Renovation of Detroit's Cathedral
I have been in this church before it was renovated and it had to be one of the darkest church's I've ever been in and coldest. There are pictures at the bottom of the page linked below and I would say that the architect has tried to bring some light into the building. Overall it looks nice.
I don't care much for the Blessed Sacrament chapel (it looks like the chairs are facing away from the tabernacle but maybe that is for the choir stall effect?).
I definitely do not understand why the pipes for the organ have been thrust up in front of the windows--this has to be some attempt by musicians to exert their superiority in the post Vatican II church. But other than that the Baptismal font seems nice (Easter Candle is too small for the size of the church).
Check it out at The Official Web Site for the Archdiocese of Detroit
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Are U.S. Catholics, "more Catholic than the Pope"?
I include a snipet of this article reflecting the British Catholic view of Catholics in the U.S. I encourage you to go to the link and read the entire very well thought out piece that does a great job explaining Catholics in the U.S. Whether you are conservative or liberal there is a truth to grapple with here in the way we evangelize and catechize in this country.
From The Tablet
American Catholicism is ethnic, not dogmatic. The descendants of Irish and Italian and Polish immigrants, long bereft of the old country’s language, maintain their ancestors’ religious identification, which does for them what Catholic nationalism did for Ireland and Poland in the days of British and Soviet rule. It makes a people where there would otherwise not be a people. Yet in this land of voluntarist and intensely subjective Protestants, Catholics who are, in the sense of ethnic identity, “more Catholic than the Pope”, still share the radical Protestant “fundamental belief” that, to quote Pelosi, “God gave us all a free will and we are accountable for that”. Each believer stands alone with his God, and no Pope intervenes on that solitude.
And here is another facet of the paradox of America’s martial Catholicism. Bush is, like Clinton and Gore and Carter, and almost half of their compatriots, an evangelical Protestant. The Bush family being what it is, young George W. was naturally an altar boy in the Episcopalian Church, America’s only socially distinguished faith; he married into Methodism, as his brother, the governor of Florida, married into Hispanic Catholicism; but George W. was nonetheless brought to evangelical conversion in 1985, by Billy Graham himself. Bush’s evangelical faith is overt in his speeches; yet he seems perfectly congenial to America’s “more Catholic than the Pope” Catholics.
Bush returns thecompliment. He has successfully courted the traditionally Democratic Catholic vote, winning half of it in 2000; he has twice carefully visited the papal court; he sincerely abhors teenage sex and abortion; he visibly defers to the Catholic faith. Over the Iraq crisis,
Bush has paid Rome the compliment of strenuous contradiction. The President received Cardinal Laghi and argued with him, and the administration launched a remarkable theological offensive against the Vatican – with the 1994 winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, Michael Novak, carrying the debate to the enemy’s Roman citadel. By contrast, Bush has simply ignored all the Protestant Churches, including his own, which have denounced the war.
For America’s right-wing Protestants are in the same dilemma as America’s Catholics. And they too find it a non-dilemma. They are not ecclesial Christians: their faith is a private matter, founded on vivid and therapeutic experience of God. Their greatest religious loyalty beyond themselves is not to any denomination, but to what they conceive to be the Christian and democratic cause; and of that cause Bush, not Karol Wojtyla, is both sultan and caliph.
I include a snipet of this article reflecting the British Catholic view of Catholics in the U.S. I encourage you to go to the link and read the entire very well thought out piece that does a great job explaining Catholics in the U.S. Whether you are conservative or liberal there is a truth to grapple with here in the way we evangelize and catechize in this country.
From The Tablet
American Catholicism is ethnic, not dogmatic. The descendants of Irish and Italian and Polish immigrants, long bereft of the old country’s language, maintain their ancestors’ religious identification, which does for them what Catholic nationalism did for Ireland and Poland in the days of British and Soviet rule. It makes a people where there would otherwise not be a people. Yet in this land of voluntarist and intensely subjective Protestants, Catholics who are, in the sense of ethnic identity, “more Catholic than the Pope”, still share the radical Protestant “fundamental belief” that, to quote Pelosi, “God gave us all a free will and we are accountable for that”. Each believer stands alone with his God, and no Pope intervenes on that solitude.
