Rest in Peace, Margaret Creagh

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Margaret Creagh, a faithful Pro-Life Action League volunteer for 27 years.

Margaret died Friday at the age of 83. She was laid to rest yesterday.

Sublime

I served the Tridentine Mass for the first time on Monday, and I found the experience to be singularly sublime.

I've mentioned in previous posts that I like the Tridentine Mass, and I now know that I really, really like serving it. I hope and pray I will have other opportunities to do so in the future.

Brush Up Your Latin

I will have the great fortune to serve the Tridentine Mass for the first time this Monday, as a newly ordained priest from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter will be coming to our office to offer Mass in our St. Joseph Chapel:



In the meantime, I'm finding this Tutorial for Altar Servers—which, incidentally, is a project of our parish—to be extraordinarily helpful.

Drat

The American Chesterton Society's 2008 Conference begins tomorrow.

Alas, I won't be there.

The last time I attended was 2002, and ever since then there's always been some scheduling conflict that forestalls any would-be designs to go. (This time around, it's a friend's wedding here in Chicago)

Maybe next year.

In the meantime, Sean Dailey is still very much working on his talk to be given at the conference this Friday. (And given my penchant for black humor, I was tickled pink by his choice of gif file that accompanied his post.)

Holy Camp Value, Batman!

One day recently whilst the family was consuming grapes—green grapes, to be exact—around the kitchen table, I was prompted to recall a scene from an episode of The Electric Company I saw as a lad that somehow managed to stay lodged in the recesses of my memory.

And, after googling "greedy greg grabbed the green grapes", I found it, via the magic of YouTube:

Showing the Truth

I posted this entry this morning on the Generations for Life blog:

Since their school year was already finished, a group of local pro-life teens, including Dolores and Patty Weber and Nate and Sam Scheidler decided last week to take graphic abortion pictures and stand outside one of their local public high schools (Batavia High School in Batavia, IL) on its last day of school.

As soon as they set up their signs, a security guard from the school told them that they would have to move across the street, or else he would call the police. Since these pro-life teens had attended many pro-life demonstrations in the past, they knew they had the right to stand on a public sidewalk, so they didn't move.

Soon more security guards came, and eventually so did the school's principal, who told Nate Scheidler that the public sidewalk in front of this public school was not public property.

Nate disagreed, and said that the First Amendment guaranteed their right to be there.

Then, the police came, and they too, like the school's principal, didn't believe the public sidewalk in front of a public school was public property.

After more back and forth, the pro-life teens continued to stand their ground, and stayed as long as they had planned to. (My co-worker Matt Yonke has more details on the Families Against Planned Parenthood blog.)

I have to give them credit: They knew their rights, and they weren't about to let anyone take them away.

Most of the time when we deal with police officers while doing pro-life demonstrations, we have no problems at all, but we certainly have dealt with our share of uncooperative police.

That's why for our Face the Truth Tour next month, we're working with our attorneys to write a professional brochure to give to police officers in the various cities we visit to explain that we're well aware of our rights and that what we're doing is perfectly legal.

Shakespeare Fans, Lick Your Chops

There's a humdinger of a bargain currently on Amazon: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library) (Hardcover) for only $60 [!].

[HT: Remy via Matt Yonke]

Remember That, Dad? Thanks, Dad

I just posted this on the Catholic Dads blog:


For reasons unbeknownst to me, last month I happened to call to mind a talk I heard at a Camporee (a Boy Scout camping weekend) when I was 13, some 17 years ago.

The context for the talk, as I recall, was that the speaker's dad had died unexpectedly. This fellow, in turn, was recounting an imaginary conversation with his dad, reflecting on all of the good childhood memories he had shared with him. These were the things he wishes he would have been able to actually say to his dad, but never had the chance to.

The lesson of the talk was that each of us should never be hesitant to express our gratitude toward those we love; otherwise, we may lose the chance to do so (in the present life, at least).

