Zugwrack

This is an example of why I haven't been wringing my hands about the upcoming synod. It turns out that Cardinal Kasper did some exaggeratin' about the Pope being on board with his proposal of greater complacency mercy towards adulterous couples and homosexuals.

As Arroyo continued to question him, the cardinal appeared to be increasingly exasperated and defensive, and at one point denied that he had made any proposal at all. Responding to Arroyo’s observation that priests were contending with divorcees and even homosexuals who were demanding that they receive Communion because “this is clearly what the pope wants,” Kasper responded: “Well this is a misunderstanding, and first of all, it was a question, and I put the question to open the debate. It’s not a proposal. And therefore, of course a couple can come and want Holy Communion. I spoke about a penitential process, a penitential way, it needs time.”

“But you do understand, when a churchman like yourself, a theologian, an esteemed international figure, a curial official, says ‘here is my proposal and the pope agrees with me,’...”

“Well I did not say that,” retorted Kasper.

“Well you did say, and the quote is: ‘Clearly this is what he wants’ and ‘the pope has approved of my proposal,’” responded Arroyo.

“No, he did not approve my proposal,” the cardinal replied. “The pope wanted that I put the question, and afterwards, in a general way...before all the cardinals. He expressed his satisfaction with my talk, but not in the end, not in the special question. I would not say that he approved the proposal, no, no no.”

"No, no, no." I hope this development doesn't surprise anyone here. Pope Francis condemned "gender ideology" again recently, this time comparing it to the Hitler Youth. Maybe that was a message delivered to the German Cardinal?

Kasper’s new attitude regarding the pope’s position dovetails with the pope’s own increasing public reticence regarding Kasper’s proposal. Following a massive and sustained outcry from clergy and faithful against the proposal, the pope no longer makes statements urging more laxity towards people in illicit unions and has increasingly spoken in favor of traditional marriages, urging larger families and denouncing gender ideology. His statements about the second synod, scheduled for this October, have become increasingly vague, and he has recently hinted that he no longer seeks to give Communion to the divorced and “remarried.”

There are already actions that the Church mercifully makes available to divorced persons. Confession, annulment, and then full communion and the ability to get remarried in the church. No one ever said this was easy.

My advice to Catholics and others: don't strain too hard rubber-necking at the train wreck named Kasper.

Dietrich von Hildebrand: "Mein Kampf Gegen Hitler"

I am currently reading a great new book, My Battle Against Hitler, a collection of entries by Dietrich von Hildebrand in his memoirs translated and edited by John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby. It's very intense and informative; it details von Hilebrand's intellectual war against National Socialism as well as the events in his own life which occurred around the time of Hitler's ascendancy. These events have to do with basically getting in the middle of fierce arguments and near-brawls with anti-Semites and fascists, having his wife get threatening phone calls, finding out the Nazis wanted to kill him and finally having to flee the country to save his life. And I'm only on page 60! Since I am not very far in the book I'm not ready to review it, but I will be excerpting sections from it here and in the weeks to come. This is from an introductory chapter titled "A Fateful Decision":

What might von Hildebrand have called this volume? We will never know, and given his humility he might have suggested a title which honored his collaborators rather than himself. But he did, unwittingly, provide the title. Searching the pages of his memoirs, we discovered that he had entitled an outline for part for part of his memoirs "Mein Kampf Gegen Hitler"—"My Battle Against Hitler". Thus was the present volume christened.

A lot of his intellectual lectures and argumentation which I've read so far have been against contemporaries who had an idea that collectivism of some type — usually national socialism but sometimes communism — can and should be compatible with Christianity and, in some way, the collectivist concept of community is actually a Christian idea and should be pursued for that very reason. Von Hildebrand referred to this misconception as an overemphasis of the notion of community at the expense of the individual. Here is his response to the erroneous idea:

My talk was the fruit of all the investigations which formed the subject of my book The Metaphysics of Community which had been published two years before. In the talk I sought to make very clear that every attempt to establish a community at the expense of the individual person is not only in itself false but necessarily leads to a misconception of the true nature of community. I pointed out the horror of antipersonalism and totalitarianism, showing their absolute incompatibility with Christian revelation, and I criticized the false thesis of Hegel who held that the state is a higher entity that the individual. Only the individual person is a substance in the full sense, while the state is only a quasi-substance.