And here is another facet of the paradox of America’s martial Catholicism. Bush is, like Clinton and Gore and Carter, and almost half of their compatriots, an evangelical Protestant. The Bush family being what it is, young George W. was naturally an altar boy in the Episcopalian Church, America’s only socially distinguished faith; he married into Methodism, as his brother, the governor of Florida, married into Hispanic Catholicism; but George W. was nonetheless brought to evangelical conversion in 1985, by Billy Graham himself. Bush’s evangelical faith is overt in his speeches; yet he seems perfectly congenial to America’s “more Catholic than the Pope” Catholics.
Bush returns thecompliment. He has successfully courted the traditionally Democratic Catholic vote, winning half of it in 2000; he has twice carefully visited the papal court; he sincerely abhors teenage sex and abortion; he visibly defers to the Catholic faith. Over the Iraq crisis,
Bush has paid Rome the compliment of strenuous contradiction. The President received Cardinal Laghi and argued with him, and the administration launched a remarkable theological offensive against the Vatican – with the 1994 winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, Michael Novak, carrying the debate to the enemy’s Roman citadel. By contrast, Bush has simply ignored all the Protestant Churches, including his own, which have denounced the war.
For America’s right-wing Protestants are in the same dilemma as America’s Catholics. And they too find it a non-dilemma. They are not ecclesial Christians: their faith is a private matter, founded on vivid and therapeutic experience of God. Their greatest religious loyalty beyond themselves is not to any denomination, but to what they conceive to be the Christian and democratic cause; and of that cause Bush, not Karol Wojtyla, is both sultan and caliph.
Let's Hope He's Wrong
From Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said the U.S.-led force faced "a very dicey two to three day battle" as it pushes north toward the Iraqi capital.
"We ought to be able to do it (take Baghdad)," he told the Newsnight Program on Britain's BBC Television late on Monday.
"In the process if they (the Iraqis) actually fight, and that's one of the assumptions, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties," said McCaffrey who became one of the most senior ranking members of the U.S. military following the 1991 war.
"So if they (the Americans and British) are unwilling to face up to that, we may have a difficult time of it taking down Baghdad and Tikrit up to the north west."
From Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said the U.S.-led force faced "a very dicey two to three day battle" as it pushes north toward the Iraqi capital.
"We ought to be able to do it (take Baghdad)," he told the Newsnight Program on Britain's BBC Television late on Monday.
"In the process if they (the Iraqis) actually fight, and that's one of the assumptions, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties," said McCaffrey who became one of the most senior ranking members of the U.S. military following the 1991 war.
"So if they (the Americans and British) are unwilling to face up to that, we may have a difficult time of it taking down Baghdad and Tikrit up to the north west."
Monday, March 24, 2003
Captured Chemical Plant Turns Out Not to Be
From datek/Dow Jones Newswires - Story:
U.S. officials said Monday that no chemical weapons were found at a suspected site at Najaf in central Iraq, U.S. television networks reported.
NBC News reported from the Pentagon that no chemicals at all were found at the site. CNN, also reporting from the Pentagon, said officials now believe the plant there was abandoned long ago by the Iraqis.
From datek/Dow Jones Newswires - Story:
U.S. officials said Monday that no chemical weapons were found at a suspected site at Najaf in central Iraq, U.S. television networks reported.
NBC News reported from the Pentagon that no chemicals at all were found at the site. CNN, also reporting from the Pentagon, said officials now believe the plant there was abandoned long ago by the Iraqis.
Peace Protests?
The Diocese Report has a good collection of photos of peace protests from around the world that show the protestors to be anything but peaceful.
The Diocese Report has a good collection of photos of peace protests from around the world that show the protestors to be anything but peaceful.
Fictitious Celebrities
Note to Michael Moore the fictitious president is Martin Sheen.
Leave it to an event in Hollywood for someone to lecture the country about fiction. Art imitates life. Sometimes those making the art forget that and get it back-wards--they think that they are the reality and that what is going on in the world is fiction. Sort of an eastern view of the world gone awry where everything that exists is an illusion.
