In Memoriam

One year ago today, Theresa Schindler Schiavo starved to death.

She was not residing in a Third World country, suffering under a blood-thirsty tyrant, or living in poverty. She was in a well-appointed hospice in the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, surrounded by a family that wanted desperately to feed her.

requiscat in pace.

Blogs For Terri

The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation

On bicycles

My mother recently told me an amusing story about my father and his bike.

When he was a mere undergraduate, toiling away at Kent State University, my father rented a house with some friends of his. He also rode a bike to school, as he had no car. Of course, being the trusting individual that he is, my father used to just leave his bike on the front porch of the rented house, unlocked and everything. Needless to say, he came home one day and found that someone had permanently "borrowed" the bicycle.

Now, fast-forward more than twenty-five years. My father gradated from Kent, got his master's degree at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and is now married to my mother, who has developed a fondness for antiques and rummage sales. One of her favorite stops is the Red Ball moving and storage company. At their outlet in a nearby town, they sell all of the items which, years after the end of the contract period, people still haven't bothered to pick up or even inquire about. A few months ago, my father accompanied my mother on a trip out to Red Ball. And what did he see?

His long lost bike. It had all the little details that proved it was the exact same bicycle. Complete with Kent State stickers and everything. My mother bought it for him for Valentine's Day, so now after a quarter century of wandering the bicycle is back in the dusty corner of its proper owner's garage.

Of course, being who I am, I immediately tried to put this episode into religious terms. I tried for a little while to match it up with the Prodigal Son parable, but I just couldn't make it work. I mean, my dad didn't pursue his bike forever and ever, as God pursues us. He gave up, and God never gives up. Then again, the father in the Prodigal Son story didn't go out looking for his boy... He just stayed at home, hoping and praying for his boy's return, and celebrated when the son came back.

I guess you could say that if Providence arranges for something silly like my father getting his college bicycle back, Providence will also surely arrange for souls to be saved, etc. :)

On a side note, here is Papa receiving one of the gifts which people always bring him at private audiences and Wednesday general audiences. It's... A racing bike. Can't you just tell the Holy Father wants to hop on it and ride away to a vacation spot in Bavaria? Except he can't because

A. He's the Pope

- and -

B. You can't really ride very well in a cassock, can you?

Oh well. I'm sure Papa appreciated the sentiment of the givers, anyway!



In this photo released by the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper, Pope Benedict XVI receives a racing bicycle as a gift from the Bata-Seep di Martino di Lupari racing team, during the weekly general audience in St. Peter's square at the Vatican Wednesday, March 29, 2006. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Things that make you feel old

My birthday is coming up. I'm going to be 21; therefore I will be old enough to smoke, drink, gamble, vote, join the army, drive, get married, or be executed. I am also getting ready to graduate in the fall, if all goes according to plan. I feel very old, for a variety of reasons. Here are some, which you can peruse if you have a fondness for feeling ancient:

1. Thinking longingly of your childhood 9 o'clock bedtime.

2. Discovering that you now understand why your parents hated 5 am cartoons and loved naps

3. Realizing that you should start worrying about your blood pressure

4. Watching your friends and acquaintances get married

5. Hearing people refer to you as a "woman" (hey, I'm still a girl!)

6. Visiting your old elementary school

7. Talking to people who have no living memory of Bob Dole vs. Bill Clinton

8. It's going to be five years since September 11.

9. When I graduate I'm going to have to find work. By which I mean an actual, real job, not a college-kid-home-for-the-summer job.

10. It's been six years since Cardinal O'Connor died.

11. Remembering what it felt like ten years ago when you were ready to turn eleven. ("Geez! This is so slow! I'll never be 13!")

Ehhhh... I feel like I need to be carbon-dated...

I'd like to be more like the Church, who, as St. Augustine says, is "ever ancient and ever new." :)

Oh yay

One of the Whapsters has acquired a copy of the Copendium of the Catechism. Oooooo!

