Carp & Cube

Jonathan comments to the last post:

I do not think writing for the National Review is what it used to be anymore. Sure, Dreher wrote for the Review but so did Gary Wills. He came up with concept of "Mater Si! Magistra No!" Look also what he had to do to get on the News Hours. He has checked his values at the door. Tell me the last article he wrote supporting Pro-Life views or for diversity in the media? Never! However, because he is against the war and tells enough Bush bashing jokes he gets included in with the other elites. Quite an example if you ask me.

Also can someone tell me of a Conservative Catholic who gets the status of Dreher, Kuo et.al.? Their isn't any. It has all the diversity of the Pravda.

Cubeland Mystic responds:

Jonathan, A liberal friend once said to me "Why do gay people want the Catholic Church to accept them? They should just go off and do their own thing. It is so much easier."

Well she was right. They should do their own thing, and start their own institutions rather than anger the people who dominate the institution they are trying to corrupt.

We should do the same thing here. We should have our own institutions including the media. Pauli posted on a man who is buying a radio station in San Fran. Are we all supporting him? Do we all support EWTN?

I get some of my news here at Est Quod Est. Why do we even care about diversity and liberal hypocrisy? We should apply ourselves to making the institutions we have successful.

I've mentioned to Jonathan in public posts and private emails in the past that I agree whole-heartedly with his assessment of the MSM. But I think Cubeland's point need to really be taken to heart. The "media" as a whole is diverse, probably moreso now than ever. Sure, it's irritating that the old liberal dinosaurs still have plenty of power and are too stubborn to change much. They're all like "dogs who returneth to their own vomit" in this regard, Dreher's vomit is Catholic Church bashing, Kuo's vomit is outright liberal goofiness posing as Christian charity.... Big name media clowns like Chris Matthews have even more disgusting rainbow-colored vomit featuring abortion rights pimping, military bashing, Republican baiting, Clinton-worship and those are just the big chunks....

Sorry, getting a little too realistic there. We can only spend so much time cursing the darkness before we get back to lighting candles. Or M-80's. (Wow, haven't seen one of those suckers in a while.)

I'm one to also predict the new push for the so-called "fairness doctine" is going to ultimately end up in nowheresville. There are many reasons for this, but the most blatant one to me is MONEY. If anyone thinks that all the people pulling down the swag from the El Rushbo/El Hannitybo Industrial Complex are conservative Republicans then you know less about American business than Wendell Berry.

"Big Latex Tent" Proposal for the Vatican

In November of last year, Mark Shea commented on blogger David Kuo ("Very Encouraging Editorial") saying that he "seems like the real deal" as a Christian who is "starting to look at putting discipleship to Jesus, rather than power, first." Mark ends by saying he's "going to keep an eye on this Kuo guy".

Well, I know Mark is busy, blogging, working on books, films, etc. So I'm taking up some of the slack in terms of keeping an eye on the "Kuo guy". A month or so ago he wrote the following on his blog:

Yesterday ubermodel Giselle Bundchen spoke out against the Catholic church's condom ban during Rio's Fashion Week. That isn't terribly surprising. I'm with her and we both may be with an increasing number of people inside the Vatican who are questioning the policy - possibly even the Pope. I find it horrifying that condoms that can save lives throughout the world are spiritually banned. [italics mine]

(I removed Kuo's link to the 26-year-old model's home page. A Google image search of her last name will yield a page of near occasions of sin for most red-blooded males and that's with the safe-search option on.)

I'll opt to not pick on the tender age of Ms. Bundchen. St. Catherine of Siena, a model of sanctity, wasn't much older when she famously advised Gregory XI on moving back to the old 'hood.

But in regards to the advisory content of this other model, we should recall what we learned from Sesame Street years ago, i.e., "one of these things is not like the other." This wasn't prudential advice regarding the proper Papal residence, this is a matter of moral doctrine and the church's teaching on human sexuality. Someone who sells her body for big bucks to big business wouldn't be the first person I'd ask to comment on the topic, even though like many models, her mouth seems to be disproportionately big. No doubt she is a big commentator on moral theology among the runway crowd.

