Back In The Black

What’s the Vatican’s annual budget?

In the last annum it was 202,581,446 euros, which is about 242 million dollars. That’s good, because total income was 205,663,266 euros (246 million dollars), which means that they were 4 million dollars in the black (after several years of being in the red).

While the Holy See has a lot of non-monetary assets (buildings, for example), its actual budget is fairly small. For example, back in 2002 the budget for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was $600 million dollars (SOURCE). Put another way, the Vatican’s 2004 budget was only the size of 35 Catholic Answerses.

Where does the money go?

"A large part of the expenditure," said Cardinal Sebastiani, "is made up of the expenses of dicasteries and organizations of the Roman Curia which assist, each in its own way, the Roman Pontiff in his pastoral service to the Universal Church and to the particular Churches. … A total of 2,663 people work in the Roman Curia, of whom 759 are ecclesiastics, 346 religious and 1,558 lay people. Pensioners number 1,429."

GET THE STORY.

Didgeri – Do's and Don'ts

In a move that is sure to bring consternation to accomplished didgeridoo players the world over, Reuters has revealed the secret to getting the most from the enigmatic instrument.

It seems it’s all in the glottis, that little flap of skin at the back of the throat. According to a group of Australian scientists:

"We conclude that a major difference between a novice and an experienced player is a learned, but usually subconscious ability to

reduce the glottal opening…"

And all this time I thought it was all in the uvula! Ah, well… now I can take my trusty old didgeridoo out of mothballs and play my children to sleep as I have always dreamed of doing.

THE "SECRET" REVEALED!

JIMMY ADDS: Hmmmm. . . . As a result of practicing Semitic languages like Arabic, where glottal stops are considered a consonant, I’ve been practicing closing my glottis on command rather a lot. . . . Maybe I should take up the digeridoo.

Didgeri – Do’s and Don’ts

Didgeridoo_1In a move that is sure to bring consternation to accomplished didgeridoo players the world over, Reuters has revealed the secret to getting the most from the enigmatic instrument.

It seems it’s all in the glottis, that little flap of skin at the back of the throat. According to a group of Australian scientists:

"We conclude that a major difference between a novice and an experienced player is a learned, but usually subconscious ability to
reduce the glottal opening…"

And all this time I thought it was all in the uvula! Ah, well… now I can take my trusty old didgeridoo out of mothballs and play my children to sleep as I have always dreamed of doing.

THE "SECRET" REVEALED!

JIMMY ADDS: Hmmmm. . . . As a result of practicing Semitic languages like Arabic, where glottal stops are considered a consonant, I’ve been practicing closing my glottis on command rather a lot. . . . Maybe I should take up the digeridoo.

Diet Soda Dilemma

I think I’ll pretend I didn’t see the following story until another group of experts announces that the exact opposite is true:

"People who drink diet soft drinks don’t lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.

"The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

"’What didn’t surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity,’ Fowler tells WebMD. ‘What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher.’"

GET THE STORY.

(Nod to the friend who sent me the link.)

Of course, this kind of thing is probably why the diet-soft-drink industry chooses advertising slogans such as "Just for the taste of it."

JIMMY ADDS: Actually, there are a couple of theories I’m aware of that may explain this. The first is that most folks who drink diet cokes think that they are saving more calories than they actually are and thus give themselves liberty for too much extra calorie intake, resulting in more net calories (e.g., "I didn’t drink that 180 calorie glass of Coke–I had Diet Coke instead–so it’s okay if I eat this 300 calorie piece of cake").

Another theory that may play a role is that most artificial sweeteners still have a very high glycemic index–higher even than sugar–and this may result in your brain thinking that you’ve just drunk a whole mess of sugar. The brain then gets ready to digest sugar and causes the insulin spike that inhibits weight loss.

My own conjecture is that the former conjecture may play a larger role than the latter. I lost a great deal of weight over a long period of time while drinking diet coke the whole time. The diff was that I had cut out almost all carbohydrates out of my diet and so wasn’t giving my body much to generate an insulin spike, even if the Nutrasweet in the diet coke was giving me a bit of one.

Ghosts?

A reader writes:

Gallup reports today that 42% of liberals believe in ghosts – but only 25% of conservatives.

As G. K. Chesterton said, "When people stop believing in God, they do not believe in nothing. They believe everything."

First,

GET THE STORY.

Second, I’m not so sure that one should so quickly dismiss this subject. While there are, no doubt, many liberals who are attracted to the ghost hypothesis on account of New Age beliefs, consider the following:

  • "Ghost" is simply the German-derived equivalent of the Latin-derived word "Spirit." That’s why the Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost. Originally in English "ghost" and "spirit" referred to the same thing. Indeed, in German the word for "spirit" is still "geist." Rather than get hung up on semantics, we may wish to analyze claims about ghosts in terms of what we know about spirits.
  • First, spirits exist. This is a truth of the faith.
  • Second, spirits can sometimes manifest themselves to those in this life, as in the apparitions of the saints.
  • Third, there are even reports in Catholic history that spirits in purgatory have–by God’s will–occasionally manifested themselves to those on earth. In these cases, those on earth may see the spirits experiencing their purgation in some way.
  • Therefore, if these reports are true, God may at times allow spirits to manifest to those on earth in a way that might lead folks to describe them as "ghosts."