From Amazon:

Catholics' hunger for the faith continues to grow. Pope Benedict XVI gives the Church the "food" that is seeks in the 598 questions and answers in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This 200-page volume offers a quick synopsis of the essential contents of the faith as promulgated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Like the 1992 Catechism, the Compendium has a four-part structure, and includes a section on common prayers and Catholic doctrinal formulas. Because of the question-and-answer format, catechetical leaders-parents, pastors, teachers, principals, and catechists-have a unique opportunity to dialogue with the faithful, and reinvigorate the Church's ongoing mission of evangelization and catechesis. Individuals can come "to know the unfathomable riches of the salvific mystery of Jesus Christ" by reading, using, and memorizing parts of the Compendium of the Catechism. An essential tool for youth and young adults, the Compendium is the perfect companion to a youth or young adult's Bible, spiritual reading, or textbook. Catechetical leaders in high schools, colleges, and parishes will appreciate its versatility-as a reference book, discussion starter, or core resource for RCIA programs.

Hurray

That brief little article on the university's illuminated Bible was finally published today. You can read it on the The Post's website here. In the printed edition it actually made the front page! It was below the fold, however. Not quite breaking news, eh? ;) The staff photographer did an excellent job, in my opinion, although his picture looks better online than it does in the paper. Still, it's a nice effect.

Prayers please

My sister has recently fallen ill - there is apparently something wrong with her heart. She had to go to the hospital today. We don't know if it's something serious or not. Given our family track record, it is probably nothing, but still, my parents are worried sick. Please pray that the next round of tests shows no serious problems.

Happy Laetare Sunday

That's "Rejoice" Sunday, oh ye who know no Latin :)

It's a time to rejoice, first, because we've only got two Sundays until Easter. A similar occasion takes place two Sundays before Christmas.

Secondly, if you're paying attention to the Gospel readings (ehhhh and I hope you are) this Sunday's reading was John 3:16, one of the most famous passages in the Bible. "For God so loved the world..." etc. Now that is a reason to rejoice.

Priests are permitted to put away the penitential purple for this day and don rose vestments. This didn't happen at my church - I think the priest is too young to have a really extensive vestment collection. Nice ones can get pretty expensive.

In the Diocese of Rome, however, Papa was all decked out in rose.

Back to work

Well, the spring break is almost over. I took advantage of my last weekend off to go to confession at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland. Sometimes I like confessing to a priest who wouldn't know me from Eve - it's less anxiety-producing for me, and it reminds me not to be so concerned about what the Father's reaction will be to what I say.

Tonight I got to see my old friend, Shannon, at the Caribou coffee house. She may soon be a manager at our local Panera Bread! LOL, already climbing the corporate ladder at the tender age of 21! :) I am going to attend services at her church, Hudson Trinity Anglican, after Mass tomorrow morning. Should be fun.

This evening my father decided that he wanted to take us out to dinner. We first tried Mary and Ted's, a family restaurant in downtown Hudson. A sign on the door stated that they now closed at 3:30 pm Monday through Saturday, and that they were closed entirely on Sunday. "The Lord's day," the flyer added emphatically. Now, that I could approve of! Except that since they are now closed for dinner, we had to go somewhere else. Next we tried Applebee's, in Macedonia. Packed. Chili's. Packed. Golden Corral. My mother decided she hated buffets. Also it was packed. Finally we ended up at the one place we swore we would not go - Steak n' Shake. Yessss, Steak n' Shake, where we always go out to eat. They had a convenient, roomy branch in Macedonia which was calling our name.

I had a Steakburger and a fudge-and-ice-cream brownie.

The shame over the fact that we succumbed to the lures of Steak n' Shake was somewhat overcome by the much more pressing fact that we were ravenously hungry. Also, my Mother added that we did not really want to go to Chili's, anyway. I quote: "Chili's is for people who can't decide whether to get married or kill themselves." Okay Mom! You're already wed, so I guess it's not the place for you! ;)

Card. Schonborn and Card.-to-be Caffarra

My caption: "Yes, can you imagine, your Eminence, they said they couldn't possibly have the car fixed before Saturday morning! Too late for the consistory. And of course, I couldn't disappoint the Holy Father. So I hopped on my trusty two-wheeler..."