I can't recall any of his specific recollections, but I very distinctly recall his refrain, so to speak. After recounting each memory, he said:

Remember that, Dad? Thanks, Dad.

With Father's Day coming up this Sunday, I would encourage each of my fellow Catholic Dads—and, anyone else too, for that matter—to similarly express such gratitude to our own dads for any of the various childhood memories we hold dear.

Magnificat Should Have Used a Different Picture

I'm usually fond of the works of sacred art Magnificat uses for its covers, but I can't say as I'm a fan of the image of St. Paul they elected to use for this month:



From the angle at which I first saw it, I fancied momentarily that the profile looked rather like that of Vladimir Lenin:

Worth Watching

On a friend's recommendation, I recently watched The Ninth Day.

This site gives a synopsis:

February, 1942. A Luxembourg priest is released from the Dachau concentration camp and sent home. The Nazis, annoyed with the bishop of Luxembourg's refusal to co-operate, plan to use him to give public support to Hitlers policies. Gebhardt, a superior officer in the Gestapo, gives Kremer nine days to make a decision. If he refuses their offer, he will immediately be sent back to the camp.

I very much enjoyed this film, and highly recommend it.

So too does Stephen Greydanus, the National Catholic Register's film critic, whose review is here.

An Interesting Take

Seminarian Tim Kelleher has an interesting take on the Father Pfleger situation (and the state of the clergy and Church at large) on the First Things blog.

Check thou it out.

Guilty

Apropos of twelve of my fellow Illinois residents' having decided yesterday to convict Tony Rezko on corruption charges, I had a yearning to reread one of Chesterton's most famous and beloved essays, The Twelve Men.

Oddly enough, I had never read it until just a few months ago, when our friend Ann Petta, wife of the late Frank Petta, sent me a copy with a note saying it was the first thing Frank had ever read of Chesterton's.

Worth a Listen

Father Richard Simon, the current pastor at St. Lambert's Parish in Skokie, IL, is one of the best priests I know.

When I say "best", I mean that inasmuch as he possesses in spades the qualities of being orthodox, holy, down-to-earth, intelligent, eloquent, humble, and funny.

I first got to know him at the parish where he used to be pastor — St. Thomas of Canterbury in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood — which runs a soup kitchen where Jocelyn and I volunteered while we were students at nearby Loyola University. (In fact, that's how we met.)

In addition, we've had the good fortune of having Father Simon lead our staff retreat the past two years.

For the past few years, my prayer has been that some time when Rome needs to go to the sacerdotal bullpen, he'll get the call and find himself the recipient of a ring and crozier.

Father Simon is a regular guest on Relevant Radio's "Searching the Word" program, and yesterday's topic was the canonicity of Scripture.

I only got to hear the first half of it, but Father was in rare form. As of this writing, yesterday's program is not yet available in the Archives, but I suspect it will be quite soon.

It's well worth a listen.

Oremus

In response to the increasingly messy Father Pfleger situation, the most intelligent comment I've come across so far is one that simply encouraged prayers on his behalf.

So too, we should pray earnestly for Cardinal George, that he will have the wisdom of Solomon in pastorally sorting out the various sticky wickets presented by Father Pfleger and the congregation at St. Sabina.

There's No There There

Along the lines of this entry I posted last week, this morning on Jill Stanek's blog, a commenter named xalisae wrote:

I fully and completely believe [abortion] kills another real human being who should be afforded all the rights and protections every other person in the world has or should have by default. Because of this fact, I want to promote things that will keep abortions from happening. The pill and other contraceptives do this. Why the pro-life movement cannot comprehend this is beyond me.

Notwithstanding xalisae's laudable staunch opposition to abortion, I wrote in response:

We can't comprehend it because there's no there there.

This has been known for years. Heck, even Alfred Kinsey acknowledged (at the April 1955 Conference on Induced Abortion—which, incidentally, was sponsored by Planned Parenthood):

At the risk of being repetitious, I would remind the group that we have found the highest frequency of induced abortions in the group which, in general, most frequently uses contraception.

