Dancing on Thin Ice

Diogenes at Catholic World News caught the following entry from the parish bulletin at St. Francis Xavier church in New York (a Jesuit parish; 'nuff said, unfortunately):

ATTENTION DANCERS!

2008 Catechetical Convocation – Archdiocese of New York

"The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church"

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York

Modern dancers, liturgical dancers, and expert dancers

in Mexican, Philippine, German and African dance

are invited to volunteer

for the Opening and Closing Prayer experiences

of the 2008 Catechetical Convocation of the Archdiocese of New York

to be held on Saturday, September 27, 2008 in White Plains, NY.

At least they acknowledge that "liturgical dancers" and "expert dancers" don't belong in the same category.

July 15th: St. Vladimir

Today is the feast of St. Vladimir I of Kiev (956-1015), honored alike in the Catholic and orthodox churches as the man who Christianized the people of Kiev. He is patron, among other things, of Russia, of converts, of parents with large families and -- murderers.

The first thing that strikes one on reading a sketch of St. Vladimir's life is that he was not a very nice person -- certainly not before his conversion, and maybe, just possibly not even then. He made war on his brother, whom he eventually slew after the latter surrendered; slew a prince and took his daughter to wife; took several other wives and numerous concubines, by whom he had a boodle of children (hence his patronage of people with large families); and set up a great many shrines devoted to Slavic pagan gods. In an interesting parallel with my favorite obscure saint, King St. Aethelberht of Kent (who must surely have prayed for him), St. Vladimir started out as a committed pagan. St. Aethelberht was a worshipper of Odin, who demanded human sacrifices, usually by strangulation or hanging from trees in sacred groves; it is thought that Vladimir may himself have participated in rituals involving human sacrifice.

Although Christianity was quietly and secretly blossoming in the lands under his rule, it was not until 987, while planning a campaign against the Graeco-Roman empire, that he began to be interested in Christianity. He sent envoys to study the religions of various neighboring lands, and received glowing reports about the Divine Liturgy celebrated at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Thus was the finger of God, as Whittaker Chambers put it, laid on his forehead.

But unlike St. Aethelbehrt, who had possessed a great deal of natural goodness and decency even before his conversion, Vladimir was still far from exhibiting those virtues for which the saints are often renowned. In 988, after beseiging the city of Kherson in the Eastern Roman Empire, Vladimir sent an embassy to Emperor Basil II of Constantinople asking for his sister Anna's hand in marriage, and threatening to march on Constantinople if he refused. The Emperor replied that a Christian could only marry another Christian, so only if Vladimir were a Christian prince could he sanction such a match. Vladimir replied that he had studied the Christian faith and was inclined favorably to it, so that he was ready to accept Baptism.

Which baptism took place that same year, as depicted above by the Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov. Vladimir followed it up by marrying Anna, returning the city of Kherson, returning to Kiev with his new bride, getting rid of all his other wives and concubines, and setting about expunging paganism from within his borders. Catholic Encyclopedia describes the opening of his campaign:

When Vladimir returned to Kieff he took upon himself the conversion of his subjects. He ordered the statues of the gods to be thrown down, chopped to pieces, and some of them burned; the chief god, Perun, was dragged through the mud and thrown into the River Dnieper. These acts impressed the people with the helplessness of their gods, and when they were told that they should follow Vladimir's example and become Christians they were willingly baptized, even wading into the river that they might the sooner be reached by the priest for baptism. Zubrycki thinks this readiness shows that the doctrines of Christianity had already been secretly spread in Kieff and that the people only waited for an opportunity to publicly acknowledge them.

Vladimir did become known as a mild and devoted ruler (having given up warmongering), and was zealous for the spread of the Christian faith. Although two of his sons were later recognized as saints in their own right (Boris and Gleb), his later life was dogged by the intransigence of some of his older children. Vladimir died on the march north to deal with his rebellious son Yaroslav in 1015, and his feast is celebrated on July 15th.

Vladimir's conversion and subsequent recognition as a saint provide us with a striking example of the powers of Baptism, even in the case of a man with multiple murders on his conscience, whose appallingly evil life should have landed him in the bowels of Hell. Mere good will on Vladimir's part -- especially mixed as it appears to have been, at least in the beginning, with political motivations -- could never have been enough to give him the purpose of amendment he obviously exhibited after Baptism, let alone save his soul. Here is proof, if more is needed, that Baptism is no mere symbol.

Broads at Work

"Men at work" signs. "Men Working Ahead" signs. Signs with pictures of guys wielding shovels. Like a noisome fungus, they sprouted up all over the city of Atlanta, blocking the warm sun of "gender equality," choking off the dying gasps of feminine self-esteem.

