The Man Born Blind

Dominus linivit oculos meos: et abii, et lavi, et vidi, et credidi Deo.

Obama's Speech before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Given on July 17, 2007.

I found it to be perfectly nauseating. There's nothing truly messianic about this man. It's the same old politics couched in comfortable rhetoric. Yeah, in this speech, he says it's time to "turn the page" about five times, or "write a new chapter", or "look to a new day" and other worn lines.

Yet I can't find a word about life issues on BarackObama.com (can anyone else?). But I don't know what's worse about this speech. There are his attempts to link Martin Luther King's vision with that of the racist, eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, who referred to African Americans and other minorities as "human weeds" and "reckless breeders".

Then there's Obama's affirmation of judicial appointments as he speaks highly of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ugh. And his support for the Freedom of "Choice" Act. He also says plenty of stupid things like,

Planned Parenthood Peer Educators have become like the Underground Railroad of Sex Education [laughter]. They’re the front lines giving kids information they can’t get anywhere else.

Which basically means he approves of PP's undermining of parents' authority, which we've basically known since it was shown that Planned Parenthood administrators will even cover up crimes in some cases of statutory rape. And let's give 'em more state funds! And Underground Railroad of Sex Education? Is he sure he wants to link abortion and teen sex to the plight of slaves seeking freedom from oppression?

And does Obama really care about what's going on in the African American community? According to blackgenocide.com:

In America today, almost as many African-American children are aborted as are born [3 out of 5 pregnancies]. A black baby is three times more likely to be murdered in the womb than a white baby. Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25 percent. Twice as many African-Americans have died from abortion than have died from AIDS, accidents, violent crimes, cancer, and heart disease combined. Every three days, more African-Americans are killed by abortion than have been killed by the Ku Klux Klan in its entire history. Planned Parenthood operates the nation's largest chain of abortion clinics and almost 80 percent of its facilities are located in minority neighborhoods. About 13 percent of American women are black, but they submit to over 35 percent of the abortions.

Abortion doesn't help minorities overcome oppression, and it doesn't help women today. As I've said before, the early American feminist movement didn't subscribe to this lie, and women shouldn't believe this lie today.

Christopher Blosser has some good comments and questions:

What kind of "change" will come about, what kind of "unity" can possibly occur under such a president who obstinately repudiates the very clear teachings of the Church on the sanctity of human life?

Cardinal Schönborn at Berkeley, CA



Renowned theologian and present Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP, recently visited the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (DSPT) in Berkeley, California, to discuss his book, Chance or Purpose: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith, which was published last year by Ignatius Press. The presentation took place on February 15, 2008. I happened to catch the back-and-forth the other night on C-SPAN2, and I found it to be very good! The DSPT has created a website if you wish to view the presentation. I encourage you to do so.

Apparently Cardinal Schönborn made his way to northern California after an earlier speaking engagement in San Diego. I'll have to find out whether he stopped to use the bathroom at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. He would have been in good company.

Thanks to Carl Olson for the scoop, who also notes that the DSPT has the 2008 Aquinas Lecture available for viewing. The lecture, entitled, “Thomas Aquinas and the Problem of Human Suffering”, was given on February 14, 2008, by Eleonore Stump, Ph.D. Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University.

St. Polycarp of Smyrna and Irenaeus

Today is the Feast of St. Polycarp of Smyrna (ca. 69- ca. 155 AD), one of my favorite Fathers of the Church: Reputed disciple of John, the Apostle, friend to St. Ignatius of Antioch, respected teacher of St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Eusebius preserves for us a few of Irenaeus' letters in which Polycarp is referenced by name. What follows is from Irenaeus' Letter to Florinus, a friend who had fallen into heresy. Irenaeus makes an earnest appeal to Polycarp's great witness and role in the early Church:

These opinions, Florinus, that I may speak in mild terms, are not of sound doctrine; these opinions are not consonant to the Church, and involve their votaries in the utmost impiety; these opinions, even the heretics beyond the Church’s pale have never ventured to broach; these opinions, those presbyters who preceded us, and who were conversant with the apostles, did not hand down to thee.

For, while I was yet a boy, I saw thee in Lower Asia with Polycarp, distinguishing thyself in the royal court, and endeavouring to gain his approbation. For I have a more vivid recollection of what occurred at that time than of recent events (inasmuch as the experiences of childhood, keeping pace with the growth of the soul, become incorporated with it); so that I can even describe the place where the blessed Polycarp used to sit and discourse— his going out, too, and his coming in—his general mode of life and personal appearance, together with the discourses which he delivered to the people; also how he would speak of his familiar intercourse with John, and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord; and how he would call their words to remembrance. Whatsoever things he had heard from them respecting the Lord, both with regard to His miracles and His teaching, Polycarp having thus received [information] from the eye-witnesses of the Word of life, would recount them all in harmony with the Scriptures. These things, through, God’s mercy which was upon me, I then listened to attentively, and treasured them up not on paper, but in my heart; and I am continually, by God’s grace, revolving these things accurately in my mind.

