As curious as a cat

Hello, dear children. Recently I had conversation with a colleague of mine about the status of the liturgy, his name is irrelevant to this discussion, but if you have to know, it was Archbishop Marini. One of the elements that we fought about discussed was the Sign of Peace and how fitting it is in its actual practice.

The liturgy is a gift from God, it belongs to no one individual or pope, it belongs to the Church as whole. Not that the Church is a democracy, but I am very curious as to what the parishioners of St. Blog’s think of the Sign of Peace. Perhaps you would like to help Papa out by offering your heartfelt opinion.

With help from one of the holy-geeks, I installed a poll in the sidebar; please take a moment to let me know your thoughts on the matter. I can’t promise you that the results will be indicative of what reforms to the liturgy you might see, if any at all. But I will at least keep the results in mind.

Thank you and God bless you.

Papa

Modern technology

Good day, friends. Believe it or not, I am musing at 9144 meters - that is 30,000 feet for our American brethren. My much-needed vacation is over now and I am en route to Castel Gandolfo for the remainder of the summer.

I marvel at modern technology and what can be done with it; if it were only used for good the world would be a much better place. As I am musing to you via my Blackberry, I was struck by how modern technology, particularly computer code, demonstrates to us how unworkable the Relativist system is.

I am not an IT professional, and my infallibility does not apply to the IT world, so please bear with me. Computers have languages (like Basic, c++, etc.). Just the right language needs to be used to get the computer to function the way it was intended. I believe there is a saying about that, which goes something like, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

If a computer programmer attempts to apply a Relativist philosophy to his craft, he will fail. A Relativist can try all he wants to force the computer to accept his irrational commands, but it simply won’t work. There is a specific code that the computer is designed to operate by, and that code means something.

Likewise, God, as the Supreme Programmer has written a code for us, it is a moral code (Morals++?), and it means something, and try as we might, we just won’t function properly, or be what we were intended to be without following the proper code.

Anyway, the stewardess has just informed me that I am not allowed to use cellular devices on the plane, so I have to go.

Papa Ratzi, over and out.

Mea Culpa

Dear Readers,

Something terribly important has been brought to my attention. I have inadvertently brought scandal to St. Blog’s. I may be able to right things, but only if act courageously, promptly and with perfect contrition. In the Interesting debate post I had misspelled Cardinal Mahony’s last name; not once, but twice. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I have corrected the error and have vowed to never make it again. I wish I could say that I will not make any more errors whatsoever, but I cannot. Unfortunately, papal infallibility does not apply to grammar and spelling.

I would like to thank St. Blog’s self-appointed and anonymous Nihil Obstat for doing his duty and catching this most grievous error of mine. Furthermore, I would like to thank him for going through the trouble of pointing out my error at Amy Welborn’s Open Book.

As a show of my good will and contrition, I will assist him in his job by offering full disclosure (in contrast to Cardinal Mahony). Below is a listing of the sites where the owner or participants were gracious enough to link here and/or offer appreciated and supportive words. Children, please wish our Nihil Obstat Godspeed as he races from combox to combox defending the faith from misspellings, grammatical errors, and dead links. Pray that none of us ever end a sentence in a preposition!

DarwinCatholic

The Happy Catholic

Thoughts from the Right

Recta Ratio

Whispers in the Loggia

Open Book

The Anchoress

The Roman Catholic Blog

Salvific Design

Transcendental Musings

Lumen de Lumine

Pro Ecclesia

The Natural Family Planning Forum

Christianforums.com

Of course, who could forget St. Blog's very own illiterate parishioner:
Unam Sanctum
The Nihil Obstat is sure to have a field day there!

The hypocrisy of Relativism

I’ve been missing my cat, Chico. While pondering the injustice that keeps me separated from my beloved pet, I was struck with the urge to muse. I can muse now, you know.

The circumstances surrounding my heartbreak serve as an example of the hypocrisy of Relativism, its prevalence in the modern world, and how even the Vatican is tainted by it.

Let me explain; the Relativists would have us hold that there is no immutable Truth, no right and wrong, and have us embrace the notion of “if it feels good, do it”. They erroneously represent that world-view as being tolerant, yet exclusively legitimate. Those same people would go so far as to allow two men to live together as man and wife, but do you think they would let a man and his cats live together as man and pets? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no.

Thus is the state of fallen man, he even loses his dominion over the animals and the affection of his cat.

Relativism

I’ve written on the error and threat of Relativism often, so my view should come as no surprise. Relativism is an evil that permeates modern Western culture, so much so, that a man is not even safe from it in his own papal apartment.

A very dear and thoughtful friend brought me a gift from the United States. Not to be a namedropper, but it was Archbishop Levada. I was honored by his gesture and humbly accepted his generous gift. The gift was a much-appreciated case of Budweiser. I thought to myself, “ah, how exciting; it’s been a while since you’ve enjoyed a good pilsner, Joey.”


