Notes: Tuesday, February 7-Monday, February 27, 2012 (part 2 of 2)

9. Dr. Weigel on, among other things, the teachings of Leo XIII. and Fr. Murray on religious liberty and Church-State relations

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291455/catholic-betrayal-religious-freedom-george-weigel

(That came to my attention via this AQ post.)

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, George Weigel, John Murray, Leo XIII. Pecci, religious liberty

10. "WEL[, the Women's Electoral Lobby,] took over the Family Planning Association [in or before 1972]"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/longserving-on-front-line-for-womens-rights-20120215-1t67c.html?skin=text-only

Family Planning NSW is now, according to this web-page at its website, an independent organisation, however.

Labels: F.P.A., W.E.L.

11. "The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government agreed on the urgent need for action to strengthen the universal commitment to religious freedom as a fundamental human right, and to its practical application with a view to promoting respect for all religions in all countries. The Holy See and the British government look forward to working together to combat intolerance and discrimination based on religion, wherever it is manifest."

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2012/documents/rc_seg-st_20120215_comunicato_en.html

http://ukinholysee.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?id=729615482&view=News

"HOLY SEE AND UK GOVERNMENT, UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM"
http://www.news.va/en/news/holy-see-and-uk-government-united-in-the-struggle-

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=432399#432399

Labels: Diocese of Rome, religious liberty, Roman Curia, U.K.

12. "CFN Launches New Web Page!"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40567

Labels: C.F.N.

13. That Atheist straw man again

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/last-post-january-25/story-fn558imw-1226252815530
(the contribution from one Brian D. Lee)

Labels: atheism

14. "Advocates of President Obama’s contraception mandate should admit that its main purpose is sexual liberation and not “women’s health,” according to a feminist author[, viz., Dr. Pamela Haag,] who supports the mandate"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/02/free-contraception-is-good-for-big-business-abortion/

Dr. Haag's essay is available here.

Labels: contraception

Reginaldvs Cantvar
27.II.2012

Notes: Wednesday, August 24-Monday, September 5, 2011 (part 1 of 2)

1. On the Department of Defence's Understanding Transitioning Gender in the Workplace document

One of The Weekend Australian's recent columns (warning: The column's name is blasphemous, and there is a picture of a bra at the top of its web-page) featured an amusing excerpt from a recent publication by Australia's Department of Defence. Here are some other points of interest from that document:

• In the course of their duties, commanders and managers may not encounter any Defence people who wish to transition gender. It is important however that commanders and managers are aware of their obligations and responsibilities with regard to the support and management of people who are transitioning gender.
  [p. 3]

• It is also important to use the correct pronouns such as ‘she’ or ‘her’ in the case of a male transitioning to a female or ‘he’ or ‘him’ in the case of a female transitioning to a male. ... The continued deliberate use of pronouns and names relating to the previous gender identity will be construed as sexual harassment.
  [p. 7]

• Should the situation arise where open communal same sex showers are the only showers available (i.e. field exercises/deployments), the transitioning person and their commander or manager should discuss and agree upon an appropriate arrangement to ensure the needs of all people are met. This situation would only apply prior to the transitioning person undergoing gender realignment surgery.
  [p. 7]

• Note that the use of the term ‘sex change’ may be perceived as derogatory.
  [p. 12]

• The precise definition for transgender remains in constant flux.
  [p. 13]

• Approximately one in 11,000 males and one in 30,000 females have the condition. Note that the prevalence of the condition is often understated as most statistics only look at those people who have completed surgery.
  [p. 16]

Note those figures on the rate of incidence of Gender Identity Disorder ("the condition" to which that last quotation refers): So in a randomly-selected sample of 60000 people, with a male:female ratio of presumably roughly 50:50, there will be roughly three "transgender women" and roughly one "transgender man" (see p. 13 for the terminology). Even if you want to double that in order to take into account the fact that the prevalence is supposedly understated, that's still only six men who feel that they're women and two women who feel that they're men. Now according to the Defence Annual Report 2009-10,

At 30 June 2010, Defence had 73,490 permanent employees (headcount) comprising 57,799 permanent ADF members and 15,691 APS staff.
[http://www.defence.gov.au/Budget/09-10/dar/dar_0910_v1_s4.pdf#nameddest=a7]

and the Defence Materiel Organisation will employ, in 2011-2012, "over 7,000 people" (source), so that one would expect that the entire Defence workforce will contain, at most, a mere ten "transgender people". Why, then, would the Department even bother putting together a whole booklet on Defence employees' 'gender affirmation' (destroying the gender in order to affirm it?) and tell its commanders and managers that it "is important" that they "are aware of their obligations and responsibilities with regard to the support and management of people who are transitioning gender"? Could it be that there is an ideological motive involved here? I see that one of the websites listed under the heading "Additional Resources" on p. 17 is that of "Pride in Diversity"; I've blogged on "Pride in Diversity" in item 6 of this edition of Notes, and you'll see at its website that it "was established as a collaboration between" Stonewall, "a London-based LGBT advocacy group", and two other organisations.