Actual caption: Italian Archbishop of Bologna Carlo Caffarra (L) talks with Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn as they arrive at the Synod Hall at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI discussed Muslim-Christian relations with his cardinals on a special day of reflection on key issues facing his Church on the eve of his first consistory since he took over the papacy a year ago.(AFP/Patrick Hertzog)

Alas

One of the classes I need to take this coming quarter was cancelled due to instructor illness. The administrator type who broke the bad news apologized to the affected students profusely in the e-mail. Nevertheless, I am really hoping this doesn't mess up my hoped-for graduation date of November '06. Please say a prayer my academic advisor helps me to work something out!

Grades

Inferiority complex... Suffocating...

Reporting Contemporary Issues: A-
Non-Western History: A
Medieval History: A
Graphics of Communication: B

Quarter GPA: 3.625
Cumulative GPA: 3.791

That's right! A *B* in Graphics of Communication! The class with the schmuck of a professor! I was one of the twenty people (out of sixty enrolled) who almost always showed up for his 8 am torture-fest. And if I missed it was to go to Mass! ::Steams:: Of course I am too far along in my coursework for it to really mess up my GPA. Still, one only graduates magna cum laude with a 3.75. Yes, I did, panic-stricken, just look that up, how much of a dork am I? My current cumulative is 3.791. So no slacking my last two quarters.

If I had just gotten a four point like I wanted I would probably be above a 3.8 and home free. Grrrrrr. I am just so annoyed, both at myself (how did I mess up?) and at the professor (I honestly don't know what else he wants from me, besides what I gave him!). I half-feel like challenging the grade, although I think that would be kind of a drastic, stupid thing to do.

I can't believe it. An actual B. I think the last time I got a B it was in Macroeconomics, the class that seeks out live carbon-based organisms and feeds off their pain. Wait a minute, no, I got an A- in Macro-econ. The idiot can get a decent grade in an abstract-thinking, math-y class, but GETS A "B" IN THE LEGENDARY "EASY A" COURSE.

Slow burn...

Wow, I'm doing really well with the old Lenten detachment and devotion, aren't I? Come to think of it, the Lord probably doesn't care too much about that B...

A few little adjustments

This spring break, I have been making a few small changes along the line of spring cleaning. I got my hair cut, for instance. Unfortunately the famous Curse of the Curly Hair returned, and the hairdresser once again cut it too short, even after she noted that "curly hair is weird, when it bounces up it looks a lot shorter than the length it was originally cut to." So, now I have hair which is not chin length (as I requested) but... Lip-length. Oh well. It'll grow out, and it's not the end of the world :)

I also went to the eye doctor for an exam. I have noticed that I seem to be getting pretty near-sighted, and my beloved roommates threatened to kill me upon my return to school if I hadn't seen an optometrist. Surprisingly, it turns out that I don't need glasses. "Your eyes are not going to fall out of you head," saieth the doctor. I am, in fact, near-sighted, but not badly enough to require seeing aids. He told me that the discomfort I feel after sitting at a computer screen is perfectly normal and that I just have to take care to take breaks.

I also went and got my teeth cleaned. The doctor had the temerity to suggest whitening strips :::bristle::: it's not like my teeth are gross or anything, I don't drink coffee or smoke. Bleh. Maybe I will do it anyway. I hate to spend the money for such a vain purpose, though.

Finally, I went shopping with my Mother (cue the ominous music) and it did not go well, as it never does. Nevertheless, she was very kind, bought us lunch, and also bought me a couple of nice tops and a pair of capris. It's hard to find nice clothes that are modest! But I think we managed.

More on the Crusades

Article in the London Times talks about Vatican moves to "rehab" the Crusaders...

Vatican change of heart over 'barbaric' Crusades

The Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity...

...At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian lands and the Muslim devastation of the Holy Places”.

“The debate has been reopened,” La Stampa said. Professor De Mattei noted that the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Muslim forces in 1009 had helped to provoke the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century, called by Pope Urban II.

He said that the Crusaders were “martyrs” who had “sacrificed their lives for the faith”. He was backed by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, who said that those who sought forgiveness for the Crusades “do not know their history”. Professor Riley-Smith has attacked Sir Ridley Scott’s recent film Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom, as “utter nonsense”.