That evening, after work, I cracked one open. Having fond memories of drinking Budweiser that had been smuggled in from Czechoslovakia, I was anxious to experience that poetic dance of barley and hops upon my palate once again.

What a surprise I was in for. Far from being the smooth, yet complex pilsner I was accustomed to fifty years ago, I found it utterly repugnant and it instantly gave me a headache. For a moment I had even wondered if certain Jesuits had poisoned me.

I began to reflect on the situation and realized that my negative experience was the expected consequence of Relativism. You see; this is precisely what happens in a Relativistic society. Terms like “good beer” become subjective. In this case, even the word “beer” seems to be subjective. Society can no longer trust labels and there is no honor to a man’s word. The implications are horrifying; the law becomes subjective and therefore unjust, and the language of the faith becomes utterly meaningless (people will use words like ordaining women or gay marriage, etc.). What’s worse; next they will probably process some fruit juice, put it in a box, and call it wine. Lord, help us!

Interesting debate

A few co-workers and I were standing around the water-cooler discussing Seinfeld reruns when the conversation switched gears and became a heated debate. I don’t want to be a namedropper, but these colleagues were Cardinals Ruini and Mahony.

We were discussing the episode where Jerry kept saying, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”, regarding homosexuality. Understanding that the show is void of any form of true morality, we laughed at it for what it is. Then Cardinal Mahony, shocked us by saying, “so, what’s wrong with that?” Cardinal Ruini said, “Oh come on, Roger, you know better than that.” Roger said, “It is too OK, I even host Rainbow Sash Masses.” Camillo retorted, “Then you are failing your flock!” Defensively, Roger quipped, “Says you; I am just being inclusive like John Paul II”.

That one really got my German ire up. I looked Roger straight in the eye and said, “I knew John Paul II. John Paul was a friend of mine. Cardinal, you are no John Paul!”

That really shut him up, which was a good thing because the Angelus bell started to ring, so I had to get back to work.

Spelling errors - corrected.

Harry Potter

I sure didn’t see this one coming. Sometimes I just want to say, “Come on, people; get a life."

Obviously, I haven’t reinstated Index Librorum Prohibitorum and placed Harry Potter on it. Believe me, there are any number of Jesuit publications that would make it to the Index before Harry Potter. When I spoke of the Harry Potter novels I was merely offering a concern that I had.

The next thing you know, I’m hearing that some little singer girl apparently has about as much use for me as she has for wearing shirts. Then St. Blog seemed to split into two different camps, each side calling the other hypocrites.

Hopefully, I can put the whole matter to rest:

As far as my Harry Potter comments are concerned, you are free to take them or leave them. However, you must admit that not all young people are equally equipped to discern the differences between genuine good and evil, and a great many are at risk for being negatively influenced by things secular in nature.

My judgment on the matter is quite astute. If you doubt it, just consider that you most likely don’t let your children watch everything that is on TV or buy them nudie magazines. The Harry Potter series is about witchcraft, and the moral dimension contained within it is defined by witchcraft. It would be imprudent to assume that all children will not be influenced by it. In conclusion, just have some discretion on what you allow to influence your kids and then get on with it.

Vacation

I am really enjoying my vacation. So far, the better part of it has been spent trying to figure out this darn HTML code stuff. They made it so you can use both <"i"> and <"em"> tags, yet I have found that they don’t always work together. Relativists! They frustrate me to no end. Hopefully I can get my blog set up the way I want it, so I can finally get to work on my encyclical.

Why blog?

I was asked by a dear friend of mine (not to be a namedropper, but it was Cardinal Arinze), “Holy Father, why would you desire to become one of them? I answered that I don’t want to become one of them, Heaven forbid! I just want to muse - I really, really like the idea of musing. I even like the way the word sounds.

So, I am here to offer the musings of a pontiff. Note: in no way should my musings be construed as ex cathedra pronouncements or official Church teaching. This is a personal interest and off the pontifical record. It’s merely an opportunity for me to take off my miter, kick back, and muse.

For the record, I only muse when I’m off the clock or when things are really slow at the office. Well, sometimes I may neglect my work a little when there is a good combox debate going on, but for the most part it is merely a personal concern.

That being said, you can still call me Papa (I like that). Please link to me so that I can become a higher being in the TTLB Ecosystem. Be sure to stop by my favorite blogs and post a comment. If you don’t mind you can click a Google ad while you’re here. For every 1000 clicks or so Peter’s Pence increases by approximately one Euro.

Willkommen!

Welcome to my blog. I have long desired a place of my own to muse. I hope you enjoy my musings, insight, analysis, commentary, satire, profound thoughts and rantings, not to mention my wit and charm.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Testing

Erprobung: eine, zwei

Erprobung: eine, zwei

Is this thing working?