Labels: A.D.F., Defence Department, G.L.B.T., Pride in Diversity

2. On The Australian's attitude towards so-called gay marriage

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/same-sex-marriage-debate-must-not-be-shut-down/story-e6frg71x-1226122387432

That link leads to what is, to date, the fullest statement of The Australian's official editorial attitude towards so-called gay marriage. Its author writes that

The Australian leans towards libertarianism on social issues, believing the state should tread as lightly as possible around personal issues. It is not our role to pronounce one way or another on same-sex marriage ...

Yet in that editorial and this earlier one The Australian puts inverted commas around the word "marriage" when speaking of polygamous ones without ever, as far as I can recall, doing so for same-sex unions.

And that editorial, after noting some of the problems involved with gay 'marriage', says that "[n]one of [those] difficulties are insurmountable" (which indicates that The Australian has no in-principle opposition to the notion). But how does The Australian propose to 'surmount' a same-sex marriage's constitutional incapacity for consummation? And how does it propose to 'surmount' the deprivation of a mother for those children procured by Gay 'husbands' and their respective 'wives' and of a father for children procured by Lesbian 'husbands' and their respective 'wives'?

Labels: Australian, families, G.L.B.T., marriage, parenthood

3. "approximately 24 percent of [American] children are born to co-habiting couples"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=27879

Labels: families, parenthood, U.S.A.

4. "the Holy Father does not allow Girl Altar Boys within his own Diocese of Rome"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/08/should-the-infamous-altar-girl-decision-be-reversed-wm-oddie-opines-wdtprs-polls-included/

Labels: Diocese of Rome, liturgy

5. "Why mothers matter"

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/why_mothers_matter/

(That came to my attention via the LMF News e-mail of August 2011 from The Archdiocese of Sydney's Life, Marriage & Family Centre.)

Labels: families, parenthood

6. "The statistics on women in Victoria having terminations from 24 weeks into pregnancy are incomplete, badly presented and out of date - but they still allow us to estimate the number at slightly fewer than 138 women a year"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/talk-choice-no-time-to-waste-20110828-1jgft.html?skin=text-only

Labels: abortion

7. Mr. Magister on, among other things, then-Fr. Ratzinger's involvement with the Neo-catechumenal Way in its early days

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38675

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Neo-catechumenal Way

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Lawrence Justinian, Bishop, Confessor, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, June 30-Wednesday, July 6, 2011

1. "[In the U.S., n]o state referendum or initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage has ever been defeated at the ballot box"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/new-york-decision-sparks-hope-for-gay-marriage-movement-20110627-1gnj0.html?skin=text-only

Labels: G.L.B.T., marriage, U.S.A.

2. "... an approximation [of pi] appears in the Bible ..."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/maths-mutineers-say-numbers-up-for-pi/story-e6frg6so-1226083546779

Anyone know the chapter and verse for that approximation?

Labels: Scripture

3. Mr. Timbs on the origin of the Sacraments

Here is an excerpt from a comment by one of CathNews's frequent commenters, one David Timbs:

... in fact, Jesus never ordained anyone to anything nor instituted any sacraments of any kind. That sacramental system developed over time in the Church
[http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=26981]

Labels: David Timbs, Priesthood, Sacraments, theology

4. "Many Successful Gay Marriages Share an Open Secret"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29sfmetro.html

(Brought to my attention via a comment in the combox of this CathNews post.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., marriage, polyamory

5. Talk soon. Talk often--scandalous new "sex education guide"

Available here:

http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/2/1276/2/parentcaregiver.pm

(Brought to my attention by a short article in one of the editions of the Sydney Daily Telegraph last week, an expanded edition of which article is available here.)

That guide's title reminds of that old joke about how to vote in some kinds of corrupt electoral systems--'vote early and vote often', which is fitting, given that that guide would do to the virtue of chastity in a youngster what electoral corruption does to civic virtue in a citizen.