And I can bear witness before God, that if that blessed and apostolical presbyter had heard any such thing, he would have cried out, and stopped his ears, exclaiming as he was wont to do: “O good God, for what times hast Thou reserved me, that I should endure these things?” And he would have fled from the very spot where, sitting or standing, he had heard such words. This fact, too, can be made clear, from his Epistles which he dispatched, whether to the neighbouring Churches to confirm them, or to certain of the brethren, admonishing and exhorting them.

Thanks be to God.

The Menil Collection & Renaissance Music

We finally made it out to see the The Menil Collection this afternoon for the first time, followed by a small concert of music of Elizabethan England and Renaissance Italy at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum by the Houston Chamber Choir Quartet. Fun!

Lenten Reflections from the Planet of the Apes

From Taylor's Opening Monologue:

And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown. We're now on full automatic, in the hands of the computers. I've tucked my crew in for the long sleep and I'll be joining them soon.

In less than an hour we'll finish our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy. Six months in deep space. By our time, that is. According to Dr Hasslein's theory of time in a vehicle traveling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it, while we've aged hardly at all.

It may be so.

This much is probably true. The men who sent us on this journey are long since dead and gone. You who are reading me now are a different breed. I hope a better one.

I leave the 20th century with no regrets, but... one more thing. If anybody's listening, that is. Nothing scientific. It's... purely personal. Seen from out here, everything seems different. Time bends. Space is... boundless. It squashes a man's ego. I feel lonely.

That's about it.

Tell me, though... Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who has sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother, keep his neighbor's children starving?

Hope you are having a solemn Lent!

Obama and Mass Messianism

I don't know if you've noticed, but this election has been truly bizarre, which, of course, makes it very interesting to observe, if only from an academic perspective, which would be fine, if so many important issues weren't also in play. Getting away from the Republican weirdness for the moment, let's look at some of the truly bizarre goings-on on the Democratic side.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one weirded-out by all of the strange messianic language surrounding the Obama campaign right now. Mark Shea notes several things. He quotes Jake Tapper at ABC News:

Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand.

It's as if Tom Daschle descended from on high saying, "Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat."

Obama supporter Kathleen Geier writes that she's "getting increasingly weirded out" by some of Obama's supporters...

Describing various encounters with Obama supporters, she writes, "Excuse me, but this sounds more like a cult than a political campaign. The language used here is the language of evangelical Christianity – the Obama volunteers speak of 'coming to Obama' in the same way born-again Christians talk about 'coming to Jesus.'

Joe Klein, from Time Magazine, notes some things about Obama's Super Tuesday speech:

And yet there was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism — "We are the ones we've been waiting for" — of the Super Tuesday speech and the recent turn of the Obama campaign. "This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It's different not because of me. It's different because of you." That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.

The gift of the master of rhetoric.

Ash Wednesday

...quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris.

Genesis 3:19

Making sense of extreme Republican Outrage!

Some conservative Republicans are contemplating voting for Hillary(!) in the national election should John McCain secure the Republican nomination. Roland Martin at CNN generalizes a bit, but he does make some sense here:

... with conservatives one seat away from having a majority on the Supreme Court and the next president having the power to name up to three justices, do you actually think the folks who've fought two generations to re-take the Court actually want to see three Clinton jurists?

I'm sure even the most conservative Republicans can make the best of a McCain nomination if only they use their brains. I think it was foolish to expect the perfect conservative to emerge who had any chance of appealing to independent voters and who could successfully trounce a Democrat in a national election -- not after the mess left behind by the Bush Administration. Now, issues do matter. But is committing suicide really the best option in this case? Perhaps the Republicans could've done better, but I'm quite certain they could've also done far worse.

Who is a RINO?

With all of the John McCain talk buzzing around, I'm hearing the term "RINO" ("Republican In Name Only") thrown around a lot lately. RINO is a term that has changed in meaning over the last several decades. The scope of my life isn't long enough to recollect it myself (I was born in the late 1970's, but I only remember Reagan). Wikipedia has a decent article outlining who has traditionally been considered RINO within the Republican Party and for what reasons. You might be surprised... or you might not:

From 1936 to 1976 the liberal side of the Republican party frequently won the national nomination with candidates such as Alf Landon, Wendell Willkie, Thomas E. Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Indeed, other terms for Liberal Republicans include Nixonian and Rockefeller Republican. The mainstream of the party was generally supportive of the New Deal, and the conservatives were the RINOs.

Soon, Reagan came along and how many initially took him seriously?

After 1980 there were few if any open liberals in prominent positions in the GOP, except for numerous "moderates", such as George H. W. Bush, who had run for president on the stance that Reagan's Conservative platform was "voodoo economics".

And then, when I think of RINO today, I think of folks along the lines of pro-choicers Giuliani, Bloomberg, etc... but then McCain doesn't quite fit that mold, at least not in the same way. And who else has held the RINO label? Romney, Huckabee, and Ron Paul.

This election, who isn't a RINO? Perhaps we should redefine what the "Republican Base" truly entails. Yelling and screaming from folks like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh isn't helping very much.

The Southern Preacher

Rocco Palmo posts and briefly discusses Cardinal DiNardo's homily transcript from the Mass for Life in Washington DC's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which took place on the morning of January 22nd. From the homily:

And when Elizabeth sees [Mary], JB -- John the Baptist -- stirs, and gives a kick, and that brings the Holy Spirit to gush forth from Elizabeth. And in that gushing forth, we see what the energy of acceptance does to others.

The Holy Spirit is active in Elizabeth through John the Baptist. Ah -- but Jesus is active in his mother, in a way beyond our comprehension.

What a pro-life scene, sisters and brothers! Elizabeth cries out "Blessed are you among women," and the Virgin Mary responds with one of the most joyful hymns we have in the New Testament.

I have a friend -- and you'll excuse this, it's typical of Southeast Texas... we're too far South maybe -- who claims that Mary yodeled the Magnificat. I don't think that's exegetically correct, but it's an interesting scene to fathom: the country girl who cries out in joy, certainly over the birth of the Savior, but who cries out in joy over the gift of life.

Awesome! That is so DiNardo! :)

First Friday Concerts Continue at St. Theresa's

This Friday, February 1, 2008 - 7:30 pm

at St. Theresa Catholic Church
115 Seventh Street
Sugar Land, TX. 77478

with Our Celebration – The Gift of Music!
Including the works of J.S. Bach, Johann Pachelbel, Marcel Dupre, and Naji Hakim

welcoming Dr. Crista Miller, Organist

Dr. Crista Miller is an international recitalist, having performed throughout Europe, and recently at La Trinité in Paris. She is a choral conductor, sacred musician, scholar and teacher as well as a solo artist. Dr. Miller serves on the music faculties of the University of St. Thomas and Houston Baptist University where her interests include music theory, historic-based organ performance practice, liturgical music and revival of “forgotten” sacred treasures, early music, and contemporary music. She studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York with Han Davidsson; at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music with Robert Bates and in Paris, France with Naji Hakim. Dr. Miller has recently appeared at the Washington National Cathedral, the Milwaukee Cathedral and at Goshen College. Future 2008-09 venues include the Svendborg International Organ Festival, the inaugural Wolff Organ Conference-University of North Texas, and the Region VII Convention of the Am. Guild of Organists.

Admission Free!

And, if I remember the rule from my days at the university, free is (usually) good!

Reproductive Justice?

This is how Obama is referring to abortion these days. He boasts:

Throughout my career, I've been a consistent and strong supporter of reproductive justice, and have consistently had a 100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Justice?? Carl Olson responds better than I can at the moment.

Fruit Trees

My wife discusses our experience at our first Urban Harvest fruit tree sale yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect after driving into Houston at 8am in 40-degree weather after a hard rain so that we could stand in line for another hour. Once the gate opened at 9am, it was basically a land rush. If you didn't have a plan by then, you were toast. We were told to keep an eye on our wagons and our plants. We heard folks complaining about stolen plants. In the end, we ended up with a fair haul. A persimmon, a Cloud Pomegranate, two muscadine grape vines, and a banana fig tree.

Thousands march for Life in San Francisco

This annual event has grown considerably over the years, in spite of the tolerant city council of San Francisco having deemed the city a "pro-choice" zone, telling marchers (many of whom are long time SF residents) to beat it.

"If you don't like abortion, then don't have one!"

That's got to be one of the silliest counter arguments I've ever heard. Well, "if you don't like slavery, don't own a slave!" I don't protest abortion for me. I protest it for women and children harmed, abused, murdered, lied to, oppressed. As a survivor, I protest it for those of my generation whom I will never be able to call friends.

My wife's parents were involved with the march for life again this year. Gerald of the ClosedCafeteria blog has some good shots here and here.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an initial article about the event. Slightly biased, though. I've heard estimates that this year that well over 25,000 were there (not 10,000 as the Chronicle estimates). But the pictures are very telling. Just to juxtapose one of Gerald's with one of the Chronicle's:

When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged.

-Mattie Brinkerhoff, early American Feminist, published in The Revolution, 4(9):138-9 September 2, 1869.

What's the real deal with Rome’s "La Sapienza"?

The astute John Allen has the goods here and here. Regensburg, anyone? Grr...

Hillary Clinton on Russert's "Jesuitical" Argument

This is a fun little observation.

Did any of you catch the interview between Senator Hillary Clinton and Tim Russert yesterday on Meet the Press? America Magazine caught it:

On Meet the Press this morning, Senator Hillary Clinton accused her host, Tim Russert, of being 'Jesuitical' in his argumentation. The Jesuit-educated Russert (Canisius High School in Buffalo, N.Y. and John Carroll University in Cleveland) was pressing Senator Clinton on her 2002 vote to authorize war in Iraq. Here's the transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: Did he (Obama) have better judgment in October of 2002?

SEN. CLINTON: You know, look, judgment is not a single snapshot. Judgment is what you do across the course of your life and your career.

MR. RUSSERT: A vote for war is a very important vote.