Unable to bear the agony for one more second, Cynthia Good decided that enough was enough. Striking a decisive blow on behalf of oppressed women everywhere, the women's magazine editor daringly vandalized one of the abominable signs, spray-painting the letters "WO" in front of the word "MEN." When police came to her office in response to a complaint about the vandalism, she took up the banner of women's equality in earnest.
"Good fired off letters complaining about the signs to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Gov. Sonny Perdue," reports ajc.com. In the face of this estrogen-fueled temper tantrum, the Atlanta Public Works Commissioner (a man) caved. To reward Cynthia Good for her act of vandalism, the city will modify or replace "Men at Work" signs at a cost of $22.00 to $144.00 apiece, and force contractors to do the same. And Atlanta is only the beginning. Declares Good: "We're calling on the rest of the nation to follow suit and make a statement that we will not accept these subtle forms of discrimination."
Thank God the citizens of Atlanta no longer have to look at signs telling them that only men are working. All over the world, the female sex is subjected to a vast array of horrors and degradations, from female infanticide (including sex-selective abortion) to genital mutilation; from burqas to polygamy; from sexual slavery to stonings. But at least the deadly peril of "Men at Work" signs has been removed.
And as an extra added bonus, Cynthia Good just happened to escape having to answer for malicious injury to property. How convenient.

Fourth of July

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast and sail and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee -- are all with thee!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thoughts on a Milestone Year

1998 was rather a momentous year, at least for me.

Ten years ago in May, I donned the purple hood that was the emblem of my victory in the great, three-year battle to graduate from law school.

Ten years ago this month, I sat for the bar exam, an ordeal that may be likened to crossing the Nevada desert on a rider mower. I came out of the exam knowing I'd flunked, and waited grimly for the beginning of September, when the results would be available by phone. The state bar office absolutely would not take any calls about the exam even one milisecond before the time set to release the results, making the last ten minutes before that time the longest of my life.

Then came the stupendous news that I couldn't bring myself to believe until I saw it in writing: I passed. I immediately changed the recording on my telephone answering machine to announce exultantly that I was now a lawyer-elect -- only to have the first message after that be from my best friend, who had taken the bar in another state, calling to tell me she hadn't passed.

Three weeks later, I parked my Chevy pickup at a seedy motel in Moscow and rode the bus down to Boise to appear before the Idaho Supreme Court and the U.S. Court, District of Idaho. On September 24, 1998, I was officially sworn in as an attorney and counselor at law in all the state and federal courts in Idaho.
And that's when all my trials and tribulations really began.

Filthy Lucre

A guy in Davenport, Iowa is going to spend a week in jail for contempt of court. His crime: he tried to post a $100.00 bond in dirty pennies and singles.

When the man opted to go to trial on a case of driving with a defective tire, the court required him to post a $100.00 bond. So he arrived at the courthouse with a box of allegedly bug-ridden bills and a bucket of gooey pennies. The clerk of the court said they had to use rubber gloves to count out the filthy lucre. When the judge found out what was going on in the clerk's office, she ordered the guy arrested for contempt of court.

Here is the Iowa statute defining acts of contempt:

665.2 ACTS CONSTITUTING CONTEMPT. The following acts or omissions are contempts, and are punishable as such by any of the courts of this state, or by any judicial officer, including judicial magistrates, acting in the discharge of an official duty, as hereinafter provided:

1. Contemptuous or insolent behavior toward such court while engaged in the discharge of a judicial duty which may tend to impair the respect due to its authority.

2. Any willful disturbance calculated to interrupt the due course of its official proceedings.

3. Illegal resistance to any order or process made or issued by it.

4. Disobedience to any subpoena issued by it and duly served, or refusing to be sworn or to answer as a witness.

5. Unlawfully detaining a witness or party to an action or proceeding pending before such court, while going to or remaining at the place where the action or proceeding is thus pending, after being summoned, or knowingly assisting, aiding or abetting any person in evading service of the process of such court.

6. Any other act or omission specially declared a contempt by law.

So which one of these subsections does posting a filthy bond come under? The only ones it might conceivably be stretched to fit under would be 1 and 2. But then there is the problem of intent, which the statute requires in its plain terms: who deliberately keeps a box of yucky money around, just in case they want to express their displeasure at having to post a trial bond? And if you charged with contempt every single person who comes into the court clerk's office with bad hygiene or a complicated, time-consuming problem, you'd have to let all the real criminals out of the jails to make room for them.

I remember, when I was eight or nine years old, my parents bought a Chevy pickup, and made the down payment almost entirely in singles they'd saved and kept in an old wine jug. Lucky for them the auto dealership didn't have contempt powers.