Labels: education, Jenny Walsh, vice, youngsters

6. A couple of recent items regarding the Russian Orthodox Church

6.1 "The Myth of Orthodox Revival in Russia"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37998

Labels: R.O.C.

6.2 "Russo-Orthodox cleric in Vatican ceremony: closer ties?"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37988

Labels: Diocese of Rome, R.O.C.

7. Death of H.I.&R.H. Archduke Otto of Austria

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38012

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

Labels: Otto Habsburg-Lorraine

Reginaldvs Cantvar
6.VII.2011

Notes: Thursday, July 15, 2010

"Women have better memories than men, say scientists"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/women-have-better-memories-than-men-say-scientists/story-fn3dxity-1225891858217

Excerpts:

WOMEN'S brains function better at remembering information than men's, researchers have confirmed.

A Cambridge University study of 4407 men and women from East Anglia, southeastern England, discovered gender plays a clear difference in memory function.

In tests on participants aged between 48 to 90 years, women made an average of 5.9 fewer errors than men, regardless of age.

[...] “Although the links between sex and education and cognitive function have been explored before, this very large dataset provides striking evidence that these factors play a major role in determining how good our memory function is as we age," Dr Andrew Blackwell, Chief Scientific Officer at Cambridge University's Department of Psychiatry, said.

“Using these data, we can determine whether or not an individual’s memory function is normal or not for people of their age, sex and education level.

“A body of scientific literature has demonstrated that women typically outperform men on test of verbal function, whereas men tend to outperform women on tasks of spatial function.

"However, in this study, we used a measure of memory that is spatial and women consistently outperformed men.

“There are many possible explanations for this, including both neurobiological and environmental differences.”

"U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Vatican's Immunity Not What It Seems, Says Legal Expert"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32513

Most important part:

But Addison points out that the Supreme Court issued no ruling, but merely decided not to decide on the issue at this stage of the case. Further, he insists that the Ninth Circuit ruling has been grossly mischaracterized.

The Ninth Circuit decision, he writes, was merely meant to establish a theoretical point of law, where the court was asked to rule under the presumption that all of the plaintiff’s allegations are true. “There has been no trial regarding Doe’s allegations or assertions and all the legal proceedings so
far have been entirely questions of law,” emphasized Addison.

“For the purposes of deciding whether the Holy See COULD be liable the 9th Circuit had to accept the bare assertion by Doe that Father Ronan was an employee of the Holy See,” he writes. “On that basis they decided that if (and it is a very big IF) Ronan was an employee of the Holy See then the Holy See would be vicariously liable for his actions.”

Further, he pointed out that the appeals court accepted the Holy See’s status as a sovereign state, as well as the fact that that status guarantees it the same immunities as every other state.

Addison says the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case is “not unusual” given that there has not yet been a trial or any findings of fact. Given these circumstances, he concludes, the decision “does not mean that the Supreme Court necessarily agrees or disagrees with the 9th Circuit.” Rather, it indicates “merely that the case has not yet reached a stage which is appropriate for adjudication by the Supreme Court.”

"U. of IL to 'Review' Firing of Catholic Prof. [namely Kenneth Howell]"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32511

Mr. Donnelly on adoption by same-sex couples

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-law-shouldnt-be-changed-in-nsw-to-allow-gay-adoption/

Dr. Brown on the respective pontificates of Paul VI. and John Paul II.

Pope Paul VI took a very soft stance on dissident priests, bishops, and theologians because he wanted to avoid a schism, and Pope John Paul II largely followed his lead (although he did push the church in the right direction in a lot of more subtle ways).
Comment by ies0716

It had nothing to do with wanting to avoid a schism. If PVI wanted to avoid a schism, he would not have been so hard on the SSPX. PVI wanted to move the Church to the left for political reasons, so the Church could deal with secular govts. JPII was also interested in international politics. Both were what the Italians call papa politico.

IMHO, Voris is right referring to the problems but not so right in attributing them to the present hierarchy, most of whom inherited the mess.

Comment by robtbrown — 13 July 2010 @ 8:59 pm
[http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/07/new-michael-voris-video-and-wdtprs-poll/#comment-213954]

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Henry II., Emperor, Confessor, A.D. 2010

Notes: Wednesday, May 26, 2010

On the push to punish for murder or manslaughter those who kill late-term unborn babies

The Sydney Daily Telegraph has been running this for the past couple of days and I see it's being discussed at The Punch:

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-cant-a-foetus-be-a-victim-of-crime/?referrer=email&source=Punch_nl&emcmp=Punch&emchn=Newsletter&emlist=Member

and at Cath Pews:

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/thread/1274739589.html

Arabella made the following comment at the latter:

I can't imagine any law coming into being which would impinge upon a woman’s ‘right’ to abortion.

