Category: Miscellaneous

Just in case anyone here at JA.org happens to like superheroes, y’all may be interested to know that your favorite caped crusaders are coming soon to a postage stamp near you.

"Faster than a speeding bullet, comic book superheroes are coming to a post office near you. Batman and Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and a half dozen other superheroes will star on new postage stamps being released Thursday.

"The new 39-cent stamps and 24-cent postal cards will be made public at a comic book show in San Diego, and will go on sale nationwide Friday.

"The stamps are sold in a sheet of 20, half featuring the individual superheroes and half showing covers of comic books starring them.

"The Postal Service reports this is its first set of super hero stamps, indicating more are likely to follow."

GET THE STORY.

The super stamp models are slated to include, among others, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, and Supergirl. No word yet on whether letters posted with the superhero stamps will arrive at their destination faster than a speeding bullet.

I normally don’t write much about apparitions–particularly ones that have not been either approved by the Church or specifically condemned as incompatible with the faith, but there is currently going around the blogosphere a statement by Bishop Peric of Mostar-Duvno regarding the apparitions reported at Medjugorje, which is in his diocese.

I’m not going to address the question of whether the apparitions reported at Medjugorje are real or not. I haven’t yet done the kind of research I would need to in order to satisfy myself on that question. But it’s worth noting the way that the topic is presently being handled on the official level.

DIANE OVER AT TE DEUM HAS THE FULL TEXT OF A HOMILY THE BISHOP GAVE ON THE SUBJECT, ALONG WITH HER OWN COMMENTARY.
(CHT to those who e-mailed.)

YOU CAN ALSO READ IT DIRECTLY ON THE DIOCESE OF MOSTAR WEBSITE.

Poking around the Mostar website, I also discovered

THIS BACKGROUNDER AND STATEMENT ON MEDJUGORJE BY THE BISHOP.

NOTE: Both the homily and the backgrounder are translations and so it should not be assumed that everything they say has the same force in the original language as it does in English. Things in the original may be stronger or weaker than they come across in translation.

Here is the nut of what the bishop said in the homily:

The judgements of the bishops, after all the canonical investigations made thus far, can be summarized in these following points:

1 – Medjugorje is a catholic parish in which liturgical and pastoral activities are carried out, just as in all the other parishes of this diocese of Mostar-Duvno. No-one except the official Church authorities is then authorized to attribute the formal title of “shrine” to this place.

2 – On the basis of Church investigations of the events of Medjugorje, it cannot be determined that these events involve supernatural apparitions or revelations. This means that till now the Church has not accepted, neither as supernatural nor as Marian, any of the apparitions. 

3 – Priests who canonically administer this parish of Medjugorje or those who come as visitors, are not authorised to express their private views contrary to the official position of the Church on the so-called “apparitions” and “messages”, during celebrations of the sacraments, neither during other common acts of piety, nor in the Catholic media.

4 – The Catholic faithful are not only free from any obligation to believe in the authenticity of the “apparitions” but they must also know that church pilgrimages are not allowed, whether official or private, individual or group, or from other parishes, if they presuppose the authenticity of the “apparitions” or if by undertaking them attempt to certify these “apparitions”. 

5 – As the local Bishop, I maintain that regarding the events of Medjugorje, on the basis of the investigations and experience gained thus far, throughout these last 25 years, the Church has not confirmed a single “apparition” as authentically being the Madonna.

He then makes the following dramatic appeal:

Therefore I responsibly call upon those who claim themselves to be “seers”, as well as those persons behind the “messages”, to demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish. In this fashion they shall show their necessary adherence to the Church, by neither placing private “apparitions” nor private sayings before the official position of the Church.

I can’t help wondering if that’s also tied to something else he said:

The fact that during these 25 years there has been talk of tens of thousands of “apparitions” does not contribute any authenticity to these events, which according to the words of our current Pope, who I encountered during an audience on 24 February this year, commented that at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith they always questioned how all these “apparitions” could be considered authentic for the Catholic faithful.

This sets off my spider sense a little bit. I’m thinking that there may be a connection between these two events.

In his pontificate, B16 has been quietly (or not so quietly) dealing with issues that appeared to drift during the pontificate of John Paul II. He reined in the Franciscans in Assisi; he reined in the Neocatechumenal Way; he dealt with the Fr. Maciel matter. I’m wondering if the discussion he had with Bishop Peric included an initiative to clarify where the Church is regarding the subject of Medjugorje.

