David Ancell / Saturday, October 19, 2002 / Comments(0)
I am now trying to catch up on my blog reading from having been gone to Nashville all week. I ran across this article cited on Mark Shea’s site. Apparently, a priest expelled two boys from Catholic school in California because the parents complained that they were made to wear panty hose outside our clothes.
Several thoughts came to my mind as I read this:
1. Supposedly, this was done as an “icebreaker.” This reminds me of the retreat I went on in my college years where the blessing before meals was sung to the Flinstones theme (or something just as silly) and every day featured several of these “ice breakers.” And they wonder why they have such a hard time getting young people to participate in the Church. We can do without this silliness. Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas has often written that, when children play, they try to imitate adults. Subjecting college students to that which breeds a casual attitude towards Our Lord can only drive them out of the Church.
2. It seems to be the attitude of many clergy, parish council members, liturgical revisionists, etc. that they would rather dismiss anyone who dares criticize them as a low-life, closed-minded, uncharitable, cranky pile of pond scum who isn’t worth the ammo to blast him/her into next week. Couldn’t you at least address the concerns of the parents, even if the way in which they stated the complaint wasn’t the most charitable?
3. I guess I’m reacting a bit strongly to this because I tend to think myself as someone whom others dismiss as a crank. Sometimes I deserve it. However, isn’t it part of the life of a Christian to deal charitably with cranks. I’m not claiming to be perfect in this aspect, but it would help if someone would set an example. I also know that I tend to quickly defuse when someone shows that they are really listening.
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David Ancell / Saturday, October 19, 2002 / Comments(0)
Here is the response of Bishop Wilton Gregory to the Vatican decision regarding the Dallas proposal.
I wonder now if this may give us a better chance at having the plenary council. I still need to write that letter to Bishop Gregory.
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David Ancell / Saturday, October 19, 2002 / Comments(0)
The New York Times has published the full text of the letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of Bishops, to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Cardinal commends the Bishops for taking action against those in the clergy who would harm the young, but he addresses the concerns in the policy. In so doing, the Cardinal gave them a charitable note to explain that the policies cannot receive a recognito to become particular law in the United States. Hopefully, this will be a move towards a policy that will reflect Gospel values rather than give the appearance of CYA.
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David Ancell / Friday, October 18, 2002 / Comments(0)
I’ve finally managed to import all of the old blog into this one. It took a while because of the clean-up work I had to do before I posted everything.
Next, I’ve got to tweak the look of this blog, and I have to decide whether to move the contents.
Besides that, I need to post some actual content. Something tells me that you, dear reader, don’t want to sit and read nothing but my writing about my blog.
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David Ancell / Thursday, October 17, 2002 / Comments(0)
I’m back in town from Nashville, and I am really tired. I didn’t let it stop me from doing some work on this blog. I’ve republished many more entries. I’ve also changed the main font to black to make it easier to read.
I hope I’ll have this all done by the weekend.
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David Ancell / Thursday, October 17, 2002 / Comments(0)
In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is the letter from Pope John Paul II on the new mysteries of the Rosary. From what I’ve been told recently, it looks like these mysteries will be recommended to be said on Thursday.
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David Ancell / Thursday, October 17, 2002 / Comments(0)
It seems that there is a lot going on with the Church while I’m here slaving away at the pharmacy:
1. The Pope is proposing new mysteries for the Rosary. The “Luminous Mysteries,” which will be: Baptism in the Jordan, the temptation in the desert, the proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfigurations, and the entry into Jerusalem. I’ve heard both Thursday and Sunday for the proporsed date. I’m just waiting to see some ultra-traditionalist now say “Omigosh!! I told you the Pope is a fraud. HE CHANGED THE ROSARY!!” Nevermind that the Rosary is private devotion. I, on the other hand, think this is a good idea. I hope someone comes up with some good meditations to use.
2. I’ve received news that the Vatican is not going to approve the U.S. Bishops’ policy on sexual abuse by clergy. I’m thankful to God for this. That policy was more American “lock ’em up and throw away the key” than Christian. I saw on Catholic World News that the defects will be addressed with involvement of Vatican officials. I’m hoping that the Vatican will hold our Bishops’ feet to the fire and make them address the real problem that long has been avoided.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, October 16, 2002 / Comments(0)
Well, so far I’ve heard from one of you saying the new look is good. I like this better, but I will probably fix the way it looks. I want to change the gray font to black. Since I’m working out of my usual location, it’s not too easy to make changes. Tomorrow I plan to put the links back up and do some other tweaks.
Keep reading, and maybe I’ll have something interesting to write by tomorrow.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, October 15, 2002 / Comments(0)
I feel like a kid with a new toy. This Movable Type is awesome. Hopefully, it won’t go down like Blogger did, especially since the software and the blog are all on my own site.
I got a number of the old blog entries on, and I’ll work my way to getting more. I have to do some clean up work before I can repost them, and it’s taking some time.
Thanks for your patience.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, October 15, 2002 / Comments(0)
I’ve been in Bloghenna for a couple of days. I got the Movable Type installed, and I can tell I’ll get great functionality out of this. Unfortunately, I was having one heck of a time getting it to display my post. It was giving me the blank page that you no doubt saw not too long ago.
On top of that, Blogger wasn’t working at all, so I couldn’t even temporarily revert to the old software.
At any rate, I’m back and blogging. I’ll be trying to import my old blogger stuff as soon as I can get it to work. It’s taking a bit of time.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized