Attacks on Catholic churches and pro-life centers

There have been at least 73 attacks on pregnancy centers and pro-life offices, along with at least 83 attacks on Catholic churches, since the Supreme Court's decision was leaked to the public on May 2, according to CatholicVote, a Catholic political advocacy group.  Yet the FBI sent heavily armed federal agents to the home of Mark Houck, a pro-life activist, over allegedly shoving a Planned Parenthood worker following a verbal altercation. The local police had already investigated it and found nothing criminal. Imagine the hysteria of the media if 83 black churches had been attacked in a few months. Remember the non-story about black churches in the 1990s being burned, and it turned out it was just the media not doing their research. Well, they are certainly quiet about the problem the Left has with keeping babies alive long enough to be born.

Has The FBI Arrested Any Suspects In 150 Attacks On Pro-Life Groups And Churches? | The Daily Caller

Facial language fails with masks

Today I learned it is very difficult to scowl wearing a mask and have people get your message. The church I attend is still closed, so when we're in Columbus I attend St. Andrew Catholic, which is only a mile away. This has never happened before, but there were 4 men chatting 2 by 2 in the entry and in the back of the sanctuary. Usually, in my experience, Catholic churches are very quiet and people go there to worship not to catch up on the local news. I love the architecture, but the acoustics are poor with a lot of echo, so having someone talking (that sound seems to travel) makes it especially difficult for others to hear. I tried turning my head and scowling at them, but they either didn't get the message or they figured out I was a visitor and they had rights. I would like to tell them that  many churches in the U.S. are not open and they should appreciate what they have.

Grocery stores can stay open, but churches can’t?

I'm not sure I've ever shopped at a grocery store associated with Southeastern Grocers. Their web page has a statement I wish we'd seen from our churches. They stayed open--they were "essential." They also donated a lot of money to food pantries and are supporting a big fund raiser for July 4.
"We are committed to providing the safest and healthiest store experience for our associates, customers and communities.

We will continue to refine our processes and protocols in our stores, with health and safety as our guide, as long as this pandemic remains a threat. You can always count on us."
Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG) is the parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores. It is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. and is located in 7 southeastern states.

8928 Prominence Parkway, #200 / Jacksonville, FL 32256 / Local: 904-783-5000 / Toll Free: 1-800-967-9105

Maybe they have a parking lot somewhere that a church could meet.

The churches and BDS

IF you attend a liberal, mainline church (can be either Catholic or Protestant) you'll hear about BDS (boycott-divestment-sanctions) as a response to Israel. It's plain and simple Arab anti-Semitism and you've been snookered. Its advocates swarm on college campuses, social media and late night TV. Liberals particularly seem to love BDS. The objective is the killing of Jews and returning those who are left to the statelessness of pre-1948. I don't know exactly how they got such a foothold in academe, the founder, Omar Barghouti attended university in the U.S., so we must have birthed him. Can someone shake the money tree?

Which churches?

Here’s the ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a merger of 1988 of 3 major Lutheran synods. download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/PNW_elca_bds.pdf?  Our church, UALC is no long in that synod.

Here’s Church of the Brethren, UCC, Disciples of Christ,  UMC, Presbyterian Church (USA)   https://disciples.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016DNSStatement-on-Anti-BDS-legislation-Aug-22.pdf

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/121645/chutzpah-omar-barghouti-daniel-greenfield

Poetry and music—how the schools and churches fail us

Although this is a challenge for Catholic schools and churches, it applies to all worship leaders and educators: poetry and music. Even when I was in school 60 years ago, my mother complained that we didn't have enough poetry in our curriculum.

"First, get rid of the lousy poetry and lousy music. Stupidity is always a vice, says Maritain. Nobody says, “It doesn’t matter what movies my child watches, so long as he watches movies,” or, “It doesn’t matter what my husband drinks, so long as he drinks.” Get rid of it. Nobody but the church performers enjoys it anyway. Replace it with real hymns. Don’t think you can get those from the big presses, OCP and GIA and such, because they have mangled the texts and dragged them through the mud. Sing the poems, as they were composed.

Second, return to poetry. The time is short, and the reward immense. Fifty lines of Tennyson can be committed to memory; five hundred pages of Dickens, not so fast. Have every student in your schools learn, say, twenty poems by heart. And their elders, too, might join in – have a Poetry Night in your parish, with the stipulation that every poem be written in meter.

We are suffering from cultural dementia, muddied and dulled by the strokes of the modern. It is time, little by little, for recovery."

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/02/23/recovering-from-cultural-dementia/?

Not being Catholic, or even musical, I didn't know what OCP and GIA were, so I looked it up. The comments from the musical directors are hilarious.

https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/8615/what-is-your-favorite-gia-or-ocp-hymnal-/p1

What are you hearing in sermons and homilies?

Howard Kainz, a Catholic, observes, “I was surprised in the last couple months to hear two homilies – one on the abuse crisis and cover-ups, the other on abortion. My surprise is based on the fact that I have never heard these two topics discussed at any Sunday Mass since Vatican II. And I have attended Masses in quite a few states.”

I’ve noticed the same thing at our church.  In over 40 years at UALC, I’ve heard one sermon on marriage and nothing about abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage, war, poverty, immigration, and just a smidgen on finances, etc. It is up to small groups or social ministries to address those concerns—without a pastor and usually without Biblical leadership.

Forty years ago I was relieved not to hear about the culture and day to day drama from the pulpit, as we had transferred from First Community Church and that seemed the primary topic of the day, but with no gospel.  The preacher there in the 1970s was a fabulous speaker, impassioned, poetic, with sermons that read like the front page of the Washington Post;  and he was also unfaithful to his wife and children leaving in disgrace. Maybe he just had pent up energy or guilt.

But there are times I feel we conservatives Christians are drowning in a culture of hate, bias, misinformation, and scripture twisting. I understand the pastor has to speak to everyone, but it does seem we just quietly go out to coffee in the narthex to struggle on our own while munching blueberry donut holes.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/11/12/homilies-on-hot-topics/

Graigmile back for a 6th season in 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smIAuenhqBw

You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate the excellent program offered in the summer by The Church of  St. Mary in Lake Forest, Illinois by Charles Craigmile.  He is a theologian turned businessman.  I’ve watched them all.  This season is about the culture and relies on the work of Pope Benedict, “Culture Lost, Culture Reclaimed: The Catholic Renewal.” 50 years ago the Pope wrote “Introduction to Christianity” (as Cardinal Ratzinger). 2018 is also the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html and the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.  Also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. 

“Lecturer Charles H. Craigmile holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, with minors in Latin and Greek from the University of St. Thomas, an MA in philosophy from DePaul University, and an MBA from JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Charles has also completed three-years’ course work toward a graduate degree in Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Over the last 25 years, Charles has taught Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programs across the Chicago area and led summer programs in recent years at Church of Saint Mary in Lake Forest. He is president and CEO of Revenova, LLC, the leading Cloud-based Transportation Management Application built on the Salesforce.com platform. Previously, he was president and CEO of Forseva which he sold to Equifax in 2014.” (From 2014 story in Daily North Shore)

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/10/fourth-annual-summer-school-of-faith.html

St. Andrew Kim

I'm not sure what the business model is for Facebook, but there are many ads that are paid, or sponsored.  Sometimes they appear on a "wall" but there's also a column on the right side of my screen that scrolls advertising. (There is more than one way to sign on, so it may vary on other screens, on phone screens for instance.) Someone actually looks at those paid ads scrolling on the right side--me. Today I clicked on Detroit St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church. Of course, when it came up there wasn't much information, so I had to find a link which was completely in Korean, even the ads. So I looked up St. Andrew Kim on the internet, and found a very interesting story about the importance of the laity.https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2013-09-20