Now, I’m not saying that this actually happens. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t quickly scoff at the idea. It certainly has a place in Catholic tradition (lower "t" tradition). I know that folks today often repeat the mantra "There’s no such things as ghosts," but it seems to me that this may have more with the influence of a secular/scientistic worldview than anything else. I see no theological reason to say that God doesn’t allow this to happen on occasion. (On the other hand, I see no theological reason that compels us to the conclusion that he does, either.)

One note on the possibility of ghosts: Sometimes folks think of ghosts (or some ghosts) as malevolent. I don’t see how that would be possible on the above account. Souls experiencing purgatory might seem strage or disquieting to individuals in this life and might appear malevolent, but they would not be. I don’t see any evidence, though, that genuinely malevolent souls–i.e., the souls of the damned–could manifest on earth. Thus any genuinely malevolent ghosts would more likely represent demonic activity as far as I can tell.

These two phenomena–the "purgatory ghosts" and demons–also might explain so-called haunted houses and poltergeists ("noisy ghosts" in German).

Peeking At Potter

Hpbritcover_1 Did you know that the latest installment in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince is on store shelves already?  Fourteen people managed to snag copies of The Half-Blood Prince before a Canadian store realized its mistake in selling before the July 16 release date and pulled the copies.

You’d think that this wouldn’t be an earth-shattering event.  After all, I’ve seen books sold in bookstores before their release date all the time.  It’s not kosher, but it’s routinely done.  Only if you’re a publishing industry superstar do you rate an iron-clad "no sale" prior to the official date.  When you’re J. K. Rowling, you rate a Canadian judge ordering the fourteen early-buyers to keep their mouths shut about the book’s contents:

"A handful of people in Canada got a sneak peak of the latest Harry Potter book, but a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ordered them to keep it a secret.

"The book was sold to 14 people who snagged a copy of J. K. Rowlings’ much anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when it landed on shelves last Thursday at a local grocery store.

"The book, officially set for release this coming Saturday, has been shrouded in secrecy and its debut has been highly orchestrated to enable everyone — readers, reviewers, even publishers — to crack it open all at once. It’s the sixth in Rowling’s seven-book fantasy series on the young wizard.

"But the store slipped up and sold 14 copies before realizing its mistake."

GET THE STORY.

The individuals involved should be grateful that all that happened was that they were legally gagged by a Muggle judge.  A Wizard court would probably have made them drink one of Snape’s potions.

Mass Translation Update

CNS is carrying the following story:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — An international Vatican advisory board said the sooner new English translations of Mass prayers are ready the easier they will be for Catholics to accept. Members of the Vatican-appointed "Vox Clara" Committee, which advises the Vatican on English translations, said they share the concerns of bishops about how the new texts will be accepted by their faithful, but they also "expressed their conviction that this reception would be impeded by delays in a timely completion of the project." The committee met July 5-7 at the Vatican to review "various and recent draft translations" of the Latin edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 2002. The missal contains all the prayers and readings used for Mass in the Latin rite [SOURCE].

LAP-BAND Surgery & Fiber

A reader writes:

I was wondering if there is any problem with having LAP-BAND surgery.  It is a Laparoscopic Adjustable Silicon Banding and has been proven to be a safe bariatric surgical procedure.  It is minimally invasive, adjustable and reversible. 

‘Kay, lemme interrupt for a moment. For those who may not be aware, LAP-BAND surgery involves inserting a small, adjustable band to constrict part of the stomach so that only a small amount of food can be taken at one time. This form of surgery is not as radical as others since the band can be adjusted and even removed when it is no longer needed. INFO HERE.

Let’s resume. . . .

Is there a Cathlic stance on having a procedure like this done?  I have gained weight after every baby (4 live births and 2 stillborn) and I cannot lose it.  Even with Atkins, I gain it back any time I get sick and have to go on anitbiotics or something.  I weigh a lot (over 300 pounds) and I have done every thing possible to lose except starve myself and not eat any more at all. 

Interruption! Don’t do that! Your body needs nutrients to keep going. Starvation diets are not safe.

I walk an hour a day and I try to stick with mainly protein and vegetables.  I have dieted so much in my life that my body refuses to lose weight.  With the LAP-BAND procedure, I could just take vitamins and eat a tiny bit and not get so shaky from hunger that I can’t think straight.  Do you know the Church’s position on this?

Okay. First, it sounds that you’ve been trying a lot of good things, though you should not do anything so extreme that it causes you to get so shaky from hunger that you can’t think strait. That is not healthy.

That being said, the levels of obesity that you are talking about are serious and lead to long-term serious health problems. Getting the weight off is important.

