David Ancell's Virtual Home

Given the scandals of this day, I wonder if we will see the end of face-to-face confession as we know it. I really couldn’t blame a priest for wanting to go back to the old way of doing things. In the old confessionals that I’ve seen, the priest isn’t really even in the same room with the penitent, which renders scandal highly unlikely. Anyway, it’s interesting to note that a priest has the right to request anonymous confession just as the penitent does.

I guess these women who didn’t want to put themselves outside the Church (see my July 8, 2002 blog) are about to have done so, if they don’t put on the sackcloth and ashes by July 22. Honestly, expecting this (the excommunication threat) not to happen would be just like driving your motorized vehicle into an oak tree at 80 mph and not expecting there to be any damage to it.

Seriously, though, please pray for the women involved. Even if they get excommunicated, keep praying for them. Remember that excommunication is a medicinal penalty, not just a punishment. There will be much rejoicing in Heaven if they repent of their deeds.

My blog has an identity crisis. I’ve changed the name twice in the past week. I just can’t decide what to name this thing. I wanted to use “Confessions of a Proud Romanist,” but since pride is the queen mother of the seven deadly sins . . . . . . besides, how many people would know what a “Romanist” is?

Any time I’m looking for a resource on Catholic teachings, I try to check it out for doctrinal orthodoxy. I have one recommended step . . . . check out what it says on sexual morality. I do this not to satisfy some strange pelviphilia (if such a word exists), but rather because I know that the vast majority of people who are going to dissent from Church teaching are going to do so on this issue.

Here’s one for you . . . . I was looking through one book (Gary Wills’ Why I Am Catholic; and no, I didn’t buy it), and I’m afraid that I just don’t get the logic. It goes something like this “Since only about 3% of Catholic women use natural family planning, the Magisterium is only legislating for about 3% of the population.” Hey! There we have it!! The law doesn’t apply to law breakers!!

I’ve got an idea. Let’s go for a drive in Memphis. Like all other American municipalities, we have these little white road signs all along the road that say “Speed Limit.” Since it’s probably an extreme exaggeration to say that 3% of Memphians actually drive accordingly, we’ll just stomp the accelerator pedal and then kindly inform the Tennessee Highway Patrol officer who pulls us over on Interstate 40 that those signs don’t legislate for us.

Will we try this in front of the judgement seat of God? I hope not.

We’ve all heard plenty from the secular news about the scandals in the Catholic Church. The secular media interviews supposed “experts” on the Church to get commentary, but I’d like to call your attention to this article on Peter’s Net by the man whom I would consider to be the good guy whom they sometimes interview, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

It appears that the headlines for today reveal one more attempt to mobilize the laity. Well, ok, I confess that I’m just using this as an excuse to state my case. My case can be stated in one sentence (but because I have a big mouth I will utilize additional sentences afterward): If we entangle the laity in church government, we will take away from our real mission as lay people.

What I’m saying is that there is a neighborhood in which I live and a job at which I work. Who will preach the Gospel there? Do I really think my pastor is going to make regular visits there? He won’t because it’s my job to bring the Gospel there, and this job won’t get done by lay people who are more concerned about their voice in Church government than the voice of Jesus Christ in their corner of the world. Of course, there are ministries for lay people to get involved in, but they, too, should be oriented towards bringing Christ to the world.

I just saw this article on the “ordination” of six women on cathnews.com. It didn’t really impress me much until I read the quote at the end from a spokeswoman who insisted that the women involved don’t want to put themselves outside the Church. Honestly, I really can’t understand why they want to do this. If they really don’t want to separate themselves from the Church, why are they accepting an invalid ordination from a bishop who isn’t even in the Church.

I saw this site and couldn’t resist. This is just perfect for me to post all my rants and ravings for the world to see. Really, I’m not that egotistical . . . . but I certainly have no shortage of opinions. I suspect I’ll write about Catholic things since that the most important part of my life, but you may see some other stuff from time to time. It is my desire that everything I post be faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.