If it didn’t then I’d say that Bishop Peric made a big mistake repeating what B16 told him in private. This is a sensitive matter, and if the pope hasn’t authorized you to disclose his private views on a matter then it is a big mistake to do so.

He also would be making a mistake to call on the seers to cease their public activities in the parish unless he had reasonable assurances that he would be backed up on this point if he were challenged on it.

I don’t have any proof here–I’m just speculating–but I’m wondering if his discussion with B16 didn’t involve the subject of a new iniative to more forcefully clarify the Medjugorje situation and seek greater pastoral control over it since, as the bishop reports:

[I]n this local Church of Mostar-Duvno, there exists something similar to a schism. A number of priests that have been expelled from the Franciscan OFM Order by the Generalate of the Order, due to their disobedience to the Holy Father, for years now have been forcefully keeping a few parish churches and rectories along with church inventory. They have not only been illegally active in these parishes, but they have also administered the sacraments profanely, while others invalidly, such as Confession and Confirmation, or they have assisted at invalid marriages. This type of anti-ecclesial behaviour is shocking to all of us. At the same time, this scandal of sacrilegiously administering the sacraments, especially of the Most Holy Body of Christ, must shock all the faithful as well who invalidly confess their sins to these priests and participate in sacrilegious liturgies. We pray to the Lord that this scandal and schism be uprooted as soon as possible from our midst. 

If I were B16, that’s the kind of situation I would want to get sorted out.

Or at least as much proof as photographs can provide these days! (The "pictures don’t lie" being long over.)

Yes, I’ve told y’all about my regular activities each week square dancing and round dancing, but here are the pictures to prove it!

On Sunday nights I dance with a group known as the Sundown Squares. (In addition to my Tuesday night group, the Valley Twirlers, and my Friday night group, the Alpine Squares–beside random pickup dances on other nights.)

Recently the Sundown Squares had a party night, complete with volunteer photographers, and they captured these images.

First, here’s a picture of me with my round dance class:


That’s me in the middle of the back row. Our teachers are the man and woman on the far right. And the ladies in the middle of the front line are really, really small. (Makes them extra cute, don’t you think?)

For those who may not know, round dance is the same thing as ballroom dancing, except that there’s a "cuer" who cues the moves that you’re supposed to make, so that you don’t have to have a dance memorized in order to do it. As long as you know the moves, you can do any dance the cuer puts on the turntable (or CD player, or iPod, or computer). The presence of a cuer lets you do many more dances than you could in traditional ballroom dancing, making it much more diverse and fun.

After my round dance class is finished, I switch to square dancing with the Sundown Squares, and here’s a picture of that:


In this picture, I and my fellow dancers are in lines, doing an "eight-to-the-middle-and-back" move.

You may notice in these pictures that many of the other dancers are older than I am. Partly that’s because of the particular composition of the Sundown Squares, and partly it’s because most young folks today are glued to their iPods and are too lazy for real dancing. I’m far from the youngest member of the group, though, and there are some who aren’t even in their teens yet.

But who cares about age?! It’s all about fun!

CHECK OUT THE GROUP’S BLOG!

Down yonder a reader (Emily S of O Beauty Unattempted) writes:

Thanks so much for the link! When first you mentioned it, being of a dancerly nature myself, I thought "Oh, how hard can it really be?" Phew! But now I can hardly wait to have an opportunity to try out those moves (Oklahoma choreography, here I come!). Just one question – do they generally require any sort of hand/arm hold or no? (The ones you mentioned. Esp. when circling a partner.)

Glad to hear you’re interested! Yes, there are specific hand and arm holds that are required in these moves. Sometimes more than one hold is used in each move.

In Spin Chain And Exchange The Gears, for example, the dancers who are about to trade places put their hands palm-forward (NOT grabbing) at approximately shoulder height and then use this as the pivot point around which they trade. At a certain point in the move, though, you have groups of four dancers putting their hands together (again at approximately shoulder height, NOT grabbing) to create what is known as a star formation, which then rotates around the four hands as a pivot point.

There are other hand holds in these moves, too, so it gets rather complicated.

