Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1270

The People's Democratic National Security State of Heaven...

...punishing miscreant five year old girls for rescuing woodpeckers, arresting men for feeding birds in their backyard, standing valiantly against grandpas photographing their grandkids in parks, beating and tasing homeless people to death, and arresting people for photographing the police shooting people.

I feel safer every day!

Jimmy Akin is skeptical...

...that Michael Voris is right about kneeling for communion. Here is what the bishops of the United States, who are, you know, the people God entrusts with legislating such matters, say:

160. The Priest then takes the paten or ciborium and approaches the communicants, who usually come up in procession.

It is not permitted for the faithful to take the consecrated Bread or the sacred chalice by themselves and, still less, to hand them on from one to another among themselves. The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, no. 91).

When receiving Holy Communion, the communicant bows his or her head before the Sacrament as a gesture of reverence and receives the Body of the Lord from the minister. The consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or in the hand, at the discretion of each communicant. When Holy Communion is received under both kinds, the sign of reverence is also made before receiving the Precious Blood.

Bottom line: do as you please, standing or kneeling, receiving in the hand or on the tongue, and have proper reverence. Internet popinjays with a web cam are not the Boss of you.

Nick Thomm summarizes my own view about matters like kneeling for communion.

A very wise man, Archbishop Robert Carlson, always said we should be "as generous as the Church is, not more, not less." if the Church allows something to be done, even as an exception from the norm, then it is legit and we shouldn't mock those who do what the Church allows. Personally I would like to see the Cardinal's desires be implemented for the sake of making an outward sign of the sacred. But Benedict is the only Pope and until he removes the exception from the norm, one should not deride, mock and attribute the worst possible motives to the Church Militant, priests, or bishops for allowing what the Church allows.

Voris' approach essentially constitutes a temptation and a suggestion that our task, at Mass, is not to be about the business of worshipping God, but to play pharisaic liturgical cop and sit in contemptuous judgment of fellow Catholics about matters which the Church herself says are matters of liberty. You can see the poison at work in comments like this (from FB):

For someone who was a largely nominal Catholic a couple of years back, receiving communion kneeling has done wonders for my faith particularly in transubstantiation.

It really irks me when I see people straddling up the aisle to pop the body of Christ in their mouth like it were a mere mint pastel.

Quite simply, a Catholic engaged in real Eucharistic devotion should not be making it any of his damn business to sit in judgment of his fellow parishioners for doing what Holy Church says it is perfectly legitimate to do. Egging parishioners on to do just that--and to sit in judgment of the bishops who legislate such matters with complete lawfulness--is not building up the body of Christ but tearing it down.

Abp Chaput nails this subtle poison well:

"The Church belongs to Jesus Christ, and the different roles within the Christian community – clergy, laity and religious life – have equal dignity but different purposes."

In particular, the clergy's leadership in the Church should always be marked with humility and service "and never by a sense of entitlement," he said. "Bishops, priests and deacons are too often weak and sinful. They need to be held to high standards. Some deserve to be chastised."
"But men and women didn't found the Church, they don't own her, and they have no license to reinvent her."

Although sin and failure "need to be named," he said, "when people deride their bishops and priests out of pride and resentment or some perverse desire for what they perceive as 'power,' they undermine the Church herself, and they set themselves against the God whose vessel she is."

So feel free to kneel if you like. Feel free to wish it were the norm if you like. But don't congratulate yourself on your superior holiness or look down on your neighbor (about whom you do not know one damn thing about their interior disposition or reverence) if he or she opts to obey the Church by bowing rather than kneeling. Nobody died and made you bishop.

I Hate Being Right All the Time

Mainstreaming of pedophilia proceeds apace.

Train Wreck Imminent

Suppose an expert weightlifter were to be given an entire series by the BBC in which he is allowed to hold forth on US Middle East policy, the gold standard, and plumbing techniques in New Zealand. You might ask, "How does expertise in weightlifting qualify this guy to pontificate on these things?" and you'd be right.

But nobody asks why expertise in a rarified branch of physics qualifies Stephen Hawking to pontificate on philosophy and metaphysics. Instead, the theological and philosophical illiterates running the Beeb in the Country that Used to Be England simply assume that a technician will have profound things to say, despite the massive and growing pile of evidence that the man has no idea what he is talking about when he blathers about these things that are clearly outside he field of competence.

Fr. Erik has a little list

of hymns that he could do without, that never would be missed.

Religious Liberty Wins

...in San Francisco. Unfortunately, it had to win by judicial fiat and not by common consensus, which means it is still very much in jeopardy.

I know people love to make fun of Sarah Palin...

but, seriously, does anybody think we came out ahead with Joe Biden as Veep? The man with the high IQ has to be just about the dumbest person to ever hold the office. He's not even a good demagogue.

China: Demonstrating once again that Capitalism is Not Sacred Tradition

I remember just last week, when people were extolling the greatness of the capitalist system because it allowed giant soulless corporations (for whom man was made for economics, not economics for man) to ship jobs overseas. Oh sure, it was an act of betrayal to the country in which the company resides (sort of). But think of the beautiful generosity of the company as it gives much needed work to the serfs it pays pennies in China, instead of the those greedy Americans who want to feed their families here in the US.

Only here's the thing: those grateful serfs making pennies to work for Apple are rewarding the generosity of their capitalist masters by upping and committing suicide in large numbers. Can you imagine the ingratitude of those inscrutable foreigners? It's like they don't even appreciate the long hours and grinding poverty and oppression our generous multinational corporations bestow on them. What's up with that?

However, the genius of the market unfettered by old-fashioned Catholic concerns about human dignity, the rights of workers, and concern for the common good is hot on the case devising a solution to the problem: Voila! "Apple factory finds answer to worker suicides... replace staff with one million robots"

Prayer Requests

My friend Brian writes:

I saw briefly that you'd posted a noted about requesting prayers for my Mom. Thanks so much. I'm headed back there tonight since she's being moved out of the hospital to a physical therapy facility tomorrow (a good thing). Prayers for her continued recovery are requested and appreciated!

Father, speed her recovery to full health through our Lord Jesus. Thank you that her condition has improved! Mother Mary and St. Luke, pray for her and for all who care for her and love her.

Another reader writes:

My brother is going through a nasty divorce. He tried to get her to counseling and she went to one session and wouldn't go back. She's physically abusive while he walked away and avoided taking the bait (mostly out of fear she'll use it to claim he's abusive). Then after he latest bout of physical violence when he threatened to call the police, she left and filed a domestic violence report on him and a restraining order keeping him from his children. I've listened to him for well over a year agonizing over the disintegration of his marriage and desperately wanting to avoid it. He's finally filed for divorce because he can't take it anymore.

Please pray for upcoming hearings on the domestic violence charge and restraining order. The boldness in which she lies is breathtaking and he truly needs God's help to overcome the damage she's done.

Father, grant your healing to the people in this situation and give them guidance on what is prudent and just and loving. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Holy Family, pray for them.

Long Time Reader JoAnna Wahlund...

...tells the tale of her journey from Lutheranism to the Catholic Church. She's one of my smartest readers. Check out thou her work!