Behind the Scenes: The Statehouse Restoration

KTVB.com has a slideshow of pics taken inside Idaho's century-old Capitol buildling while it undergoes restoration and expansion. The Idaho State Capitol Commission has more information about the project, including slide shows, historic photos from the original construction, and time-lapse footage. The statehouse is not scheduled to re-open until next year.

It's good that this important piece of Idaho history is being restored to its earlier grandeur. It'll be even better when the project is finished, and we can finally have the huge mess downtown cleared up.

June 22: Feast of St. Thomas More

The saint's last letter, to his beloved daughter Margaret, written with a charcoal stick the day before his execution:

Our Lord bless you, good daughter, and your good husband, and your little boy, and all yours, and all my children, and all my god-children and all our friends. Recommend me when ye may to my good daughter Cecily, whom I beseech Our Lord to comfort; and I send her my blessing and to all her children, and pray her to pray for me. I send her a handkercher, and God comfort my good son, her husband. My good daughter Daunce hath the picture in parchment that you delivered me from my Lady Coniers, her name on the back. Show her that I heartily pray her that you may send it in my name to her again, for a token from me to pray for me.

I like special well Dorothy Colly. I pray you be good unto her. I would wot whether this be she that you wrote me of. If not, yet I pray you be good to the other as you may in her affliction, and to my good daughter Jane Aleyn too. Give her, I pray you, some kind answer, for she sued hitherto me this day to pray you be good to her.

I cumber you, good Margaret, much, but I would be sorry if it should be any longer than to-morrow, for it is St. Thomas's even, and the utas of St. Peter; and therefore, to-morrow long I to go to God. It were a day very meet and convenient for me.

I never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last; for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no leisure to look to worldly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends, that we may merrily meet in heaven. I thank you for your great cost. I send now my good daughter Clement her algorism stone, and I send her and my godson and all hers God's blessing and mine. I pray you at time convenient recommend me to my good son John More. I liked well his natural fashion. Our Lord bless him and his good wife, my loving daughter, to whom I pray him to be good, as he hath great cause; and that, if the land of mine come to his hands, he break not my will concerning his sister Daunce. And the Lord bless Thomas and Austin, and all that they shall have.

June 19th: Feast of St. Jude Thaddeus

...who happens to be my mother's patron saint. A martyr for the faith, like all the Apostles, St. Jude was beaten to death and then beheaded in Persia. The confusion of Jude Thaddeus with Judas Iscariot led to his being regarded as the patron of hopeless causes. He is also the patron of the desperately ill.

Prayer to St. Jude

Glorious Saint Jude, with faith in your goodness I ask your help today. As one of Christ's chosen Apostles, you are a pillar and foundation of His Church on earth. You are among the elders who stand always before God's throne.

Brother Jude, you are renowned for your kinship with Christ and your physical resemblance to our Savior. Help me remain close to Christ and resemble Him in my outlook and actions.

Holy Apostle, you are venerated for your work of preaching the gospel and your faithfulness to Christ by a martyr's death. Assist me to preach the good news of Christ by word and example, and remain steadfast in His service as you were.

From your place of glory, do not forget the needs and difficulties of Christ's little ones like me, still struggling on the way home to God. Pray for me that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly (name special problem) and that I may praise God with you and all the elect forever.

Intercede for us all, gracious, brother Saint Jude, and pray for us to the Lord our God in our daily toil and our necessities. Amen.

Prayer to St. Jude for the Desperately Ill

Dear Apostle and Martyr for Christ, you left us an Epistle in the New Testament. With good reason many invoke you when illness is at a desperate stage. We now recommend to your kindness (name of patient) who is in a critical condition. May the cure of this patient increase his/her faith and love for the Lord of Life, for the glory of our merciful God. Amen.

Sounds Like a Plan to Me!

Catholic World News reports that a senior Vatican official says the Holy Father wants the extraordinary rite to be revived in every parish. Quoth the story:

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, told a June 14 press conference in London that the traditional Latin Mass should be reintroduced throughout the Catholic world. Asked whether the old liturgy would eventually be used in many parishes, the Colombian prelate replied: "Not many parishes; all parishes." [Emphasis added.]

Read: the Pope is determined to rein in all the liberal bishops who are determined to continue to suppress the extraordinary rite. Shall we take a wild stab at who is bound to prevail?

By the way, in a shocking gesture of disobedience to all the liturgical "experts" out there who not only despise the extraordinary rite, but also claim it is unlawful to have anything on the altar, this is Pope Benedict celebrating Mass at an altar decorated with candles and [gasp] a crucifix.