If you’re wanting to use square dancing as part of a production of Oklahoma! (if I understood your meaning correctly) then the simplest thing to do is bring in an actual square dance group (including the caller) as a bunch of extras.

If that isn’t feasible (e.g., because you’re wanting to do a high school production of the musical with only students as actors) then the thing to do would be to bring in a caller to teach the students just enough square dance moves to do the choreography you want. (You won’t have time to train them in all square dance moves.)

I’d probably recommend having most of it be simple, ordinary stuff that won’t be hard for the students, with maybe one  or two really complex moves as a show-stopper for the audience.

I’d also recommend checking out some actual square dance groups in your area first to get a sense of what is possible and how it looks from a horizontal (audience) perspective.

Incidentally, there’s one nice advantage to square dancing compared to almost other forms of dance: It really doesn’t matter that much what you’re doing with your feet. Square dancing is about your position on the floor and what you’re doing with your arms, not specifically what you’re doing with your feet as you navigate the floor. (It helps to step to the beat, but this is not required. As long as you get where you’re supposed to be, that’s enough.)

With square dancing there’s no careful, elegant stepping of the kind that ballroom or round
dancing (or tap, for that matter) requires, so this is one thing that students or actors won’t have to worry about.

Square dancing, especially when done fast, is about having fun rather than being elegant–a fact that has become obvious to me now that I’m also taking round dancing classes. As I’m in the round dance class trying to do all kind of elegantly timed steps, I can hear the square dance class in the next room tearing up the floor and having fun without worrying about being graceful and elegant.

I had quite an accomplishment Friday night.

Here’s the story: A couple of years ago I went through a square dance class and made it through graduation, but work-related travel and other things made my attendance toward the end spotty. As a result, although I learned the moves at end of the program, I didn’t learn them well and did not feel comfortable going to ordinary dances.

I planned to start the class over the next fall, but didn’t know when the class was starting and missed it.

So this year I ran across a handbill at a western wear store saying when a class was starting and went.
In fact, I started attending several different clubs.

Many of the moves were familiar, of course, and for others my dim memories of them quickly began to reawaken, and soon I was able to dance along with the club (not just the class) at a couple of these groups.

But I couldn’t do that at one of them.

Y’see, different clubs have different preferences about how easy or challenging they like it when they dance.

The Friday night group has the toughest caller in the county (at least as far as I am aware). He’s a really good teacher, but for club dances he does the most challenging calling of anybody around these here parts. By that I mean that he calls the dance faster, uses more the more complex moves more often, and uses impromptu variants a lot. You really have to be good in order to dance in a club session that he calls.

As a result, after starting back to square dancing, it took the longest for my skills to get back to where they needed to be if I were to dance with the Friday night club.

I mean, there was no way that I’d be able to do the fearsome Load The Boat or the dreaded Teacup Chain or the sanity-shattering Relay The Deucey or the soul-destroying Spin Chain And Exchange The Gears.

Not without some review and practice.

I mean, compared to those moves of elder madness things like Dixie Style To An Ocean Wave are nothing.

But Friday night I made the breakthrough!

With the encouragement of some of the club members, I stayed after the class period and danced with the club.

I was able to keep up with the other dancers, even at the
high-challenge level that this club and caller enjoy. I even got
through Relay The Deucey and Spin Chain And Exchange The Gears.

I danced every single tip except for the first. (A tip is a unit of two dances, typically a patter call followed by a singing call.)

This means that, between the class and the club, I danced for THREE HOURS Friday night, and on Saturday I had the muscle strains and aches all over my body to prove it.

My dancing ability at this level is still shaky, but I expect that within a couple of months I’ll have it smoothed out, especially with the amount of practice I’m getting these days.

I also imagine that my body will adjust fairly quickly to the level of activity I’m putting it through in these dances.

Friday night isn’t even the longest dance night I’m doing.

At my Sunday night group I’m doing a two hour class of round dancing, followed by a two hour club of square dancing, for a total of FOUR hours.

Body aches are normal on Monday at this point.

No, not a member of the Capuchin religious order. . . . a capuchin monkey.