SEN. CLINTON: Well, you know, Tim, we can have this Jesuitical argument about what exactly was meant.

Now according to the Oxford American Dictionary, "Jesuitical" has two meanings. The first is the more benign: "of or concerning the Jesuits." Okay, that's straightforward. But the word has a second meaning, which is almost always pejorative and was born of the old anti-Jesuit canard that we can be a little slick with our reasoning. Here the word means, "Dissembling or equivocating, in the manner associated with Jesuits."

It's highly unlikely of course that any Jesuit will take offense. Mrs. Clinton is no Pascal and did not intend to be. But one does wonder where she picked up the word. Perhaps it came from her Georgetown-educated husband.

One of my high school religion teachers, now a university professor of American history, sent a note to Meet the Press concerning the choice of vocabulary. He writes:

Hillary Clinton, in her interview with Mr Russert on January 13, said she refused to "participate in this Jesuitical argument" over her past votes, etc. The use of the term, "Jesuitical," in this way is an old anti-Catholic attack common in post-Reformation England and in the United States during the 1800s, used to imply that members of the Society of Jesus--and all Catholics by extension--are deceivers.

Catholics, this term implies, are uniquely able to twist their arguments to suit their ends just as Jesuits, or so the argument goes, did in their attempt to reclaim England for the Catholic faith.

I'll thank him for pointing this out. Although I'm sure Hillary didn't intend to attack Catholics (or the Jesuits) in her usage of the word, it was very obviously chosen to convey her negative opinion concerning Russert's argument. One wonders what inspired her to choose that word as opposed to any number of synonyms... Or am I just being jesuitical..?

Pope celebrates mass ad orientem in Sistine Chapel



Apparently, this was a modern liturgy in Italian, proving, of course, that the Second Vatican Council did not somehow "outlaw" celebrating mass in this way.

The New Liturgical Movement blog has the goods:

the Pope has now given an important public witness and example of the acceptability of the celebration of the sacred liturgy "ad orientem" -- that is, with the priest, in this case the Pope himself, and the faithful directed together in a common sacred direction, turned towards the Lord, towards the symbolic "East" of the liturgy. This is the first such public manifestation (as compared to this practice in the Pope's private chapel) for quite some time and that it has occurred within the Vatican itself is also significant.

Celebrating mass in this way in the Sistine Chapel also makes complete sense. Catholic author Amy Welborn comments:

There is nothing accidental about the interior decoration of the chapel, including Michelangelo’s Last Judgment on the wall behind the altar. It is purposefully designed to provide a “space” for a large altar cross. The cross is set up to be directly below the figure of the Risen Christ - and these are the images which we - and the celebrant - face during Mass. To set up another altar in front of that and have the focus shift away does, indeed, violate the original intention of the space.

I would have expected the half-witted press to come up with more stupid headlines that missed the point, such as "Pope snubs laity during mass by turning back on them." I would modify it slightly: "Pope leads faithful toward the Coming Lord." Come, Lord Jesus!

Two Kinds of Catholic Mysticism, Part Deux, and St. Dominic

I want to comment briefly on my blog post from a few days ago in which I quoted Taylor Marshall's comments on Steven Ozment’s book The Age of Reform 1250-1550 – An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe.

In discussing Ozment, Taylor rightfully contrasts various forms of mystical spirituality as lived out in the spiritual traditions of the Franciscans, Carmelites, and the ubiquitous Dominicans. He contrasts a mystical spirituality that is incarnational to one that, as he says, seeks union with God through an apophatic method – the via negativa. The latter need not be opposed to the Incarnation of Christ, though adherents can at times be off the deep end somewhere -- (I know one Eastern Orthodox christian who seemed to be at the brink of denying the reality and the necessity of the Incarnation itself!) The writings of medieval German Dominicans such as Eckhart, Tauler, and Heinrich Seuse have contributed a great deal to this spiritual tradition in the West.

I confess that I have not done all of my homework on the subject, but if I could comment briefly on the Dominican contribution - what I appreciate about Dominican spirituality is that it is, at its core, incarnational -- and it needed to be if it was to combat the heresy of Catharism, which saw the physical world as evil and as something that stood between man and God. Commenting upon this, fr. Isidore Clarke, O.P. writes:

In reaction to the heresy that the physical world is an evil barrier between us and God, Dominican preaching focuses on the wonder of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us. Our mission is to proclaim the glory of this physical world in which we live, and of which we are a part. God has created it, and seen that it was good. Now the whole of creation groans, awaiting its redemption, when everything in heaven and earth will be reconciled in Christ.

This focus on the wonder of the Word becoming flesh also underlies why Dominicans are so fond of Our Lady as Theotokos -- how could they not be? Clarke continues:

Because Dominic preached the goodness of our physical humanity and Christ's, he had a deep devotion to the Bl. Virgin Mary. She guaranteed Christ's humanity. But more than this, she above all was the one who heard the word of God and kept it. Our contemplation is summed up in Mary's pondering God's word in her heart. As she gave birth to the Word of God, and at Cana urged the stewards to do whatever her Son told them, Mary summed up the mission of the preacher - to work with God to make his Word come alive in the world today. Paul expresses this when he speaks of his begetting the Galatians in the Gospel. It's not surprising that Mary should be the patron of the Dominican Order, and that Dominicans should have popularised the Rosary as a way of praying and understanding the wonder of God becoming man.