Professor Riley-Smith said that the script, like much writing on the Crusades, was “historically inaccurate. It depicts the Muslims as civilised and the Crusaders as barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality.” It fuels Islamic fundamentalism by propagating “Osama bin Laden’s version of history”.

He said that the Crusaders were sometimes undisciplined and capable of acts of great cruelty. But the same was true of Muslims and of troops in “all ideological wars”. Some of the Crusaders’ worst excesses were against Orthodox Christians or heretics — as in the sack of Constantinople in 1204...

Full article.

It's certainly an interesting topic. As the last line quoted above makes clear, the crusading period was far from Western Christendom's finest hour - the sack of Constantinople has to count as one of history's great tragedies, along with the atrocities committed against the Rhineland Jews. Nevertheless, I always find the modern tut-tutting about the Crusades to be quite ridiculous. The popular picture of the Christians (and especially the Pope) as greedy, blood-thirsty barbarians attacking the noble, tolerant Muslims unprovoked is laughable, and, as my grandmother would say, it is quite frankly a useful tool for figuring out who's the worst educated fool at the tea party.

Home sweet Hudson

My oh my, but is it COLD up here in northeastern Ohio!

I was getting spoiled by those 60-degree days in Athens. Is it technically spring yet? It feels like the beginning of February up here...

My spring break reading consists of Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins and Papa Benedict's Truth and Tolerance: Christianity and World Religions. Much as I love Papa's work, I just can't seem to get in the mood for serious thinking. So I've been sticking with Percy. Not, of course, that Percy's writing isn't deep, profound, meaningful, etc., but it's certainly not as demanding as the former Card. Ratzinger's work. :)

I have one grade - one! to report on; I got word from my medieval history professor that I have pretty much locked a solid A in her class. I was so worried about the final, and it turns out I whipped it - a 99 percent! You could knock me over, that's for sure. I don't know how it happened, she must have curved the grades. My essays stunk enough to pose a public health threat. Seriously. I felt ill after I put my pen down. I truly felt ashamed; I haven't performed that badly since my sophomore year of high school, when I was led, a spotless, incompetent lamb, to Madame Brickley's US History guillotine. "This DBQ you wrote grades as a three, my dear. We want fives. Fives!" Drum roll... Thwack!

I have to say that Mrs. Brickley had to put up with a lot, and she did not actually have recourse to the neck-slicer (although I am sure on some occasions she wished she did). In fact, she did manage to teach me to write like an enlightened history student. Not that you could tell from my medieval history efforts!

Too bad the baby won't remember it!

Her (His?) parents will tell him alllll about it, I'm sure! ;)

Pope Benedict XVI kisses a baby during an open-air general audience in St. Peter's square at the Vatican Wednesday, March 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)

Link

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Question: Why is the Shamrock so closely associated with St. Patrick's day?

A: Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and has been associated with him and the Irish since that time.

Get it... Three leaves on one clover!

I hope everyone has had a blessed and happy Feast of St. Patrick. Everyone knows how Patrick converted the Irish to Catholicism and drove the snakes out of the Emerald Isle, but not everyone knows the back story. For instance, Patrick wasn't even really Irish...

Patrick was born around 385 in Scotland, probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britian in charge of the colonies.

As a boy of fourteen or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him.

During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote

"The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same." "I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain."

Patrick's captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britian, where he reunited with his family.

He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him "We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more."

He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.

Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland...

See the full story from Catholic Online.

"Let them eat meat"

CWN has a collection of stories on dioceses which have granted a dispensation for meat-eating on Friday - which, although it's a Friday in Lent, is also the Feast of St. Patrick.

Our diocese, Cleveland, is one where the bishop, in fear of the corned beef-eating Irish mobs, has given the dispensation... Just kidding. Well, about the "Irish mobs" bit. His Excellency has most definitely given the green light for traditional meat dinners. My mother isn't making corned beef, she's making chicken, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce... Rather like Christmas dinner, but in March.