At the same time, I stressed the reality and dignity of true community in contrast to every kind of false liberal individualism. All of this was philosophically grounded with great case, yet there was no chance of convincing the other members of the committee, who were not very acute philosophically and who had allowed themselves to be swept away by the Zeitgeist.

The spirit of the age in these encounters mirrors the intellectual bankruptcy and moral corruption in our own. And yet there was something much more threatening at that time because of the will to enact horrible evils in the form of direct violence upon individuals and institutions on the part of Hitler and his followers. I have a friend who invariably brings up Hitler whenever the two of us discuss Obama and his awful policies. Recently I took issue with him. I said "OK, I know what you mean, but you are going to lose at least 50% of the people if you compare Obama to Hitler. Obama isn't scratching people off left and right for opposing him." Hitler was elected, but years before he ever was made chancellor he was organizing fascist attempts at government takeovers. He was way beyond political dirty tricks; he was into violence, threats of violence and destruction to achieve his ends. Reading this book really reveals the fear of that time and place and brings it home to me in an incredibly personal way as a Catholic and as someone with a family.

I'm back

Is that over the top? Can't tell.

Off-topic, but maybe this is a good discussion question for the-Monday-after-Pauli's-vacation. Is sense of humor genetic? I was wondering because my two oldest kids had the face painter at the parish picnic give them Hitler mustaches.

Hitler Finds Out Obama Ate His Dog

"Poor, poor Fluffy. My bed will be empty tonight."

Hitler's shampoo

This comes by way of Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer's excellent site. I guess in Turkey they think there was really nothing offensive about Adolf Hitler.



Spencer comments:

The popularity of Hitler in Turkey and Egypt indicates the pervasiveness of Islamic antisemitism and its affinity for mass-murder and genocide. This is yet another indication of the rapid de-secularization and re-Islamization of Turkey. "Turkish TV Ad Features Hitler to Sell Shampoo," from Spiegel, March 26.

Der Spiegel gives us the translation from the Turkish:

The 12-second commercial shows black-and-white footage of Hitler delivering an impassioned speech, dubbed with a high-pitched voice screaming the following words in clipped Turkish:

"Why are you using woman's shampoo if you're not wearing a woman's dress? Now there's the hundred percent men's shampoo Biomen. A real man uses Biomen."

So in Islamic countries Hitler is seen as a macho man, a real man. Not a mass murderer. Of course, we've known that the radical Muslims liked Hitler for awhile now.

Oliver Stone on "Jew domination" and putting Hitler in the correct context

Move over, Mel Gibson. Here comes Oliver Stone to warn us about the Jews and put Hitler "in context".

"The Jewish domination of the media," responded Stone. "There's a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has fucked up United States foreign policy for years."

H/T to my buddy Jonathan Carpenter who sent me the link in an email.

The Youtube "Downfall Parody" ban

Well this stinks. Just heard about it on Rush Limbaugh. Youtube will be removing the hilarious Hitler parodies from their site at the request of the Downfall owners, Constantin Film.

I agree with Rush that this is a stupid move on the part of the producers. I had the same reaction as he did when I saw my first one―this looks like a great film; I wouldn't mind seeing it sometime. So it really is a good advertisement for the film, and it just goes to show what the inability to take a joke can cost people.

But the good news is that this process will take some time; the vids are still there for now. This means that if you have a favorite then you can record it by downloading Real.com's free RealPlayer which allows Youtube videos to be downloaded from the browser via a "Download this clip" link which appears above the video.

Here's one of my favorites: "Hitler finds out there is no Santa." And now I've preserved it for posterity thanks to RealPlayer.

I mean, come on―if we can't laugh at Hitler, who can we laugh at?

BTW, this is my 1300th post, so I get to have milk and cookies. Or maybe coffee... but not crunchy cat's ass coffee, thanks.

Hitler loses it over the "Balloon Boy" hoax

As always, it helps if you don't understand German.