That is all I have to contribute... :)

Birth Control and Osteoporosis

On her blog, my wife discusses the link between the usage of oral contraceptives and osteoporosis as documented by two studies published by Purdue University in 2001 and 2005 of women ages 18-30 as well as by a study published by Loyola Marymount University in 2007 of women ages 18-25 (published in the journal Osteoporosis International).

Two Kinds of Catholic Mysticism

Some thoughts by Taylor Marshall on Steven Ozment’s book The Age of Reform 1250-1550 – An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe:

Chapter Three contrasts two general forms of Catholic mysticism. Ozment identifies these two “schools” as Christocentric mysticism and Theocentric mysticism. I prefer the terms Incarnational mysticism and Ontological mysticism, respectively.

Christocentric or Incarnational mysticism focuses on the humanity of Christ and by extension the role of the Blessed Mother. Christ is particularly experienced in the “glory of his humility”. It embraces suffering, humility, poverty, and sacrifice. It should come at no surprise that this Incarnational mysticism rejoices in the infancy of Christ and his crucifixion. The Franciscans are the first to come to mind: St Francis, St Bonaventure, St Antony, and more recently St Pio. St. Bernard of Clairvaux is another ideal exemplar of this incarnational mysticism. The holy Rosary and the Stations of the Cross are devotional examples of this incarnational piety.

The other kind of mysticism is the Theocentric or Ontological mysticism. This is the sort of mysticism that seeks union with God through an apophatic method – the via negativa. The writings of Pseudo-Dionysius and the late medieval German mystics come to mind. This method is found in the writings of the Carmelites, many Dominicans, and the Eastern Fathers. In the East, it transformed into the hesychast method and necessitated a distinction between the divine essence and divine energies (a distinction thoroughly rejected in the West). While the Incarnational mysticism is volitional, the Ontological is intellectualist with a strong desire to experience the beatific vision. While certainly not opposed to the Incarnation of Christ, this Ontological mysticism has had a tendency to spin out of control (e.g. Meister Eckhart). The spiritual goal is to transcend all created realities and find mystical union with God. The Dionysian “three ways” of purification, illumination, and contemplation are common, as are the concepts of nada and the “dark night of the soul”. St. John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, and the author of the Cloud of Unknowing, stand out as examples.

It should go without saying that these two distinctions are somewhat artificial because they are typically combined by all the great mystics. It would be a grave mistake to conclude that St. John of the Cross was anti-incarnational or that St Bernard was not concerned with the Beatific Vision (after all, Dante imagines St. Bernard as his guide to the Beatific Vision).

White and black, young and old, rich and poor



In February of 1967, a tragic fire broke out on the top floor of the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building at 7 Clayton Street in downtown Montgomery, AL. The fire completely destroyed Dale's Penthouse, a well known restaurant and lounge on the top floor. The fire is etched into Montgomery's extremely turbulent and complicated history. 25 people lost their lives in the fire. Some escaped by diving down 11 floors to the street below. Others huddled at the back of the restaurant in a futile attempt to escape the smoke and flames. Those who survived managed to escape by crawling out of broken windows onto the 3-foot wide ledge surrounding the restaurant, which they used to make their way to the restaurant patio where they were later rescued by fire fighters (who, by the way, could not rely much on ladders).

The event of February 7th, 1967 is recalled in detail in a fairly recent article in the Montgomery Advertiser:

Dale's, a regular dining spot for businessmen and politicians, sat atop the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building at 7 Clayton St., two streets over from the newspaper office. Covering the tragedy on the 11th floor restaurant, some reporters experienced the worst story of their careers.

...The dead included former Alabama Public Service Commissioner Ed Pepper and his wife, as well as Rose Doane, Dale's hostess and the wife of then-Advertiser Sports Editor Jack Doane.

... Former Montgomery Fire Chief William C. McCord, who was a captain with the department in 1967, did talk about his experience.

"That was the worst night we ever had in the city of Montgomery," McCord, 74, said.

McCord who retired in 1995 after 43 years with the fire department, sat in his Eclectic home recently and spoke at length about the blaze, which broke out in the restaurant's cloakroom just before 10 p.m. Working out of the department's headquarters on Madison Street, McCord drove to the nearby restaurant expecting a small fire.

"When we got there, it didn't look nearly as bad as it was," McCord said. "But when we drove up, window panes and glass were falling onto our vehicle on Clayton Street."

Some of the people trapped in the restaurant had begun breaking windows in the dining area, which overlooked Clayton, in an effort to escape the smoke and flames. McCord said their actions, while saving some lives, helped fuel the fire.

"When that fresh air got in there, it was like someone turned a blowtorch on it," McCord said. Because of the cloakroom's location near the elevators and the restaurant's only stairwell, employees and patrons had few options for escape.