The Bullwinkle Approach to contraception as some sort of "remedy" for abortion is, and always has been, doomed.

Great.

I was hoping that Chicago's dreams of hosting the 2016 Olympics would have been dashed as of today.

Not so.

Count me among those who most definitely do *not* want the Olympics coming to the city I currently work in and used to live in for nine years.

Why?

Chiefly because of the Un. Be. Lievable. levels of graft and corruption our city (and state) are famous for.

Considering all the (tens of? hundreds of?) millions that stand to be made off building contracts if Chicago gets the Olympics, the only real beneficiaries would be those politically connected enough to land themselves sweetheart deals.

And considering that taxpayers could be would be on the hook for, say, $500 million, I'm incurably convinced that I want Chicago to remain an Olympics-Free Zone.

Venezuela's Progress Towards an Orwellian State Continues Apace

But the people don't seem to be taking it lightly:

Venezuelan law may lead to neighborly snitching

By Christopher Toothaker | Associated Press
June 4, 2008


CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans may be forced to spy on their neighbors or risk prison terms under President Hugo Chavez's new intelligence decree, raising fears of a Cuba-style system that could be used to stifle dissent.

Chavez says the intelligence law that he quietly decreed last week will help Venezuela detect and neutralize national security threats, including assassination or coups plots. But many Venezuelans are alarmed that they could be forced to act as informants for the authorities or face up to 4 years in prison.

Guns Don't Kill People; Cartoon Guns on T-Shirts Kill People

Or so some security guard at Heathrow apparently thinks.

[HT: Mark Shea]

I Love a Parade

In honor of its 100th anniversary, the working-class Chicago suburb that is home to Haus Jansen and is known for, among other things, being the subject of a running gag on the local TV show Svengoolie, a public safety director who beat up a guy in a bar on the last local election day, and, more recently, making the boneheaded decision to demolish a Sears, Roebuck & Co. mail-order home, held a parade on Sunday.

Whereas we love a good parade, but hadn't been to one in quite some time — come to think of it, I think this was the first parade any of our issue had seen — we were there. With bells on.

So too was the aforementioned Svengoolie:



There were also a bunch of cool old cars:







Also on hand was our local parish, St. Odilo, which happens to be the National Shrine of the Souls in Purgatory:



I've gotta hand it to the pastor, the redoubtable Father Tony Brankin, whose brainchild it was to have the kids on the float represent, fittingly enough, the souls in purgatory:



To be sure, a good time was had by all.

What Would Chicago Be Without the Graft?

On the front page of yesterday's Chicago Tribune is a humdinger of an investigative piece of reportage on some eyebrow-raising real estate deals involving the wife of the city's 40th Ward Alderman, Patrick O'Connor, one of King Richard the Younger's "most important [city] council allies" (read: yes-men):

TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE

He zones. She sells. And it's legal.

Alderman OKd zoning for developers who retained his wife as sales agent. She sold homes worth $22 million.

By Robert Becker and Dan Mihalopoulos | Tribune reporters
June 1, 2008



It's hard to miss Barbara O'Connor's face on a drive through North Side neighborhoods, where her real estate signs beckon buyers to "find your way home."

In the last decade she has built a thriving business selling houses and condos, many of which couldn't have been built without zoning changes the developers sought from the 40th Ward alderman—her husband, Patrick O'Connor.

Barbara O'Connor has sold more than $22 million worth of houses and condos in the O'Connors' home ward after the projects first got a thumbs up from her husband. And she has sold homes worth millions of dollars in other parts of the city for developers who at one time or another have come to her husband for help.

Then comes the money graph:

It's a situation unique to Chicago, where neighborhood projects live or die on the word of the local alderman, and decisions made long before any public meetings are ultimately rubber-stamped by the City Council.

Then there's this sentence, which is self-evidently comical:

Patrick O'Connor said his wife's success has nothing to do with developers' dependence on his approval.

Read the whole thing.