A paragraph from a USA court case around abortion sums up the current state of affairs well I believe. Basically the way of life in countries such as the USA and Australia now depends upon the availability of abortion.

Quote:
The Roe rule's limitation on state power could not be repudiated without serious inequity to people who, for two decades of economic and social developments, have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.
Unquote.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=505&invol=833
See paragraph ‘e’ at link.

A website which monitors Facebook posts

I saw this in today's Herald. Here's the U.R.L.:

http://www.openfacebooksearch.com/

Might be useful.

"Testimony to the Primacy of the Pope by a 17th c. [Ruthenian] Orthodox Prelate"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31701

Interesting article on AQ. Here's an exerpt:

The appropriate solution would be the following: Let all recognize the primacy. The Apostolic See ought to content itself with this without changing or abandoning any of its principles and basic rights. It is real union and not mere change that we must seek. Now, the constitution and nature of union is to unite two realities and to safeguard each natural integrity. That which existed previously should exist today; that which did not exist previously ought to be suppressed. That which has always existed is the Sovereign Pontiff regarded as the first and supreme pastor in the Church of Christ, as the Vicar of Christ, the Chief. May that be conserved today! But we have never read that a Latin has ever exercised a direct jurisdiction over the Greek rite. The Greeks have always acknowledged the primacy, but they themselves have always been under the jurisdiction of a patriarch of their own rite.

... We confess openly, in virtue of the principles and basic foundations of the Church of God that our own (Byzantine) rite distinguishes us from the Roman, but that we have communion in one and the same faith. We are not able to deny that the Blessed Apostle Peter has been, as we profess in the hymns of our Church, the Prince of the Apostles and that his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, hold in perpetuity the supreme authority in the Church of God.

Consequently, without distancing ourselves from our father, the patriarch [of Constantinople], from whom we Ruthenians have received initiation into holy baptism, and without delaying the union of the Church (in which is given true salvation), everyone of us - clerics and laity - (in order to escape the dangers of dissensions) has accepted the following solution in the name of Our Lord: to live in unity under one head and one only pastor, the Vicar of Christ, as the Symbol of Faith [the Creed] prescribes for us; to profess one only Catholic and apostolic Church and in her, one only sovereign successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff; and to remain faithful to the rites of our holy Greek religion conserved in their integrity from the beginning and until the most clement God (by His power from on high) will render liberty to the Greek people (from the Turks) and to our pastor, the Patriarch (of Constantinople) who will conduct us to that salutary concord which we implore with a holy ardor, especially in the Divine Liturgy.

I worry about where it says

The Greeks have always acknowledged the primacy, but they themselves have always been under the jurisdiction of a patriarch of their own rite.

though. Although Eastern Catholics are, of course, under the jurisdiction of their respective Patriarchs, they are also under the full, supreme and immediate jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, which jurisdiction he is free to exercise at any time.

Joshua on the Old and News Rites of Mass

"Offertories Old and New":
http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2010/05/offertories-old-and-new.html
"A Few Restorations to the Mass":
http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2010/05/few-restorations-to-mass.html
"Three Most Untraditional Prayers":
http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2010/05/three-most-untraditional-prayers.html
"Offerimus tibi Domine":
http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2010/05/offerimus-tibi-domine.html

I've left the following comment at the first of those posts:

Cardinal Pole said...

"Then someone had the bright idea of adapting the Jewish table blessings of bread and wine, much as, just perhaps (who can say?), Our Lord did at the Last Supper."

It ought to be noted that the N.O.M. 'preparation of the gifts' comes from the Talmud, which is the written collection (written down hundreds of years after the time of Christ) of the very 'traditions of men' which Our Lord condemned. There is no proof that the table blessings therein are those of the Jews before and during the time of Christ, and, on the contrary, according to Encyclopedia Judaica they probably date to no earlier than the second century A.D.

"It is important that sacrificium nostrum... placeat tibi, Domine Deus be read in the strongest sense, as praying that the sacrifice offered – which is Christ – please the Lord, placate Him, appease Him, be a propitiation availing for us men and for our salvation."

The surrounding text does not impose that reading. Someone who knows the theology of the T.L.M. will read that into it, but someone who does not would be perfectly reasonable to read that as 'pleasing' in the way a mere sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is pleasing, not 'pleasing' in the sense in which a true, propitiatory sacrifice is pleasing.

