shrike3
shrike3's JournalMany conditions have similar symptoms
Why people have no business diagnosing anyone by watching them on TV.
Some woman tried to tell me that Biden has Alzheimer's because he walks the way her Alzheimer-afflicted husband did. Um. No. That's not how it's done.
Here's a recent example: I had to rush my completely. This symptom, it could this, that or the other thing. They brought in several specialists. They ran tests. They drew blood. They did scans. They consulted. They crunched numbers. It could be a or it could be b, they said. they said. Or c or d. Turned out it was E. Nothing to do with his chronic conditions. See where I'm going with this? See how complicated it can be figuring out what's wrong with someone? Why no one has any business deciding what's wrong with someone by watching them on TV? Or seeing them at a fund raiser?
We're fine, he's in great hands. I'm just putting this here so the armchair doctors can see it. We've had a lot of experience with the medical-industrial complex, and while it has its faults, it is the place where diagnoses should take. Not your living room.
'Do Something' Is Not A Plan Or Wise Counsel Or A Way Out
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/do-something-caucus-joe-bidenIn a complicated and challenging world that exceeds our capacity to understand it, there is comfort in certainty. Political journalism and sports journalism have many unfortunate parallels. Sports itself offers the comfort of reducing the world to what happens between the lines on the field or pitch court, where there are set rules and assigned enforcers of those rules. We can tune everything else out. But politics is not a sport.
An election about whether the United States will continue its two and half century long experiment in representative democracy, where a convicted felon is running to return to the office he tried to seize through extralegal means, where the specter of a new form of fascism looms on the horizon is suddenly consumed by a political death watch for the only person at present standing between democracy and another Trump term in the White House. At some level it makes sense. The stakes are that high. But only up to a point.
I’m not trying to mount a defense of Joe Biden here. I still feel like the noob at the book party 15 years ago gently playing devil’s advocate for a sense of proportion. The sheer volume of stories about Biden’s age and possible infirmities is a choice. Floating the possibility that Biden has Parkinson’s on the basis of unconfirmed insinuations is a choice. Postulating that there’s been a White House coverup of Biden’s true condition based on flimsy evidence is a choice.
We should remain open to the evidence of such things. We should be critical and skeptical of Biden and his White House and of the news coverage that is feeding on and perpetuating itself. Above all, we need to maintain a sense of proportion when everyone around us has lost theirs.
People have no idea what Joe has done.
One of the reasons for his low approval rating, IMO. I run into it all the time. "Biden hasn't done a damn thing." I counter with a list of what he has done, and the response is usually incredulity. "I didn't know that." Because they don't. Lots of reasons for that. Joe's people have not gotten the word out. Dems have not gotten the word out. All the media wants to talk about is "Joe is old." Of course people think Joe's too old to be president: that's all they've heard for years. The media's not going to change. They will continue to insist Joe is too old, so the onus really is on democrats to do it themselves.
Vigan's schism trial raises questions for US bishops (safe haven)
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The charge of schism against Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the disgraced former nuncio to the U.S., is a consequential event. It is one thing to wrestle with this or that teaching of the church, to like or dislike this pope or that. But to so question and undermine the authority of the church itself such that you find yourself charged formally with schism, this is a grave thing.
There can be little doubt that Viganò is guilty of the charge. You only need to follow his Twitter feed to recognize the archbishop has become unhinged. And his criticisms are not just directed at Pope Francis. Viganò now routinely questions the teachings and authority of the Second Vatican Council, citing prior papal and conciliar teachings. By definition, that entails deploying those prior teachings out of context — to say nothing of the hubris required to insist one is right and the more than 2,000 bishops who attended Vatican II were wrong.
This is not just schismatic; it is bizarre. It would be like challenging a decision of the federal government today because it violated the Articles of Confederation. Who cares? The articles gave way to the constitution and Vatican I gave way to Vatican II. Better to say, Vatican II incorporated the teachings of all prior councils into its own teachings. If you attack Vatican II, you are attacking all previous councils as well.
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(W)hat about the 40 or so bishops who rushed out with statements supporting Viganò (prior to the trial)? Will they, now, at long last, withdraw their previous statements of support?