Here are some of the stories linked on CWN:

No meat rule takes holiday off

Religion, heritage collide

Indult Scorecard Master List (Whispers in the Loggia)

The Ides of March

Yes, today is the 15th. Beware! I have to admit that I am never more wary today than on other days. It's superstitious, first of all. Secondly, I can't think of anybody who suffered a lightening bolt of bad luck on this day, except for that one fellow a few years ago who got knifed in the back by his colleagues...

Finals have been going all right, although my grades are still very much up in the air. I am hoping to get straight As again. However, my plans are being messed up by the TA who grades my Non-Western History After 1750 class. He apparently does not believe in giving As. Every single assignment and test I take, he gives me an A-. I do thirty minutes of work on something, I get an A-. I put in three hours, I get an A-. I am too nervous to actually go and speak to him about it, because I don't want to look like a petty person. Look at this whiney little ninny, complaining about why she only has an A- instead of an A.

I really don't mean to be bratty. It's just that you can't get a 4.0 with an A-. You can only get a 3.9 something. And it's my goal every quarter to get a 4.0... Although of course I haven't actually managed that each time at OU. I still like to shoot for it.

My really nasty final, on medieval history, is tomorrow. There are two rather intense, lengthy essays I have to write. Grr.

Very cool

I can't remember where I got this picture. They are obviously (Third Order?) Carmelites. Just beautiful.

Big surprise (not)

From this week's issue of Newsweek:

After Gay Marriage, Polygamy Activism Rises

Marlyne Hammon knows what it's like to feel hated and hunted. In 1953, when she was an infant, her father, along with dozens of other men in her tiny community of Short Creek, Ariz., was arrested and sent to jail on charges of polygamy. She, her mother and siblings were forcibly exiled from the community and sent to live with a family in a nearby city...

...Hammon, who's involved in a polygamous relationship, is a founding member of the Centennial Park Action Committee, a group that lobbies for decriminalization of the practice. She's among a new wave of polygamy activists emerging in the wake of the gay-marriage movement, just as a federal lawsuit challenging anti-polygamy laws makes its way through the courts and a new show about polygamy debuts on HBO. "Polygamy rights is the next civil-rights battle," says Mark Henkel, who, as founder of the Christian evangelical polygamy organization TruthBearer.org, is at the forefront of the movement. His argument: if Heather can have two mommies, she should also be able to have two mommies and a daddy. Henkel and Hammon have been joined by other activist groups like Principle Voices, a Utah-based group run by wives from polygamous marriages. Activists point to Canada, where, in January, a report commissioned by the Justice Department recommended decriminalizing polygamy.

Here's The Question, to which I've never heard a good answer. If gay marriage should be legal, why not polygamous marriage? If the government doesn't have the right to regulate the gender of the participants, isn't it even more arbitrary to regulate the number?

So why shouldn't polygamy legal? Because it would be contrary to the historical practice of humanity? Because it would introduce a great deal of social instability? Because it's just plain wrong?

Oh, but those are all arguments frequently employed against gay marriage, and we are insistently told that they are invalid. Because of x, y, and z.

In fact, polygamy is much less contrary to the historical practice of humanity than gay marriage is. Polygamy existed in the North American continent as early as the 19th century. Gay marriage has absolutely no precedent in the post-Renaissance West. Unless you count the last 18 months of the Massachusetts legal code.

Oh but, you say, the ancient Greeks and Romans et. al. did, in fact, take teenage boys as lovers. Behold! An historical precedent. Alas for the argument, our classical forbears did not actually marry their young male friends. Nor did they ever imagine granting the relationships any kind of status similar to marriage, which, it seemed obvious to them, was for men and women.

Incidentally: I'm always perplexed by the "but the Greeks did it" line. Do its promoters really want to identify the practice of sleeping with adolescent boys with homosexuality? After all, if one examines the sordid history of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, one finds that statistically the overwhelming majority of crimes involved the abuse of a teenage boy. Surely our "the Greeks did it!" friends are not suggesting that these seductions were perfectly legitimate homosexual relationships.