But reality is different and in the real world Michael Moore is not a celebrity. In fact the average person waking up this morning and reading the newspapers account of Moore's comments last night at the Academy Awards won't even have a clue as to who the hell he is. In fact in most cases the actors who people do recognize are only known by the roles they play not their real selves. Like I said this is the world of fiction.
I am for peace but I am not for the spokespeople who carry the torch for peace in this country. Most of them make peace sound like one more partisan take on reality. I was against Clinton bombing medieval villages and I'm against Bush bombing the same. Unlike most I will not join a peace rally, but I will get down on my knees and pray both for those who have been sent to fight against the Iraqi's and for the innocents who stand in harm's way. I firmly believe that if people really believed in God and poured out their desire for peace in the world in prayer with the same passion that we hurdle hatred around that the world would be changed--miraculously.
But most of us are caught up in our own fiction of voicing peace but expressing it with anger and hatred in our hearts for each other. As Barry McQuire sang many years ago in "Eve of Destruction," "don't believe in war, ah what's that gun your toting?" The real fiction is that those who yell the loudest for peace are usually those who are most at war with their fellow human beings.
Note to Michael Moore the fictitious president is Martin Sheen.
Leave it to an event in Hollywood for someone to lecture the country about fiction. Art imitates life. Sometimes those making the art forget that and get it back-wards--they think that they are the reality and that what is going on in the world is fiction. Sort of an eastern view of the world gone awry where everything that exists is an illusion.
But reality is different and in the real world Michael Moore is not a celebrity. In fact the average person waking up this morning and reading the newspapers account of Moore's comments last night at the Academy Awards won't even have a clue as to who the hell he is. In fact in most cases the actors who people do recognize are only known by the roles they play not their real selves. Like I said this is the world of fiction.
I am for peace but I am not for the spokespeople who carry the torch for peace in this country. Most of them make peace sound like one more partisan take on reality. I was against Clinton bombing medieval villages and I'm against Bush bombing the same. Unlike most I will not join a peace rally, but I will get down on my knees and pray both for those who have been sent to fight against the Iraqi's and for the innocents who stand in harm's way. I firmly believe that if people really believed in God and poured out their desire for peace in the world in prayer with the same passion that we hurdle hatred around that the world would be changed--miraculously.
But most of us are caught up in our own fiction of voicing peace but expressing it with anger and hatred in our hearts for each other. As Barry McQuire sang many years ago in "Eve of Destruction," "don't believe in war, ah what's that gun your toting?" The real fiction is that those who yell the loudest for peace are usually those who are most at war with their fellow human beings.
Florida Gets Creamed by Michigan State
But thanks to Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel there is plenty to laugh about. Here is a snipet but go to the column for an example of great writing and it is even better if you are familiar with all the local Tampa references that he ties into it.
OrlandoSentinel.com: Sports Columnists Mike Bianchi:
Donovan actually said after the embarrassing loss that his Gators "overachieved" this season. That's a little like the captain of the Titanic sitting in the lifeboat afterward and saying, "Yeah, but what about that seafood buffet?"
The Gators may have overachieved during the regular season, but they have flamed out in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season. The Gators are Pavarotti in the dress rehearsal, but they turn into Carrot Top when the lights go on. If Donovan keeps this up, we may have to start calling him Coach February.
Where was the fight in his team? Where was the grit? Florida was so concerned about being down by 10 points to the Spartans at halftime that they came out and reeled off four points in the first 11 minutes of the second half. Four lousy points.
But thanks to Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel there is plenty to laugh about. Here is a snipet but go to the column for an example of great writing and it is even better if you are familiar with all the local Tampa references that he ties into it.
OrlandoSentinel.com: Sports Columnists Mike Bianchi:
Donovan actually said after the embarrassing loss that his Gators "overachieved" this season. That's a little like the captain of the Titanic sitting in the lifeboat afterward and saying, "Yeah, but what about that seafood buffet?"
The Gators may have overachieved during the regular season, but they have flamed out in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season. The Gators are Pavarotti in the dress rehearsal, but they turn into Carrot Top when the lights go on. If Donovan keeps this up, we may have to start calling him Coach February.
Where was the fight in his team? Where was the grit? Florida was so concerned about being down by 10 points to the Spartans at halftime that they came out and reeled off four points in the first 11 minutes of the second half. Four lousy points.
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