The Church understands that and, while there is no specific Magisterial statement on this type of surgery, Catholic moral theology recognizes that surgery can be used to address serious health concerns, including obesity. As a result, any surgery for which the expected medical benefits are proportionate to the expected costs (medical, financial, psychological) is licit in principle. There are, however, a few caveats:

  1. The surgery can’t be predicated on anything intrinsically evil, like killing someone else to get an organ for transplant–but that isn’t what’s happening in this case. Implanting a silicone ring that can be adjusted and removed isn’t intrinsically evil.
  2. You should seek to form as realistic an understanding of what the

    surgery will mean as possible. I know that for folks who are obese, the

    idea of surgery can seem like a dream–a cure-all that will finally

    take care of the problem. But there are risks and possible side

    effects. You need to learn about these. For example, will artificially

    shrinking your stomach stop you from being hungry? Even if it stops

    hunger, will it leave you weak or suffering other side-effects? What’s the success rate of this surgery? What is the risk of infection? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but you need to find them out.

  3. There must be a real weighing of the costs and benefits here. At a minimum, you should both be in close consultation about these with your doctor and get a second opinion before having the surgery. You should also test what the doctors tell you and try to poke holes in what they say, whether they are positive or negative regarding the surgery.
  4. Prior to surgery, you should also seek alternatives that you may not have tried.For example: There may be a way to accomplish a similar effect without actual surgery.

It may be providential, but your query raises a topic that I’ve been thinking about posting on. Of late I’ve been modifying my own diet and trying out a few new techniques. One of them in particular shows rmarkable promise. It’s this: . . . Fiber.

Fiber is the part of our food that we can’t digest. It thus doesn’t add calories but it does take up space. It also absorbs toxins and helps purify the system generally. There are also different types of fiber, and different types do different things for us.

Most Americans get about 10-15 grams of fiber per day in their diet. It’s thought that we need 25-30, though many question whether that is enough. In some places, people eat much more fiber than this. It is reported, for example, that in some parts of China they manage to get 75 grams of fiber per day.

Fiber can be gotten both from eating foods that contain it (e.g., nuts) and in the form of nutritional supplements. The latter are often packaged as compressed tablets, capsules, or powder.

It’s not easy to get significant amounts of fiber without adding calories just by eating food. Most foods don’t have enough fiber in them to make that easy. Tablets also aren’t great as they may not dissolve fully. Capsules can suffer from that, too. But powdered fiber works great.

Of late I’ve been incorpoating significant quantities of powdered fiber into my diet (about 45-55 grams per day, in addition to what fiber I get from food), and I have been very pleased with the results. The fiber generates a sensation of fullness, a notable desire to eat less, and I’ve been losing weight more rapidly and without hunger. The effect has been dramatic.

It also may be accomplishing the same thing as the LAP-BAND surgery (shrinking your effective stomach space), only without the surgery. You therefore might want to try this as an alternative before you try surgery.

If you do, a few important notes:

  1. Rule #1 of using fiber is to Drink Lots Of Water with it. If you drink too little, problems will result. I generally stir three heaping tablespoons of fiber (about 15 grams) into 12 ounces of water, drink that rapidly, and then follow it with another 12-20 ounces of water while the fiber expands.
  2. Rule #2 of using fiber is Build Up Slowly. It takes your system a bit to adjust to processing fiber, and if you add too much, too quick then you feel an uncomfortable bloating. Start with one tablespoon (not even a heaping one) and build up slowly from there.
  3. Rule #3 of using fiber is to recognize that it changes the absorption pattern of food, vitamins, and medicine. You therefore need to sequence fiber into your daily diet in places where it won’t interfere with any medicines you may be taking. If you need to take any medicines on an empty stomach, don’t take fiber for at least an hour before or after you take the medicine. If you need to take any medicines with food, don’t take the fiber too close to mealtime.

Personally, I try to take fiber immediately after eating (it kills any desire I have to eat further), but if you are taking medicines then you may not be able to do that. I’ve even been experimenting with adding moderately carb-laden food items (well, popcorn, anyway) and then taking fiber immediately afterward so that it slows the absorption of the carbs and doesn’t cause my blood sugar to spike. It’s worked well, and I’m still losing weight even though I’m allowing myself moderate portions of popcorn (one of my favorite foods that I haven’t been able to eat in years while doing low-carb).

If you want to get started with fiber, any health food or nutritional supplement store should have it. You can also order online. It’s best to use a mixed fiber supplement since (as noted) different types of fiber do differnt things. YerbaPrima has a couple of good mixed fiber supplements in powdered form that I’ve used.

If you can’t get a mixed fiber supplement, use powdered psyllium husks, which are readily available and one of the best individual kinds of fiber to use. Metamucil is psyllium, though be sure that you get a sugar-free version (Metamucil likes to add sugar and flavors to its fiber). If you add sugar at the same time as you add fiber, you’ll be working against the weight loss purpose for taking it.

Hope this helps, and good luck, whatever weight-loss path turns out to be best for you!

20 on the moral theology aspect.

SPECIAL NOTE: Every time I mention low-carb dieting, people come out of the woodwork to say how "unhealthy" such diets are supposed to be, which is simply not true. However, I don’t want low-carb dieting to be the issue here. Low-carb dieting is not the purpose of this post (talking about LAP-BAND surgery and fiber is), so please do not add any such comments to the combox this time.