Now, obviously, I'm not arguing in favor of polygamy. I'm pointing out that you can't really be for gay marriage and against polygamy, and be consistent. The one angle you might be able to work is in terms of the metaphysical meaning of two people as opposed to three, four, or eleven partners. Then again, I've never really seen a metaphysical argument where the Catholic ethic failed to mop the floor with its opponents. The vast majority of people on both sides of the debate have probably never even heard of the word "metaphysics." Of course, the argument will probably never take place, anyway, as "consistency" is not, and never has been, a major concern of many Americans - we are the people, after all, who for 90 years tolerated both the institution of slavery and a Declaration of Independence that opened with the phrase "all men are created equal."

So, here's the question again, to paraphrase: If Heather can have two mommies, why can't she have two mommies and a daddy, too?

I hope I haven't inadvertently converted anyone to the pro-polygamous position ;) although I don't imagine anybody would be except hard-core members of the radical left and radical Mormon right.

Here, kitty, kitty

Recently a stray cat has been making itself comfortable just outside our apartment doorway. She has a lovely coat of orange-ish fur, and one milky, obviously damaged eye. She is also very large. So large, in fact, that we speculate she is nursing a brood of kittens in her belly. I wonder what we would do if she decided to just plop down outside our door and have her babies right there?

Anyway, I certainly don't mind feeding her. She is quite frightened of humans. The other strays I have come across here in Athens (I often run into them on Washington Street) are very friendly and purr constantly. They all want to be petted (and fed, obviously!). Our cat, who, surprisingly, we have yet to assign a moniker to, only lets one get close enough to plop down a plate of tuna/chicken/cheese-and-bread, or whatever the diner du jour may be. If you get closer, she flees.

Jenn said that perhaps her bad eye makes it difficult for her to see people well, and that's what makes her skittish. I wouldn't be surprised. I wonder what she will do over spring break, when we are gone for a week. I suspect that she has other places to go to and that we are not her only stop. Still, most of her helpers are pobably students, who will also be gone for seven days. I hope she figures something out... And I hope she doesn't feel "abandoned" or anything.

This is what happens when you try your darndest to procrastinate re: finals studying. You start pyschoanalyzing felines.

A little bit on the Crusades

From a Zenit interview with Robert Spencer:

Q: The Crusades are often portrayed as a militarily offensive venture. Were they?

Spencer: No. Pope Urban II, who called for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095, was calling for a defensive action -- one that was long overdue.

As he explained, he was calling the Crusade because without any defensive action, "the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked" by the Turks and other Muslim forces.

"For, as most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George," Pope Urban II said in his address. "They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire.

"If you permit them to continue thus for a while with impunity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them."

He was right. Jihad warfare had from the seventh century to the time of Pope Urban conquered and Islamized what had been over half of Christendom. There had been no response from the Christian world until the Crusades.

Q: What are some popular misconceptions about the Crusades?

Spencer: One of the most common is the idea that the Crusades were an unprovoked attack by Europe against the Islamic world.

In fact, the conquest of Jerusalem in 638 stood at the beginning of centuries of Muslim aggression, and Christians in the Holy Land faced an escalating spiral of persecution.

Early in the eighth century 60 Christian pilgrims from Amorium were crucified; around the same time the Muslim governor of Caesarea seized a group of pilgrims from Iconium and had them all executed as spies -- except for a small number who converted to Islam.

Muslims also demanded money from pilgrims, threatening to ransack the Church of the Resurrection if they didn't pay.

The whole thing is an interesting read.

Having fun with Nigerian scammers

419eaters.com has some amusing stories.

Last day of class

Today all four of my classes finished up. We did course evaluations - how I always enjoy those. Not. When I have a rotten class, I always feel torn between really giving it to the professor good and my knowledge that I should try to be kind and give him constructive criticism. It's the old fallen human nature thing.

I'm happy to say that I was successful this quarter, as I actually always have been. I write really angry, righteous course evals in my mind, but when I take pen in hand I find myself softening toward my target. Like my sociology professor, who, in a discussion about the merit (or lack there of) of contraception said incredulously that everyone could acknowledge the glories of birth control, "unless you're against it or something." Like anyone who is against it is just thick in the head. It's not like some of the greatest geniuses of the western world (Augustine, Aquinas, even Luther) were against it, or anything. They must just be stupid, stupid, stupid. Not to mention the masses of humanity, including women, who object to contraception on moral grounds (typically members of the Third World religions which liberals always pretend to be very solicitous of).

