic organizations seems to be made up entirely of people born when Pius XII was Pope. For some of them, it looks like it was Pius XI.

Tucker encounters this all the time, and blogs about it frequently. At a recent conference, a jazz pianist confided to Tucker that he'd been playing at church, but there was a new, young pastor who had taken over and "he said, 'You know what that means.' [And] I said, 'Well, I'm not entirely sure.' So he added, surprised that he would have to clarify, 'That means he wants Gregorian chant!' " In one of his many blog posts at New Liturgical Movement, Tucker characterized most Catholic church parishes as ruled by a "hard-core" group that "is fanatically attached to music of the 1970s and fears even the slightest hint of solemnity, warning darkly that the new priest is going to take the parish into a new Dark Age."

My pastor at St. Al's (seminary class of 1970) talks like that, warning in a homily against clinging to the past, while in a windowless concrete amphitheater "worship space" hung with cloth banners.

(via M.Z. Hemingway at Get Religion)

Trust must be regained, pope tells bishops

McClatchy News Service, Washington Post, reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While he spoke on other issues, those were overshadowed by the clerical sexual abuse scandal.

"Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior," the pope said in an address to the nation's bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. "It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged."

For if a bishop fails in that responsibility, he runs the risk of bad press until he reaches the mandatory retirement age. The article then goes back to the White House welcoming ceremony, where our Pope addressed some other issues. The article quotes him most extensively on the scandal. It also gives some background.

Benedict's trip is the first visit by a pope to the U.S. since the sex abuse scandal erupted six years ago in Boston, where a judge released documents from civil lawsuits showing that Cardinal Bernard Law and his subordinate bishops had knowingly shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish without notifying parishioners or even pastors. Law resigned as Boston's archbishop in the scandal's wake but remains a cardinal, posted in Rome.

As the saying goes, over there so not over here.


Update: Mark Stricherz at Get Religion, B16: Adding angles to the pope’s visit and B16: The seventh storyline — sex abuse.

'Titanic' tickets go on sale soon

Jackie Loohauis-Bennett and Steve Schultze report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Tickets will go on sale July 19 for "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit," a major touring exhibit opening Oct. 10 at the Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 W. Wells St.

Not listed, but perhaps included is the April 16, 1912 issue of The Onion with its headline story World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-berg.

At 4:23 a.m. Greenwich Standard Time, the following message was received from the rescue ship Carpathia:

Titanic struck by icy representation of nature's supremacy STOP insufficient lifeboats due to pompous certainty in man's infallibility STOP Microcosm of larger society STOP

Pope: 'Ashamed' of clergy abuse scandal

The Associated Press reports via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that in route to the U.S. Pope Benedict XVI responded to questions submitted in advance by reporters. In answer to one such question, he said,

"It is a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen," Benedict said. "It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission ... to these children.

"I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future," the pope said.

We will see if later reports and statements include the words "bishop" or "bishops".


P.S. As the story gets longer, there's eventually a mention of other issues such as the Iraq war. That's the mention, "the Iraq war". Might serve as a homiletic object lesson on how mishandling one issue can wipe out your life's work on another, or even all others. Might, unless the real lesson is that keeping one's position is more important than all other considerations put together.


Update: State Catholics travel to see pope: Church leaders to participate in Benedict's first U.S. visit, by Diana Marrero and Tom Heinen in the April 16, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Send lawyers, guns and Cheney

Andy Borowitz at The Huffington Post,<