SDG – Page 26 – Jimmy Akin

Saint-In-Waiting

His case for beatification has been ready for years, but he’s needed a miracle. Perhaps not enough of his fans have thought to ask him for a cure? In any event, the wait for a miracle may soon be over for John Henry Cardinal Newman, always a Venerable, not yet a Blessed.

"England could soon have its first saint since the Reformation after a miracle cure was reported in the US.

"Cardinal John Henry Newman, who founded Birmingham Oratory in 1848, is being championed as a future saint by its current provost, Father Paul Chavasse.

"A case for his beatification, the stage before sainthood, is ready but it is lacking a miracle by the cardinal.

"Claims by a Boston deacon he prayed to the cardinal and his spinal problems were cured are now being investigated.

"The claim follows 50 years of work to introduce Cardinal Newman’s cause for canonisation — a process which includes collating more than 20,000 of his letters and evidence from personal witnesses to his suitability as a saint."

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I wonder if it is a commentary on the state of the Christian faith in England that the process has taken so long, and that when a miracle came it was reported in the United States, not Great Britain. After all, a certain Nazarene of the ancient world noted that "a prophet is not without honor except in his own country" and was himself unable to perform many miracles in his own hometown because the people did not have faith (Matt. 13:57-58).

RIP: WWI Veteran

One of the last remaining Australian veterans of World War I died on Monday, October 17. He was just 14 when he left to defend his country; he was 106 when he died.

"William Evan Allan enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy at the outbreak of the war when he was just 14. He served as a seaman on the HMAS Encounter from 1915 to 1918.

"’With his passing, we have lost an entire generation who left Australia to defend our nation, the British Empire and other nations in the cause of freedom and democracy,’ Veteran Affairs Minister De-Anne Kelly said in a statement.

"’Mr. Allan was just a boy when he went to war, much younger than most. His sacrifice is remembered and we honor him for his service,’ she said.

"Allan, born in the southeastern town of Bega in July 1899 and a resident of Melbourne, also was Australia’s sole surviving veteran of both world wars. In World War II, Allan served on an armed merchant cruiser and as pier master of a naval base."

GET THE STORY.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it amazingly uplifting and hopeful that in a day and age where parents kick out freeloading adult children on a "reality-TV" series that we are still within living memory of an era when young people, now considered minors, were mature enough to take on the adult responsibility of serving their country with honor. Perhaps we can still reclaim that heritage of raising self-sufficient and heroically-inclined children (although, of course, we should wait until they are eighteen before calling them up for war).

May William Evan Allan and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace through the mercy of God.

The Wordplay Of Abortion

One of the great frustrations of pro-life advocates is that the mainstream media consistently shades the abortion debate in favor of those who advocate a "right" to abortion. As but one example of many, pro-lifers are "anti-abortion," even if opposition to abortion is only one of the fronts in the Right to Life battle; abortion advocates are, on the other hand, "pro-choice," even though the term gives no indication that the "choice" for which they lobby is for the choice to kill children.

One pro-life site has put together a helpful guide to the language issues, titled Coming to Terms: A Pro-Life Semantics Guide:

Those who govern the culture’s language govern the culture. Why so? Because words shape ideas and form the way people think. Put simply, words teach. Unfortunately, those who govern the language today are the mass media in America who are enemy #1 of vulnerable human life. Their semantics are why so many have come to think that killing itself is a human ‘right.’

"At least five different terms exist in the media’s lexicon for killing, such as abortion ‘rights,’ ‘right’ to the body, ‘right’ to choose, women’s ‘rights,’ privacy ‘rights,’ and reproductive ‘rights.’ At the same time, the most fundamental right of all, to life itself is censored by them, erasing it from public thought. Pope John Paul, spoke on this grave moral evil in his encyclical The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae].

"’The moral conscience, both individual and social, is today subjected, also as a result of the penetrating influence of the media, to an extremely serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and evil precisely in relation to the fundamental right to life…’ #24."

"Friend, the culture war is largely a war of words and no one fights it better than the media elite. Better than anyone they know that if you want to change the way people think, just change the words. Yet verbal engineering applies to us as well. Using honest vocabulary is vital to restore protection for life. Terminology that devalues it is explained in this guide. Honest phrasing is given to restore its dignity."