After trying unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire himself, Dale's chef, Jesse Williams, ran down to the 10th floor, got the elevator and managed to carry two loads of people down from the penthouse before the elevator stopped working. Williams and several firefighters who had gone up in a second elevator had to slide down the elevator cables to escape the 11th floor.

Another group of people, including [Montgomery physician Dr. J.J. Kirschenfeld and his wife], escaped by climbing out through the broken windows onto the three-foot-wide ledge outside the restaurant. They walked around the building through freezing winds to the outdoor patio, where the fire department later rescued them.

Those remaining inside died of asphyxiation, a fire department report said. The majority of the bodies recovered were burned beyond recognition. Eager to escape the fire on the other side of the restaurant, the victims had fled into the office -- which had no exit. That's where McCord's men found them.

"It was a mass of humanity," McCord said. "They were piled on top of each other. White and black, young and old, rich and poor."

McCord said the number of dead would have been significantly smaller if not for the fact that a stairwell that went up to the 10th floor was not extended when Dale's was added on to the top of the building. The stairs on the 10th floor were under the office area where more than a dozen of the victims were found.

The fire that destroyed Dale's Penthouse had a significant impact in how building fires would be handled nationwide:

"News of this fire went out all over America," McCord said. "It put the teeth in the laws they have now."

Montgomery Fire Chief John McKee agreed.

"What the Dale's fire did was bring national attention to high-rise fires," McKee said.

McKee and Assistant Chief William Davis said the national codes and standards became stricter, in turn making local laws tighter. Buildings were required to have a certain number of exits and changes were made in the requirements for sprinklers, the number of occupants allowed in a building and numerous other aspects of construction.

"That fire had a huge impact on the way high-rise fires are handled," Davis said. "It changed things across the country."

Here is the apartment building, which is now known as "Capitol Towers", today facing Clayton Street, and you can see more clearly where the penthouse patio is located.

I find the event interesting and fascinating -- not only because of the tragic fire itself, but also because of the way it seemed to blur Montgomery's very obvious and clear racial and class divisions, if only for a brief time, during the very turbulent decade of the 1960's. As described by Montgomery's former Fire Chief William McCord, "It was a mass of humanity... They were piled on top of each other. White and black, young and old, rich and poor."

Back in town...

We just returned from a trip to Montgomery, AL to visit family. It dipped down pretty low in temperature while we were there, but we were able to see some interesting things around the city and surrounding area, including the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, which is located in a house rented by the couple for a time during the 1930's in the Old Cloverdale area of Montgomery (not too far from Huntingdon College). Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald's family home in Montgomery was unfortunately demolished several years ago. We also paid a visit to Tuskegee University, as I had never visited the campus before.

This was my second visit back home since becoming Catholic. It's amazing how one's perspective can change... Things take on new meaning. I'll write more soon!

Lord, Receive My Spirit...

Today is the Feast of St. Stephen the First Martyr. His martyrdom is recorded in Acts 6:8-7:60:

And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyre'nians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cili'cia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated men, who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us." And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel...

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

St. Stephen, pray for us.

In Nativitate Domini

From the Office of Readings.

Sermo 1 in Nativitate Domini, by Pope St. Leo the Great

Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.

No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God's wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: "Glory to God in the highest", and they proclaim, "peace to his people on earth" as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God's goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, "and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ", so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God's own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God's kingdom.

Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

Merry Christmas! O Magnum Mysterium!

Celebrate the profundity of this day and this season. Embrace the sacraments, particularly regular confession. Go to Mass. Honor your marriage. Pray. Love one another. If you are angry or resentful, let it go. Lay down your pride. Pick up the Cross. Eat, drink, and make merry (in moderation), but in so doing, remember God's blessings. Thank God for His grace.

The Word has become Flesh. He dwells among us.

O magnum mysterium et admirabile sacramentum
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum
iacentem in praesepio.
Natum vidimus et chorus angelorum
collaudantes Dominum. Alleluia

O great mystery and wonderful sacrament,
that beasts should see the newborn Lord
lying in a manger.
The newborn we have seen and a chorus of angels
praising the Lord. Alleluia

Quem vidistis pastores?
Dicite, annunciate nobis quis apparuit?
Natum vidimus et chorus angelorum
collaudantes Dominum. Alleluia

Whom have you seen, shepherds?
Speak, tell us who has appeared?
The newborn we have seen and a chorus of angels
praising the Lord. Alleluia

O admirabile commercium:
creator generis humani,
animatum corpus sumens
de virgine nasci dignatus est;
et, precedens homo sine semine,
largitus est nobis suam Deitatem.

O wonderful gift:
the creator of the human race,
taking our flesh upon him,
deigns to be born of a virgin;
and, coming forth without seed of man,
bestows his Divinity upon us.

il bambino! il bambino!