But we must go back to Mr. Kuo, who has often been characterized as a Christian conservative involved in politics who is both more Christian and more conservative than many others like, say, the Bush administration for whom he used to work. Last fall he was all over talk radio and 60 minutes expressing sadness that the White House seemed to have jettisoned the whole Faith-based Initiative thingy, which was his specialty, shortly after 9/11. (Does everyone here remember 9/11? I thought you might. Yeah, that 9/11.)

This obviously doesn't stop him from asking the Pope to jettison Catholic teaching in favor of what one might term the Gospel of the Almighty Condom. (Hey, that can be entry number one in the Pauli lexicon!) I'm not sure he doesn't realize how much he is wasting his time or whether the whole thing is his method of climbing aboard the "It's-all-the-Catholic-Churches-fault" bandwagon, and he doesn't expect the Church to change. Assuming he is sincere, sure, the Vatican has said "We'll take a look at the issue," but it's the same Vatican that issued this document highlighting the "condom failure" among other matters both moral and practical. So bloggers and super-models shouldn't hold their breath for a big change on the teaching.

But let's look at this practically. Africa has this horrible AIDS problem, spread by irresponsible multiple-partner sex which is condemned by the Catholic Church, and we're supposed to believe that if the Vatican changes it's teaching that guys will start wrapping it up? I. Don't. Think. So.

"I find it horrifying that condoms that can save lives throughout the world are spiritually banned." I've been out of the blogging loop as of late, so I don't know if Mr. Kuo has been taken to task on this by his Catholic or once-Catholic friends in the blogosphere already. I would place the J-Walker in the camp of conservatives that criticize other conservatives more often than they do liberals. That's OK, but I think because of this, they should undergo the same level of scrutiny when they stray from what is Christian or conservative, or in this case, even what is sensible.

UPDATE: I started writing this post almost a month ago. More recently, Mr. Kuo has demonstrated that he has his own brand of the last acceptable prejudice:

At a time when the Christian church faces extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary peril, it appears the pope has decided to fiddle in matters of minutia.

Why is it necessary to slap protestant denominations across the face? Why is it necessary to belittle their churches and their history and their love for Christ?

This feels like the equivalent of President Bush commuting v. pardoning Scooter Libby....

I wonder; is the "fiddle" comment supposed to evoke images of the Emperor Nero? Unclear. But this is a good clarification of his view of the Catholic Church, if nothing else. The Pope is obviously supposed to supply "bread and circuses" (and condoms) and not mess around with, you know, all this "theology junk" that no one really cares about.

"Do as I do, not as I say"

File under "heh".

Hey, I'm all for Democrats shooting bad guys in their private lives even if they have to oppose deadly force in their public life to be politically correct. Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and justice is a virtue, last time I checked. Justice is what the man was dealing out here.


Plus the robber threw a pocket knife at him? What a moron, he deserved to get shot.

Like Peanut Butter & Jelly: Nihilism & the Democrats

Sisyphus on some of the lesser known of the 300 Congressional Investigations which the Democrats have opened in the last 100 days. For the math-challenged, that's 3 per day. No wonder their approval rating is lower than Bush's.

My favorite was number 9 until I read number 5: "Has George W. Bush been injecting politics into politics?"

BTW, President Bush made a visit to Parma today, can you believe that? I'm speechless.... I've never been to Slyman's deli, I must confess. I'm sure it's primo. The downtown place is reputedly the place to get your corned-beef for St. Pat's

Good Article on Summorum Pontificum

From CWNews. Excerpt:

Even before he became Pope Benedict XVI, in his many written works on the liturgy, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger remarked that the Novus Ordo liturgy was not the organic reform that had been recommended by Vatican II, but a break in continuity-- a new form that had been imposed upon the faithful, while the old order of the Mass was abruptly discarded. In the opening passage of Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict indirectly refers to that complaint when he says that the universal Church must uphold "the usages universally handed down by apostolic and unbroken tradition."