How America's Rich Legacy of Fear and Hatred Fuels the Conspiracy Theories of Today (safe haven)
Welcome to the Catholic & Orthodox Group. This is a safe haven group where discussions about Catholicism and Orthodoxy take place in a forum free from gratuitous attacks or derision of religion and religious beliefs. There are other places for those who really like to do that. Our focus is on the beliefs and traditions of Catholicism and Orthodoxy. For the rest, welcome, and pax vobiscum. Peace be among you.
Constructive criticism of the politics of the Catholic hierarchy is permitted, but no incendiary attacks on the Catholic and/or Orthodox faiths will be tolerated.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/how-americas-rich-legacy-of-fear-and-hatred-fuels-the-conspiracy-theories-of-today
Among the fiercest of America’s old hatreds, I would argue, is the hatred of Catholics. The first colonists brought it with them from England.
A recent archaeological find sheds new light on this. In 2013, the remains of four men were discovered at the site of a chapel in Jamestown. One of them, Captain Gabriel Archer, had been buried with a silver box that a CT scan showed contained bone fragments and a lead ampulla. It was almost certainly a Catholic reliquary, and it was, in the words of The Atlantic’s Adrienne LaFrance, “a bombshell,” potential “proof of an underground community of Catholics.” They would have had to have been secret because Catholic worship had been banned in England since 1559, when Queen Elizabeth issued the Act of Uniformity.
The English Protestants who colonized the New World feared hunger, illness, and childbirth, which killed one out of eight expectant mothers and a third of their children who were born alive by their fifth birthdays. They feared the raw wilderness and its indigenous inhabitants, who they knew were servants of the Devil, and the witches and other minions of Satan that dwelled among them, disguised as their wives, children, neighbors, servants, and enslaved people. They feared their own sinful natures and Antinomianism or “Free Grace” Protestantism, the radical doctrine that once they were saved, Christians were no longer bound by the moral law, a philosophy, they believed, that could not but lead to licentiousness and attacks on property and the political order. Most of all, they feared Catholicism, which they had been at war with since the time of Henry VIII. The Catholic French had forged alliances with native tribes in the north and west. The Catholic Spaniards controlled the south. The threat of internal subversion was real as well; the Gunpowder Plot conspirators had been executed less than a year before the Jamestown settlers departed England.
Many of those Puritans’ descendants still see the world much as their ancestors did, though their great enemy is no longer godless papists and savages but depraved liberalism, or at the conspiracy theorist extreme, some differently titled ism that in practice looks and sounds an awful lot like Catholicism. Illuminism perhaps, or “cultural Marxism.” Or Zionism, the philosophy, they believe, of an ancient, fabulously wealthy elite whose power transcends national boundaries and whose leaders invisibly bend the world to their wills using the power of propaganda and finance. The Davidic superstate of the Protocols is a fantasy, but the Vatican was and is very real. (“You know, I am not antisemitic, and I am not anti-Black; that’s a complete misunderstanding of what I am,” Tucker Carlson recently, reportedly, said. “I am anti-Catholic.”)
Just lost my cat.
Brought her in with the notion I'd be bringing her home with a treatment plan. Instead, I brought her home to bury her. Vet was honest, which I appreciated. There was a mass in her abdomen, and she probably wouldn't survive surgery if they'd attempted it. She was 14. I will miss her.
The rise of the Catholic bully (SAFE HAVEN)
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Catholic bullying is spreading across the land. In the latest example, Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron's Word on Fire organization threatened Commonweal magazine and theologian Massimo Faggioli over Faggioli's April 22 essay, "Will Trumpism Spare Catholicism?"
The commotion is too weird to behold.
SNIP
To be clear, no Catholic, let alone a bishop, should want to be connected to Trump, whose ongoing legal entanglements and documented disrespect for women and migrants are outside the pale. That Trump benefited from a strange Catholics for Catholics fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, where a man identified as Father Dennis led what he called "the meal prayer" and former Trump national security adviser Flynn said they would "do the rosary" is enough to warn anyone.
SNIP
The "suicidal conservatism" Francis worries about stifles growth and, he said, leaves people "closed inside a dogmatic box." Those U.S. bishops who cannot think out of the box — and there are many — daily damage the beliefs of Catholics who think Catholic social teaching is a good thing and who wish for less clericalism and more transparency in church matters, to start with, where, exactly, does the money go?