791st Anniversary of the Order of Preachers



From the Dominican Province of St. Joseph Vocations blog:

On this day, December 22, in the year 1216, His Holiness Pope Honorius III gave official approval to the creation of the Order of Preachers to St. Dominic. It is somehow fitting in this season in which we look forward to the birth of Our Savior, we celebrate as well the birth of our Order. The anniversary is still celebrated in the Order, but impeded liturgically because of the primacy of these days before Christmas.

From the Moniales, OP blog:

For 10 years, St. Dominic preached against the heretics in southern France—sometimes with a few companions but often alone. Slowly, a radically new order began taking shape. Why radical? Because unlike other orders this new Order of Preachers would combine the apostolic life of the Apostles with mendicant itinerancy while at the same time having the monastic elements of silence, prayer, sung Divine Office, study and community life. It took 2 Popes and 4 Bulls for St. Dominic to get full approval of the Order of Preachers.

Even the name was radical. We might not think so today but in St. Dominic's time it was, for the office of Preaching belongs properly to the Bishop and his priests share in this office. What St. Dominic wanted was that his men (who would be ordained to the priesthood) receive the office of Preaching by reason of belonging to the Order. Both Innocent the IV and Honorious III trusted St. Dominic and knew him to be a man on fire for God and a man in whom the Holy Spirit acted powerfully. So, on December 22, 1216 the Order of Preachers was born.

St. Dominic, pray for us!

Ukraine is game to you?!

I believe this scene from Seinfeld is one of the best scenes in Television.



Throughout the episode, Kramer and Newman are engaged in an epic battle against each other in a mad game of Risk, the game of world domination. They take the game so seriously, they don't trust leaving the board with one when the other is not around. The game so distracts Kramer, that he doesn't notice his car being impounded, and when he Jerry alerts him, Kramer insists that he and Newman continue the game on the subway on their way to retrieve the car. On the subway, they are put into a real-life encounter with a foreign national -- a situation which, unlike the game, they simply brush off and end up getting a rude awakening to real world international relations... And it's funny... :)

Tony Blair now a Catholic

I don't typically post about things like this, but the affairs of England, my long lost homeland, and of all Englishmen in general, hopelessly fascinate me. According to CNN.

"It can be confirmed that Tony Blair has been received into full communion with the Catholic Church by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor," the head of the church in England and Wales, the church said in a statement.

"I'm very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church," the statement quoted Murphy-O'Connor as saying.

"For a long time he's been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months he's been following a program of formation for his reception into full communion. Our prayers are with him, his family and his wife at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together," Murphy-O'Connor said.

Please pray for Blair and for converts in general. Zadok has some other questions, but it sounds like he has come a long way and that he has made the careful decision to go "further up and further in", as it were. And this is the next step on an incredible journey with God.

Now, if only the Queen and the entire Royal Family would come home...

For me life is Christ

If you have met Christ, live Christ, live with Christ! Proclaim it in the first person, as genuine testimony: "For me life is Christ." That is true liberation: to proclaim Jesus free of ties, present in men and women, transformed, made new creatures. Why instead at times does our testimony seem to be in vain? Because we present Jesus without the full seductive power of his person, without revealing the treasures of the sublime ideal inherent in following him; and because we are not always successful in demonstrating conviction, translated into living terms, regarding the extaordinary value of the gift of ourselves to the ecclesial cause we serve.

Brothers and sisters: it is important that men see in us dispensers of the mysteries of God, credible witnesses of his presence in the world. We frequently remember that God, when he calls us, asks for not only one part of our person but all our person and all our vital energies, so that we may announce to men the joy and peace of a new life in Christ, and guide them to a meeting with him. So let it be our first concern to seek the Lord, and, once we have met him, to observe where and how he lives, by being with him all day. Being with him, in a special way, in the Eucharist, where Christ gives himself to us; and in prayer, through which we give ourselves to him. The Eucharist must be performed and extended into our daily actions as a "sacrifice of praise." In prayer, in the trusting contact with God our Father, we can discern better where our strengths and weaknesses are, because the Spirit comes to our aid. The same Spirit speaks to us and slowly immerses us in the divine mysteries, in God's design of love for humanity, which he realizes through our willingness to serve him.

Pope John Paul II, January 26, 1979

I hope that you are challenged by these words. Let us use this Advent wisely...

When Two Worlds Collide

Trite Christmas carols like this are permitted in this context.



For your Advent meditations...

Lego Robots

Legos have certainly come a long way since I was a child. Check this out.


"LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT"

Create the smartest, strongest and most advanced LEGO® robot ever, in as few as 30 minutes! The new NXT Intelligent Brick, your robot's "brain," features a powerful 32-bit microprocessor and more memory, plus support for USB 2.0, Bluetooth and more!

A highly versatile palette of LEGO TECHNIC® elements combines with state-of-the-art ultrasonic, sound, light and touch sensors in the next generation of intuitive robotics. With included Quick-Start guide, easy-to-use software and step-by-step building instructions, beginners and experts alike can create humanoid, vehicle and animal robots that obey every command!

Improved light sensors can detect different colors and intensities, while the new sound sensor enables robots to respond to sound patterns and tones. Robots can really "feel" with improved touch sensors, while ultrasonic "eyes" measure distance and movement.