Anyway, I got pretty mad, besides which her lecturing style would have reduced marauding two-year-olds to darling sleepy-heads. When it came to evaluate, however, I just asked her to be more tolerant. I figured being asked to be *tolerant* would really make her day since it was one of the main thrusts of the course :)

I only had one terrible class this quarter, and I went soft on that prof, too. What a mushy, mushy individual I am!

Venice

Ahhhhh.

From Photonet. Copyright 1996 philg@mit.edu

Ouch

Today I had an interesting day.

Everything was going going well - not exactly perfect, you understand, but it was about as good a day as I usually have. I was getting ready to go home after meeting with my some people from my reporting class. I hurried to the uptown CVS to buy a gallon of milk (cold delicious milk, you are white liquid gold) and then I hurried to the other end of Court Street to catch the bus home. The buses only run every hour, so if you miss the one you want you're stuck for quite a while.

So, I hurried. Needless to say, this was a poor choice. Me + uneven sidewalk = "I love you, let's dance!" I went down, down down. And the milk went burst, burst, burst. I got a horrible, large, angry scrape on my knee, my nylons were ripped, and the milk was gone for good. The young man who was walking toward me just stepped around me and my mess. Thanks, buddy ;) He was probably late for an appointment or something, I should give him a break!

Anyway, I owned that gallon for about three minutes before it was destroyed. CVS milk gallon with expiration date of March 19, we hardly knew ye. I did catch the bus. I was just missing the milk and some of my skin.

When I got home, Nurse Lauren and Nurse Jenn were very sweet about fixing me up! I was kind of a baby about it, it just stung a little. I would like everyone to know that I am not going to lose a leg. I also went and got some more CVS milk later that evening.

You see, this is the problem with praying to learn humility. That all His children be trained to be humble is one of the Lord's greatest desires, so when He hears you ask for it, He's usually very quick to give you some learning opportunities!

Thank you, my Beloved :)

A mass expulsion?

Via LA Catholic, a disturbing story out of Orange County, California:

From the OC Register editor's blog:

One local Catholic told me that a St. Mary's by the Sea church bulletin that the diocese had planned to hand out in church today was pulled at the last moment after an attorney wrote a letter objecting to the unbelieveable and mean-spirited step of publicly listing 55 people who were being asked to leave the church. The diocese also implored other congregants to turn against these people.

Now, personally, I consider obedience to be a great (and important) way to practice and learn humility. At my home diocese of Cleveland, the "no kneeling" rule has also been instituted by Bishop Pilla. It upsets me a lot not to be able to kneel before Our Lord in the Eucharist after the Agnus Dei. However, in asking me not to kneel, His Excellency is not asking me to commit a sin. And so I obey, even though it hurts. I kneel in my heart; they can't demand that I stop that.

Also, perhaps the whole story isn't being told, and the "Save Saint Mary's group" is doing serious damage at the parish. At the same time... Telling them to leave the parish! To leave the diocese! Publishing the names, and instructing other parishoners to "invite" those listed to leave! It's beyond the pale. Apparently the bulletin announcement was not handed out at the last minute, but the fact that it was even published (and apparently with the approval of the bishop!) is absolutely horrendous. Besides, didn't Cardinal Arinze already address the issue of kneeling? Didn't he say that people had the right to kneel if they wished? I'm not completely "up" on the issue, but the pastor's (and, it seems, the bishop's) behavior is terribly wrong. These people have rights, and I hope they get a good canon lawyer.

*UPDATE*: The alleged text from the letter in the bulletin has been published. Exerpts:

...For all the reasons mentioned above, as Administrator of this parish, for the common good of the parish and the Diocese, with tears almost every day, I officially invite all the brothers and sisters in the "Save Saint Mary's group" to leave the parish and the Diocese, to go to any parish or Diocese that can accommodate their "own traditions/point of view". Every parishioner who follows/obeys the mandate of the Bishop has also the right to invite these "dissident/disobedient" brothers and sisters to leave the parish. If any of these changes his/her heart, or feels being misled by this group, they can ask for removing their names from the list. They are welcomed to stay or come back, and to follow all the liturgical norms of the Diocese with love, obedience, respect and charity.