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/rise-catholic-bully
Catholic Charities among agencies awaiting Supreme Court decision on homelessness
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https://www.ncronline.org/news/catholic-charities-among-agencies-awaiting-supreme-court-decision-homelessness
How can services for the unhoused best support the growing number of elderly clients or those grappling with fentanyl addiction? Are there enough feminine hygiene products for the street outreach teams this month? Where will funding come from for the next affordable housing project?
These are some of the countless matters on the minds of staff at Catholic agencies serving homeless populations in cities across the country. But recently added to the mix of concerns is an upcoming decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
On April 22 the court heard arguments in a case from Grants Pass, Oregon, a small city located in a valley of the Klamath Mountain Range and about an hour's drive from the California border.
A decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, expected by the end of June, will determine if cities can implement laws that punish people for sleeping outside when there are no shelter options. It could be the most significant ruling affecting homeless people in decades and may have broad repercussions nationwide — especially in West Coast cities, where escalating housing costs, a shortage of units and a confluence of other challenges have led to a mounting number of homeless individuals.
Catholic diocesan hermit approved by Kentucky bishop comes out as transgender (SAFE HAVEN)
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https://www.ncronline.org/news/catholic-diocesan-hermit-approved-kentucky-bishop-comes-out-transgender
Diocesan hermits by nature don’t get much attention. A small subset of religious persons, hermits mostly spend their lives engaged in quiet prayer.
Brother Christian Matson, a Catholic diocesan hermit in Kentucky, has spent years doing just that. His monk’s habit might catch his neighbor’s eye, but he is known in the town where he lives primarily through his work with the local theater.
But recently Matson decided that his faith compels him to make a little more noise than usual.
"This Sunday, Pentecost 2024, I’m planning to come out publicly as transgender," Matson told Religion News Service on Friday (May 17), saying he was speaking out with the permission of his bishop, John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky.
'Stay in your lane!' says KC football player far outside his lane
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https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/stay-your-lane-says-kc-football-player-far-outside-his-lane?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1QdMp0kXJJXMmwbpbNa166oT6pGZBveWo61t68uK8ErUVEadYdWpwIyOU_aem_ARoRrWttAuQZ3AUYt3fgHj3zLD7J4YvgHqHNYU2ydeu24jU0P490-wN5v9IK1TIkLKERvKwzF550QHRJ20uV2mNf
Butker sees the government's response to COVID-19 as the most obvious overlap between secular and religious leadership failings. He repeatedly alludes to the refusal of many U.S. bishops to continue in-person Masses during the pandemic. According to Butker, this communicates weakness and that "the sacraments don't matter." As such, he suggests, clergy generally lack public authority because they are too afraid and too content. The average clergyman, according to Butker, is too reliant upon lay leadership while pridefully pursuing "adulation." Don't they know that's what social media influencers are for?
Butker's address holds within it a tension around the public and private natures of spirituality. He argues that both clergy and laypeople must be bolder and more public. Yet, he also asserts that praying and fasting in secret reap far greater rewards than any public platform. His repeated digs at the LGBTQ+ community and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives raise the question: Who is allowed to be public? Who and what are expected to stay private?
We hold these questions in mind as Butker transitions to a discussion of gender. It is these comments that have launched his speech into the internet spotlight. He insists that women have been lied to, and that while many of the female graduates are likely thinking about jobs and promotions, those things are far inferior to the call of "homemaker." The most important thing a woman does, according to Butker, is to support her husband in his professional pursuits and remind him of the importance of family. At no point does he say women should not work, only that their work should be subordinate to their marital responsibilities.
While the tonal incongruence of devaluing women's professional pursuits at their own college graduation is aptly attended to in the video's virality, this is not a new belief. More and more, "tradwife" values are being spread by Catholic influencers. What most astonishes me about this speech is the utter hypocrisy of insisting upon a traditional Catholicism while undermining the authority of clerical leadership. He goes so far as to say the average American bishop leads an "inconsequential existence." Setting this disregard of intrinsic human dignity aside, would not a traditional Catholic perspective be to submit to your bishop's catechetical authority?
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