The guide goes on to compile a list of words commonly used in the abortion debate and then offers alternative word choices to clarify what the euphemisms hide (e.g., abortion "clinic" v. abortion "site"). We could quibble with some of the suggestions (e.g., using "abortionist" as a replacement for "doctor"; like it or not, many doctors are abortionists and abortion is only a subset of their medical practice), and with the advisability of using some of the suggestions in all circumstances (such as when attempting to engage abortion advocates in discussion of the issues).

Despite certain deficiencies, though, the guide is useful in demonstrating the scope of the problem of how language whitewashes the abomination that is abortion.

The God Bloggers

If Jesus were a blogger, what would he blog? That question and others were recently asked at a Christian (read, Evangelical Protestant) blogging conference:

"What would Jesus blog?

"That and other pressing questions drew 135 Christians to Southern California this weekend for a national conference billed as the first-ever for ‘God bloggers,’ a growing community of online writers who exchange information and analyze current events from a Christian perspective.

"The three-day conference at Biola University marked an important benchmark for Christian bloggers, who have worked behind the scenes for years to spread the Gospel and infuse politics with religion.

"Topics included God bloggers’ relationship with the traditional church, their growing influence on mainstream politics and how to manage outsiders’ perceptions.

"Some predicted bloggers could play a role in reforming the modern church by keeping televangelists and other high-profile Christian leaders honest."

GET THE STORY.

The most intriguing metaphor used by the God bloggers was given by Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost, in which he compared blogging to Martin Luther’s 95 theses. In that spirit, it sounds like we need a Counter-Reformation of Catholic bloggers. If Mary were a blogger, what would she blog? And when will St. Blog’s Parish have its own conference to discuss that and other questions of Catholic blogging? We could call it The Saint Bloggers.

Papal Pancake

It seems fitting, in an odd, amusing way, that the pope who was totally devoted to Mary ("Totus tuus") would join her in making the rounds of appearances in food. (Before I annoy any apparitions purists, please understand that I am speaking ironically. When Mary or any saint appears, they appear. They do not appear as an image in food.) In any case, the image of John Paul the Great has recently been spotted in a flapjack:

"One Sunday morning, Myrna Kincaid’s life changed with the flip of a pancake.

"’Look at my pancake,’ she reflects. ‘It looks like, looks like the pope.’

"’I thought it could very well look like him,’ said Jay, her husband.

"Instead of eating the pancake bite by bite, they stored it in the freezer and scurried to church. But, what to make of this, they thought.

"Luke Galen is a Grand Valley State University professor who teaches a course on psychology in religion. ‘That one’s pretty accurate as far as these pictures go,’ said Galen."

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Why would images like this, what we might call nature’s icons, "appear"? Who knows. But one of the things I love about Catholicism is that we have such a sacramental view of life that even cooking breakfast for one’s family can become a holy moment when one’s mind is uplifted to God and to his friends.

For a longer meditation on this kind of phenomena, see the links below.

OUR LADY OF THE UNDERPASS

OUR LADY OF THE UNDERPASS, REDUX

JIMMY ADDS: I’m skeptical about all "phenomena" of this nature, though sometimes there may be coincidental resemblances. In this case . . . I dunno. The contrast between the background and the pope figure is so extreme and the edges between them so sharp that it looks . . . artificial to me.

St. Michelle, Patron of Crabby Bloggers?

In response to the quiz in which it was revealed that I have "the rare gift of bilocation" and am therefore *obviously* on the road to sainthood [she said, while ignoring the snickering and catcalls of readers who know her personally and are lining up to be the devil’s advocate for her cause], a reader asked:

"Michelle, after your beatification, what do you see yourself being the patron saint of? And what would be your first pick as a feast day? ;-)"

Thinking the question fun and important — hey, the first step to sainthood is considering sanctity to be an achievable goal — I’ve thought about it and decided: I’m putting in dibs to become the patron saint of crabby bloggers and would like my feast day to be the day on which Blogger was founded, which was sometime in August 1999. That way I can intercede both for crabby bloggers and for the smooth functioning of the technology that allows them to be public crabs.