These traditions, the Pope continues, "are to be maintained not only so that errors may be avoided, but also so that the faith may be passed on in its integrity, since the Church’s rule of prayer (lex orandi) corresponds to her rule of belief (lex credendi).” Because the old Latin liturgy nourished the faithful for centuries, he reasons, it is incumbent upon the Church today to ensure that "this liturgical edifice, so to speak, might once again appear splendid in its dignity and harmony.”

A skimming of the comments show that there are still trads who embrace misery and pessimism as cardinal virtues and conspiracy theorizing as the "8th sacrament". Oh, well.

Catholic Radio

I've been feeling guilty for about a month now. Yeah, Catholic guilt -- the Cadillac of guilts. Well, maybe not that guilty. No hood ornaments, even in the pre-conciliar models. (WHAT is he talking about?)

Anyway, the reason for the guilt is that my friend, Cubeland Mystic, asked me if I'd blog on something really exciting and important and I said "Sure...." and just left his message in my inbox. So, dang it, here it is.

Cube is friends with Doug Sherman, President of Immaculate Heart Radio. IHR is doing great work in the realm of Catholic Radio way out in the western US and they've just cracked into the 5th largest market in the country, San Francisco-oh-oh, baby! as Jackie K might say.

I'm going to include the entire press release, but if you're too lazy to read it, just hop on over to this page and donate or pledge some money to this worthy cause. I'm going to give them some as soon as I sell my lawnmower.

Sacramento, May 21 (CRU) — Immaculate Heart Radio, which operates a network of Catholic stations in California, western Nevada, and much of New Mexico, announced today that it is purchasing historic KOIT 1260 AM in San Francisco from Bonneville International. The $14 million deal will bring Catholic radio to the fourth largest radio market in the country, with 5,891,000 people 12 years of age and older, and the fifth largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the nation, 7,039,362 people.


The daytime signal of KOIT will cover the entire Bay Area and the distant cities of Santa Rosa and San José with a good signal, given the 5,000 watts (reduced at sunset to 1,000 watts) and the transmitter location on the bay. San José also enjoys an excellent nighttime signal.

The stunning news had been rumored for several weeks in the broadcasting world, and there were a number of postings in the online radio forum RadioInfo.com. The sale by Bonneville of the last station in their once full portfolio of San Francisco Bay Area stations to Immaculate Heart was stated, as was IHR president Doug Sherman's name. Catholic radio circles, too,
were abuzz that a Catholic broadcaster was about to embark upon a major market in California, which necessarily narrowed the field considerably as to likely buyers, one of whom was Immaculate Heart. But no one would identify the station or purchaser. According to comments in RadioInfo, Bonneville International, owned by the Mormon Church, took special pains to accommodate Immaculate Heart Radio, preferring to sell to a fellow religious group rather than a commercial interest.

The new Catholic station will serve the Church of four dioceses in the Bay Area : the Archdiocese of San Francisco, presided over by His Excellency Archbishop George H. Niederauer (425,000 Catholics, about 24% of the population); the Diocese of Oakland, presided over by His Excellency Allen H. Vigneron (381,000 Catholics, about 16%); the Diocese of San José, presided over by His Excellency Patrick J. McGrath (423,000 Catholics, about 25%); and the Diocese of Santa Rosa, presided over by His Excellency Daniel F. Walsh (150,000 Catholics, about 19%).

“The possibility of purchasing a station to bring Catholic radio to the Bay Area is exciting and clearly a gift from the Lord,” said Doug Sherman, president of Immaculate Heart. “But it is not a done deal. We have already been given strong support and blessings from the Bay Area bishops, Right now, we are talking to major donors. As soon as we can see that we have sufficient support to make a go of this, we are going to be asking for everyone's help. This is a $15 million project to cover the purchase price and expenses.”