Programming software is now available for both PC and Macintosh, plus with Bluetooth support, you can even command your robot from your mobile phone!

32-bit microprocessor, plus I can control my lego creations from my mobile phone? The future really is now. Too bad the price tag is about $250.00!

Biblia Clerus: Yeah baby!

A new web resource published by the Holy See's Congregation for the Clergy: Biblia Clerus:

This program offers Sacred Scripture, its interpretation in light of Sacred Tradition and the teachings of the Magisterium, with appropriate theological commentary and exegesis.
The downloadable version allows you to connect Sacred Scripture to the complete works of many Doctors of the Church, Councils, Encyclicals, teachings of the Popes, Catechisms, as well as commentaries from secular literature, etc.

Based on a few experiments, the cross-reference mechanism is functional, but it could be a little more precise in my opinion. I'm sure it'll improve once folks begin using it.

Sacrificial themes in the early Martyrs

In Ch. 50 of his Apologeticus, Tertullian famously acknowledged the following with regard to the early Christian martyrs:

Plures efficimur quotiens metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum

"The more often we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed". And indeed it was true and is true today. The witness offered by these Christians who shed their blood for their faith, in one way or another, bears testimony to others concerning the extraordinary power of faith and the power of God's grace to save. Indeed, it is from this that the word martyr derives. And consequently, the Church grows from this witness. The blood of the martyrs is seed.

Many have pointed out that many of the heroic stories of the early martyrs are also related as tales of sacrifice -- sacrifices that are linked to the one sacrifice of Christ, our High Priest, offered in thanksgiving for the benefit of the whole Church. Thus, in view of identifying with a eucharistic sacrifice, their sacrifice is judged acceptable and life giving, not merely for the one being martyred, but indeed for the present and future Church still remaining, if not only for the witness it confirms.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp records a very famous example in Ch. 14 concerning the execution of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, in the 2nd century. As he was being prepared for execution on a pyre, Polycarp is said to have offered a sacrificial prayer of thanksgiving to God the Father. It is a eucharistic prayer in every sense, which even concludes with a doxology:

And when [Polycarp] placed his hands behind his back and was tied, he was like an exceptional ram taken from a great flock for a sacrifice, prepared as a whole burnt offering that is acceptable to God. Looking up into heaven he said:

Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed child Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, the God of angels, of powers, and of all creation, and of every race of the upright who live before you. I bless you for making me worthy of this day and hour, that I may receive a share among the number of the martyrs in the cup of your Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal life in both soul and body in the immortality of the Holy Spirit. Among them may I be received before you today as a sacrifice that is rich and acceptable, just as you prepared and revealed in advance and now fulfilled -- the true God who does not lie. For this reason and for all things I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved child, through whom be glory to you, with him and the Holy Spirit, both now and for the ages to come. Amen.

When he sent up the "Amen" and finished the prayer, the men in charge of the fire touched it off. And as a great flame blazoned forth we beheld a marvel -- we to whom it was granted to see, who have also been preserved to report the events to the others. For the fire, taking on the appearance of a vaulted room, like a boat's sail filled with the wind, formed a wall around the martyr's body. And he was in the center, not like burning flesh but like baking bread...

The reference to bread is also not unique. Mike Aquilina is quick to remind us that St. Ignatius of Antioch referred to himself as bread when, in his letter to the Romans, he asked the Church to petition Christ that he be found to be an acceptable sacrifice.

I am writing to all the churches and giving instruction to all, that I am willingly dying for God... Allow me to be bread for the wild beasts; through them I am able to attain to God. I am the wheat of God and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found to be the pure bread of Christ... Petition Christ on my behalf, that I may be found a sacrifice through these instruments of God.

Praised be Jesus Christ, our High Priest.

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

A Hymn to the Virgin

To one that is so fare and bright
     Velut maris stella
Brighter than the day is light,
     Parens et puella:
I cry to thee to turn to me:
Lady, pray thy Son for me,
     Tam pia,
That I may come to thee.
     Maria!

In sorrow, counsel thou art best,
     Felix fecundata:
For all the weary thou art rest,
     Mater honorata:
Beseech him in thy mildest mood,
Who for us did shed his blood
     In cruce
That we may come to him
     In luce

All this world was forlorn
     Eva peccatrice,
Till our Savior Lord was born
     De te genetrice.
With thy Ave sin went away
Dark night went and in came day
     Salutis:
The well of healing sprang from thee
     Virtutis.

Lady, flower of everything
     Rosa sine spina
Thou bore Jesu, heaven's King
     Gratia divina:
Of all I say thou bore the prize,
Lady, Queen of paradise
     Electa:
Maiden mild, mother
     Es Effecta.

This little hymn, c. 1300, is macaronic, partly in Latin and partly in English, like many of the carols of the medieval English Church. The English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) composed a beautiful piece based on this particular hymn at the age of 17. It is one of my favorites. Britten's composition is written for two choirs, a large one singing the English verses, and a smaller one for the Latin.