These are the persons in "Save Saint Mary's group" (parishioners and non-parishioners) that I invite to leave the parish and the Diocese, with the approval of Bishop Brown:

Read the whole thing. To be fair, the pastor does give some reasons for the action. Shudder.

First Sunday in Lent

While purusing Jimmy Akin's blog, I came upon his great Sundays in Lent Controversy, Parts I through V.

The issue: Does one keep to one's Lenten practice, even on Sunday, the Lord's Day, which is a day for celebration and not a good day for penitential acts?

"Giving something up for Lent" is purely optional, of course, so it's certainly not a sin to indulge on Sunday.

Personally, when I give something up, I give it up every day until Easter. I think that's the more traditional, easier-to-remember way of doing it, anyway.

Cuteness

In this photo made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI is hugged by a boy at the beginning of an audience with about 8,000 members of an Italian Christian entrepreneurial association in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Saturday, March 4, 2006. The Pontiff said that entrepreneurs often lack a strong moral foundation and called for businessmen to adhere to values that recognize the importance of the family. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)

The Pope's new iPod

...To honor the pope's first visit to the radio's broadcasting headquarters, the radio's technical staff decided the pencil-thin, state-of-the-art audio player would make the perfect gift...

...Though the white iPod nano is tiny, it still made an impression on the pope. When the head of the radio's technical and computer support department, Mauro Milita, identified himself and handed the pope the boxed iPod, the pope was said to have replied, "Computer technology is the future."

The pope's new 2-gigabyte digital audio player already was loaded with a sampling of the radio's programming in English, Italian and German and musical compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frederic Chopin, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinsky. The stainless steel back was engraved with the words "To His Holiness, Benedict XVI" in Italian...

Article. Via Bettnet. Geez! So now I am the last person on earth to not have an iPod! Apple, the global market has officially been saturated!

Q: How do you know your college is weird?

A: Suppose, for instance, that in the wee hours of the morning a bike is discovered outside a popular student eatery. Let's just say for the sake of argument that it is the morning of Thursday, March 2. The bike has a sticker on it that bears the words, "This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb." The appropriate authorities are summoned, the surrounding streets and buildings are closed, and the experts dismantle the bike in the course of discovering that it is not, in fact, a pipe bomb.

The owner of the bike comes forward later and explains to the authorities that "This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb" is the name of a Florida band. They are TBIAPB for short, and they even have a website. The world is a very strange place.

This was all according to one of the editors of the student newspaper, who spoke his piece in my reporting class today when he heard some of the other kids discussing the nebulous rumors floating around about the incident. Hurray for Ohio University! All I can say is that someone should call Dave Barry and tell him to add to his famous file of "Great Names for a Rock Band."

Busy, busy Ash Wednesday

Well, I have successfully completed the black fast. I haven't felt that hungry, either. Strange.

Ash Wednesday services were very ehh as they usually are. The church was extremely crowded; we had people lining the walls and the aisles; at Communion time they got smashed up in the Mary alcove and by the sanctuary. I met my good friend Leslie there, I don't see her often enough! It was nice to talk to her and hear about her travails with Resident Evil and the guy who says the "What is that?" line all the time.

The celebrant was actually the priest who is preaching our parish Lenten mission; he was formerly the pastor of our university parish, down the street. He is an excellent homilist.

The main thing that sort of bleh-ified the evening was the music. For instance, as it was last year (and the year before?), the recessional was the horrid vaguely heretical "Ashes." You know the one with that memorable line: We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew. This hymn actually drew fire from George Weigel a couple years ago in a round up of nasty lounge songs pretending to be music suitable for use in worship.

The entrance hymn was also unsingable. I will swallow my pride and admit that I like the modern musical interpretation of the responsorial psalm which they used, even though the words were somewhat altered to allow for the melody. Also, I should really get off my high-horse and quit whining about things like music, when Our Lord surely intends me to focus on more Lent-y things like conversion and repentance. So, no more whining. Right.