"Undeniably, however, this is doctrine is deëmphasised ..."

'expunged' would be a better word.

"The Supreme Pontiff formerly known as Cardinal Ratzinger mentioned, while yet in that rank, that Lumen Gentium has passages that sound almost semi-Pelagian in their overconfident view of "modern man"."

I think you mean Gaudium et spes, Joshua.

(I hope I don't come off sounding too harsh here, Joshua; I appreciate these posts you've done on the Old vs. New Masses and am about to link to them at my blog.)

Wednesday, 26 May, 2010

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Reginaldvs Cantvar

Wednesday in the Octave of Pentecost, A.D. 2010

Notes: Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Russian Orthodox patriarch: Vatican concert an "event of great importance"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31701

Dr. Pemberton on Magna Carta and Mediaeval kingship

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/it-is-no-crime-to-make-merry-with-the-history-of-robin-hood/story-e6frg6zo-1225870276897

Dr. Pemberton makes the following two points, among others:

[1.] The Charter was less an assertion of modern rights than of traditional feudal liberties against a modernising, centralising authority. [2.] Autocratic kings were more fathers of modern democratic states than feudal lords.

Fair points, do you think, or not?

"Catholic Bible search tool launched"

From yesterday's edition of CathNews:

A new online Catholic Bible search engine, believed to be the first complete Catholic Bible translation made available for keyword search, has been launched.

The program, which enables people to find specific Scripture passages using keywords, has been developed by Catholic.net with the support of the US Bishops' Conference, said the Independent Catholic News
[http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21501]

This might be useful, though I'm not sure which version of the Bible is used; I suppose that if it's a modern translation one could use the search function to find the required chapter and verse and then consult the Douai-Rheims version. Anyway, here's the U.R.L.:

http://www.bible.catholic.net/

Death of H.I.H. The Dowager Grand Duchess of Russia

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/romanov-grand-duchess-dies/story-e6frg6so-1225870734179

See also Her late Imperial Highness's Wikipedia entry here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonida_Georgievna

Blog comments by me

At A.C.M.:

"1. For one Church in the Catholic Communion of Churches to claim to be the "standard" for the entire Catholic Church is for the eye to say to the hand or rest of the body, "I have no need of thee.""

Jack, that's a bad analogy to use here, because

1. The Church of Rome is not just any old member of the Body of Christ, but the Head, not just any Church, but the Mother and Mistress of all Churches.

2. The Universal Church cannot say to the Church of Rome "I have no need of thee", since it is in the Church of Rome that the Petrine supremacy perdures (and cannot be transferred to any other place), but she can say that to any other given Church; any other Church, or even a large number of Churches, of West or East could become extinct without the extinction of the whole Church, but if, by an impossibility (and I stress 'by an impossibility'), the Church of Rome became extinct then so would the Universal Church--the body would have been decapitated.

3. In order for an Act of the Ordinary Magisterium of any Church other than Rome to be infallible it must also be universal. But the Church of Rome is infallible in her Ordinary Magisterium without any need to compare her teachings to the teachings of the other Churches; the perennial teaching of the Bishops of Rome is a rule of Faith superior to the teaching of any other Bishop or even all other Bishops. In other words, the teachings of any Bishop other than that of Rome must have been taught always and by all Bishops (or at least at many times and by many Bishops) in order to be infallible, but for the Bishop of Rome, it suffices for infallibility that the teaching have been taught always (or for a very long time) by the Bishops of Rome. And since the teaching in the liturgy is the teaching of the Ordinary Magisterium, the liturgy of the Church of Rome is indeed the standard for the whole Church of Christ.
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[http://athanasiuscm.blogspot.com/2010/05/cardinal-schonborns-remarks-freudian.html]

"... Bl. John XXIII and Ven. John Paul II have celebrated in various Eastern forms."

I am surprised to learn that. Do you have sources to back this up (I ask not because I doubt you--though surprising, it is plausible--but in order to keep for future reference)?

And does anyone know: Did any Popes before Bl. John XXIII. do likewise?
Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.
[Ibid.]

At Mr. Schütz's blog:

Cardinal Pole
May 25, 2010 at 4:12 am

“[You] note, incidentally, that the Bishop of Rome doesn’t use a cross in his signature. He’s just “Benedictus PP. XVI”.”

Good point.
[http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/a-man-of-devastating-sanity-professor-claudio-veliz-on-cardinal-george-pell/#comment-14921]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, A.D. 2010