Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Cardinal Biffi

The Italian prelate Giacomo Biffi has just released an autobiographical book titled, Memories and Digressions of an Italian Cardinal. Biffi, now 80 years old, is known to speak his mind; and in the 640 page volume he has a few things to share.

Praise God.

If only more bishops were like him. Anyone who claims St. Ambrose as his beloved 'father and teacher' is sure to be a holy and wise man. His Eminence does not fall far from the Ambrosian Tree.

Biffi, hand-picked by His Holiness Benedict XVI to give this year's Lenten Meditations, has warned of an Antichrist who is "a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist."

He further predicted that the Antichrist "will convoke an ecumenical council and seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions".

The "masses" would follow the Antichrist, "with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants" who would fight to prevent the watering down and ultimate destruction of the faith.

Neither has he been shy in warning of the "invasion" of Muslim immigrants, undermining Europe's Christian values. Hard core; and precisely what the Church needs at a time when so much of the clergy has lost the faith, is lax and even indifferent to the salvation of souls.

Yes, this is the same bishop I blogged about back in February who likened women's ordination to using Coke in lieu of altar wine.

What a riot!

So now his book is hitting the book stands; only I'm afraid it isn't translated to English yet. But if you want to read a few excerpts (excerpts I found fascinating) on John XXIII, the deceptions of Vatican II, the "mea culpas" of JPII, and what he said in the most recent Conclave just click here.

H/T: Diogenes

Saturday, October 27, 2007

G.K. Chesterton


I found some new quotes I'd really like to share.

"When people stop believing in God, the problem is not that thereafter they believe in nothing, it is that thereafter they will believe in anything."

"It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for...God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into anything."

"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink."

"So far as a man may be proud of a religion rooted in humility, I am very proud of my religion; I am especially proud of those parts of it that are most commonly called superstition. I am proud of being fettered by antiquated dogmas and enslaved by dead creeds (as my journalistic friends repeat with so much pertinacity), for I know very well that it is the heretical creeds that are dead, and that it is only the reasonable dogma that lives long enough to be called antiquated."

And a slightly longer one, but no less enjoyable.

"But the new rebel is a Sceptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. Thus he writes one book complaining that imperial oppression insults the purity of women, and then he writes another book (about the sex problem) in which he insults it himself. He curses the Sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then curses Mrs. Grundy because they keep it. As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. A man denounces marriage as a lie, and then denounces aristocratic profligates for treating it as a lie. He calls a flag a bauble, and then blames the oppressors of Poland or Ireland because they take away that bauble. The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite sceptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything."

Friday, October 26, 2007

Washington State Ferries

From the Official Site of Washington State Tourism
Washington is home to the largest ferry fleet in the U.S. and the third largest in the world. Each year millions of passengers travel throughout the Puget Sound and into British Columbia aboard vessels with names like Kaleetan, Elwha and Hyak. Always comfortable, always friendly, and always offering the best views of the city, sound and islands.


All true...except, I don't know that "comfortable" would be your word of choice had you boarded the ferries on October 18th.

Last Thursday we had a wind storm with gusts exceeding 50 MPH. Someone managed to snap these shots:










Tuesday, October 23, 2007

This 'n That

Have you got a minute?

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Isaac Jogues

Yesterday, the 19th of October, marked the feast day of one of my favorites: Saint Isaac Jogues, Catholic Priest and missionary to the New World. Father Jogues was an instrument of God who dedicated his entire life to the commision of Our Lord, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

Fitting and noble then to recall that it is to men like St. Jogues you and I are indebted. 361 years ago Thursday, Isaac Jogues passed from this life into the next and heard these words addressed to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant...Enter into the joy of your lord." (Mt 25:23)

Condensed from the Catholic Encyclopedia:
[After six years of missionary work in New France] Father Jogues was taken prisoner on 3 August, 1642, and after being tortured was carried to the Indian village of Ossernenon, now Auriesville, on the Mohawk, about forty miles above the present city of Albany. There he remained for thirteen months in slavery. The Dutch Calvinists at Fort Orange (Albany) made constant efforts to free him, and at last, when he was about to be burnt to death, induced him to take refuge in a sailing vessel which carried him to New Amsterdam. From there he was sent across the ocean and landed Christmas morning, 1643, on the coast of Brittany. Thence he found his way to the nearest college of the Society. He was received with great honor at the court of the Queen Regent and was allowed by Pope Urban VII the very exceptional privilege of celebrating Mass, which the mutilated condition of his hands had made canonically impossible; several of his fingers having been eaten or burned off.

In early spring of 1644 he returned to Canada, and in 1646 was sent to negotiate peace with the Iroquois. He followed the same route over which he had been carried as a captive. He was well received by his former captors and the treaty of peace was made. He started for Quebec on 16 June and arrived there 3 July. He immediately asked to be sent back to the Iroquois as a missionary, but only after much hesitation his superiors acceded to his request. The Iroquois met him near Lake George, stripped him naked, slashed him with their knives, beat him and then led him to the village. On 18 October, 1646, when entering a cabin he was struck with a tomahawk and afterwards decapitated. The head was fixed on the Palisades and the body thrown into the Mohawk. Jogues was canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930, with seven other North American martyrs.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The View




Jimmy Akin sums up my sentiments exactly.

What I have seen and read about the show leads me to the conclusion that it is shallow and bubble-headed and frequently shameful, embarrassing, and even disgusting. In other words, it swings between the two extremes of insipid, inconsequential fluff, often with prurient undertones, to completely idiotic attempts to take on serious subjects by a group of commentators who don't have the first clue what they're talking about.


Be sure to read the rest.