“To make sure this project is viable, by the end of this month we have to know that we have enough major donations to put down a $700,000 payment to Bonneville, which is non-refundable. We are talking big money here, obviously,” he said, looking at the multi-million dollar transaction. “While we have to be at 100% confidence by May 31st, we don't have to have it all in hand or pledged, but we have to see the momentum there, and we have to have a sufficient amount in hand. We have to know we can pull it off,” he emphasized; “A Catholic lender will write the check for the station in mid-August if we can show that we are well on the way and things look reasonably good— that we have been pledged the funds. Right now we are at the $4 million mark, but by the end of May we hope that figure will have risen considerably.”

Sherman says that after the first of June, if things go as everyone hopes and God is willing, the second phase of soliciting donations will be broadened to include everyone interested in helping to bring Catholic radio to the Bay Area. This will be the time for fund raising dinners, meetings with donors, and short talks after Mass in parishes throughout the four dioceses. On-air promotions over IHR will also seek the help of listeners.

“We have met with all four Bay Area bishops, and we have their prayers, blessings, and support,” added a happy Sherman. “They see this as a great opportunity for the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith to be broadcast over the airwaves of the Bay Area, where millions will be able to learn more about our faith.”

“This is a huge undertaking for us, and we are asking your prayers,” he concluded.

Summorum Pontificum

Here it is, babe. Someone emailed me an English translation, but I'm sure it will be available online soon.

Oh, here it is on the USCCB site.

The Big Z has the big scoop, so check it out here. Here are my favorite parts:

As a result, it is unacceptable to suggest that these provisions were made merely to accommodate a bunch of nostalgic old fogies who can’t get with the program. The provisions were made with anyone in mind who wants older forms, for any decent reason. People who want to avail of this extraordinary use are not second rate citizens.

They may not be treated any longer like the nutty aunt in the attic.

This is only bad news for all those people who want to be treated like nutty aunts. (ACLU lawyers, call your offices.)

The issue the Triduum and this reasonable restriction has nothing to do with the prayer about the Jews on Good Friday. This is simply a matter of what the Church’s logical practice is based on the sacred nature of those Triduum liturgies. The Jews were not part of the equation. Remember also that the 1962 Missale Romanum is used for the Triduum in those places where it will be permitted to use the older form at that time. The 1962 edition and not some earlier edition before the changes to those Good Friday petitions.

Uh, yeah. I've been subscribing to a Google news alert for keywords "pope, latin, mass" for about a year now. There are not just a few that warn about how upset the Jews may be about this. But I already blogged about that canard.

Everything goes into effect on September 14. This seems like it will be a big development. I'm guardedly optimistic; I have a Priest friend who celebrates the Latin Mass who has told me that he doesn't believe it will change anything. The only reason he gave was the Pope isn't strong enough to battle the bishops, so we'll have to wait and see.

Last Pre-release Post on the Universal Indult

Dan from the Shrine of the Holy Whapping delivers a very thoughtful piece called "Motu Proprio as Ressourcement". I love this paragraph:

The "Tridentine" Mass confronts us, then, with tradition - tradition in need of revitalization in many ways, but a great tradition nonetheless. It confronts us also in a tradition in which we are not defined by being particular sorts of Catholics but by being Catholic, and invites us to learn how to do this again without grinding our ideological axe. It invites us to return to the moment when it began to be violently abolished rather than gently modified, and to bury the pain and fear that have resulted on all sides since then, rather than to take it out on others. To forgive absolutely and free of charge, despite temptations to hold grudges and to speak bitter words. Such actions would only confirm and deepen the notion that tradition is equal to traditionalism, something that comes off as negative and ideological, unwelcoming and with an axe to grind.

I think he understands the mind of Pope Benedict more than people on either of the "sides" and effectively shows that the Holy Father is not taking sides but merely giving a part of the Church's tradition back to the Church.


I come to the Latin Mass as someone who doesn't "feel attached to some previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition" in the words of JP2's Motu Proprio. But I have always liked the contribution it makes to the Church's "liturgical portfolio", and I've always thought that it's wrong to treat it as a museum piece from another era.