Since everyone should consider sanctity to be an achievable goal, feel free to place dibs in the combox for the human endeavor for which you want to be a patron saint and the day you’d pick as a feast day were you consulted on the decision (keeping in mind that the Church usually assigns you the date on which you were born into the next life… in other words, the day you die).

Religionists Of Peace Attack Pray-ers For Peace

I usually try to avoid commenting on stories of terror committed in the name of Islam, because it is a delicate matter to avoid making generalizations that inadvertantly sweep in Muslims who would be horrified at the actions of terroristic co-religionists. That said, I can’t help but take note that extremist Indonesian Muslims, acting in the name of a religion that many sincere Muslims believe is a religion of peace, recently attacked Indonesian Catholics praying the rosary:

"A group composed of Islamic extremists attacked Catholics praying the rosary on 11 October and threatened to burn down the house they were gathered in. The assailants, who claimed to be part of the Islamic Defender Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI), invaded the house of one of the Catholic community belonging to the parish of Christ Salvator in western Jakarta.

"The men forced the marian prayer to stop immediately, threatening to burn the place down. They forced all those present including the Ketua Lingkungan (informal parish leader — ed. note) to sign a declaration that they will not hold any more rosary gatherings in houses in the area.

"The attack has fuelled fears and apprehension among Indonesian Catholics who fear further possible hostile moves from the FPI. The front is also behind the closure of 24 home-churches in western Java."

GET THE STORY.

Whatever the difficulties of modern American society, it’s stories like this that make me grateful I live here rather than anywhere else. When you’re praying your rosary, say a prayer for these Indonesian Catholics and thank God that you can do so in peace.

Listen Up!

"The ~~guy~~ gal the Pope should listen to"

God has given you the rare gift of bilocation.
With it, you can attend both the First Friday
devotions in honor of Our Lady of Fatima and
the parish bake sale committee meetings. We respect
you, mostly because we fear the incredible power
you wield in our parish.

Are You A Cultural Catholic?
brought to you by Quizilla

So, does anyone know how I let Pope Benedict know that he should be listening to me? In the interests of journalistic honesty and all that, I should note that I got this result on my second try. Seems I have yet to shake off my shady past as a WASP convert because the quiz outed me as one on my first try.

(Nod to Dyspeptic Mutterings for the link. Kudos to The Donegal Express for creating this "Put down the coffee mug, first!"-quiz.)

No Joy In Smurfville

UNICEF is bombing Smurfs in an effort to demonstrate that War Is Bad and that No One Is Safe. While no one would disagree with the first proposition ("War Is Bad"), do we really want a children’s welfare agency informing our children that No One Is Safe from war? The insidious subtext seems to be telling kids (the natural audience for cartoon commercials) that if even Smurfs can be bombed, what about you in your middle-class Western European neighborhood? The Bogeyman of War is lurking Over There and only UNICEF — certainly not your parents — can protect you.

"Smurfette is left for dead. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf’s village is carpet bombed by warplanes — a horrific scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.

"These are the scenes being shown as part of a new UNICEF ad-campaign on Belgian television.

"’It’s working. We are getting a lot of reactions and people are logging on to our Web site,’ UNICEF Belgium spokesman Philippe Henon said Tuesday.

"The Belgian office of the U.N. children’s fund said it has decided to use the creations of late Belgian artist Peyo to shock a complacent public into backing its fund-raising efforts for ex-child soldiers in Africa.

"The 20-second video commercial clip now being shown on Belgian TV aims to show that war can happen in the most innocent of places, Henon said.

"’We get reactions from all over the place,’ said Henon. ‘People are shocked and want to know the reasons behind this cartoon image.’"

GET THE STORY.

<Tongue in cheek>Well, now I won’t feel like a Scrooge for refusing to give spare change for UNICEF to trick-or-treaters along with their miniature chocolate bars. After all, how could I support an organization that bombs peaceable Smurfs? Perhaps I’ll give the trick-or-treaters a miniature Smurf instead….</tongue in cheek>

(Now that I have removed my tongue from my cheek, I’ll note in passing that I have never refused to give trick-or-treaters spare change for UNICEF for the reason that I’ve never been asked to do so. I have never before seen trick-or-treaters collecting for UNICEF, although I suppose some have somewhere since it is an American tradition to do so, according to UNICEF.)