A reader writes:

this e-mail probably will be shocking to you but God knows i gotta try..my lil capuchin just passed away nov 11th and god knows i hated him passing…

i am looking for another baby but now my finances is limited yet my caring for one is not limited..my vet took care of charlie all his lil life

i am looking for one of any age or sex will drive anywhere, anytime do you possibly know of any that’s in need of an excellent home?

i would do absolutely anything to achieve this.my baby went everywhere i went he slept with me and ate with me i have very good references from my vet…………….

thank you for reading my mail..God bless you and again thank you for reading my mail and hopefully God will provide a way for me on my quest…

I’m afraid that I don’t know where there are any capuchin monkeys available for adoption inexpensively, but I’ll be happy to do what I can to help.

First, HERE’S A LINK TO A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN CONTACT BREEDERS WHO MAY HAVE WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR.

The disadvantage of going this route is that the ones you could obtain from these sources are likely to be quite expensive, and you say that your finances are limited at present. Perhaps you might be able to start saving up and looking for ways to make extra money, though.

In the meantime,

HERE’S A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN PUT FREE CLASSIFIED ADS ONLINE FOR EXOTIC PETS.

I checked the listings, and some people are asking for capuchin monkeys, so if you get your ad in there, maybe someone who needs to find a home for a capuchin will find it!

Also, I’d ask that if other readers have good leads on where the reader might be able to find a capuchin in need of adoption to either use the combox or e-mail me (I have additional contact information for the reader that is not included in the above).

Thanks, and good luck!

NOTE FOR THOSE NOT FAMILIAR WITH CAPUCHIN MONKEYS: They’re very intelligent creatures that can even be taught how economics works.

I’m not kidding.

LEARN MORE.

Just a note to let folks know that I’m scheduled to appear on the Drew Mariani Show this afternoon to talk about the Brokeback Mountain fiasco.

I’m scheduled to be on at 5:30 Eastern, 2:30 Pacific.

YOU CAN LISTEN HERE.

Some person in authority–I don’t know who, very likely the astronomer royal–has decided that although for such a beastly month as February twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty, one year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and twenty.

That’s what we call "Leap Year"–when we get an extra day in the year (making it kind of a misnomer–and yes, I know that it wasn’t the astronomer royal who decided this).

This year, though, we get a leap second.

At 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST), we’ll have an extra second inserted to account for the fact that the earth is slowing down its rotation (but ever so slowly, so we don’t notice).

Have fun with your extra second!

Be sure to party like it’s 1999!

GET THE STORY (WHICH WILL TAKE YOU LONGER THAN A SECOND TO READ).

Just before Thanksgiving, I suggested that if folks have benefitted from my blog that they consider volunteering for, donating to, or otherwise helping holiday relief programs at their local parishes or churches.

We’re now a little bit out from Christmas, and I’d like to renew my suggestion: If you feel that you have benefitted from the blog, and if you have the ability to do so, please consider doing something for the less fortunate this year for Christmas (or even afterwards if there’s not enough time).

Please constant your local parish, church, soup kitchen, homeless shelter, nursing home, or what have you, and do something for those who need help this Christmas. There are more of them than you know, and you can help make a real difference for them this year.

Whether you’re young or old, Christian or not, you can be a help and can an instrument of God’s love at a time when many are hurting.

There is nothing more bitter than feeling alone and afraid at Christmas.

Help show them Our Savior’s love on the feast of his Birth.

I’ve got an idea.

But I can’t tell you what it is yet. (And no, it’s not one of the three secrets. It’s a NEW one.)

What I can tell you is that it involves music. (And no, it’s not writing new music for Mass. It’s for something else.)

Unfortunately, my music composition skills are quite limited–as are my performance skills.

So I need someone to help me.

I am therefore wondering if anyone can point me toward a music composition service that accepts work-made-for-hire orders and that isn’t overly hugely expensive. (The work-made-for-hire aspect is important as this is a project that would be for the service of the Church and so I need to keep ahold of the rights to the music.)

I’m looking to get a number of very short tunes written and performed and recorded. I don’t care too much about the instrument (piano, guitar, keyboards, etc.) as that’s not what is important for the project I have in mind.

The melodies themselves would need to be catchy–like jingles–but would not need to have amazing artistic qualities or orchestrations beyond that.

I can even supply prototypes for these melodies, so they may not need more than touching up and performance.

Something close to chants would also work for these.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on this kind of thing?