From me to you.  It was one week ago that I put up two blog posts referencing stories in the Georgia Bulletin.  Thanks to the Curt Jester, many of you checked out my posts and commented on them.  How many?  SiteMeter says that there were 1011 unique visitors to this blog in the last week; an average of 144/day.    Prior to this week I had about 20 visits/day, and I had 970 unique visitors in the entire 8 weeks or so that I have been using SiteMeter.

I’m going to do my best to make this thing interesting enough for you to keep coming back.  I would love to actually have a little touch of relevance in St. Blogs, but I am humbled by the interest you folks have put in these two stories.

By the way, there are a couple of more editorials on the subject of TLM that I will be citing in the coming days!

Recognizing that para-Republican Rudy Giuliani is likely to be the Republican presidential nominee, a group of Evangelicals, including James Dobson and Tony Perkins, are considering the possibility of putting forth a third-party candidate - a real conservative - to fill the vacuum. On the one hand, it’s good to see such folks not selling out their values to support a candidate who might have a shot at beating Hillary Clinton.  On the other hand, this has the prospect of splitting the party because many of us on the right will hold our noses and vote Rudy simply to keep Hillary out of office…but if a strong, real conservative candidate were offered, many of us might jump to that party.  The result?  Splitting the Republican vote and resulting in Hillary winning.  This has happened in the past.  It’s how Woodrow “League of Nations” Wilson got elected, for example.

Solution?  A real, strong, hardcore values-based Republican nominee.  I took this quiz earlier today, asking me 11 questions, and told me which candidate was closest to my position on the major issues of our time.  I was not at all surprised to see Brownback and Tancredo at the top of the list, followed by Thompson.  Rudy was far down the list, and Romney was farther.  Yet the established conservative media, that being the conservative talk radio folks, are pushing Rudy and Romney a lot harder than much truer conservatives like Tancredo and Brownback.  Thompson might actually have a chance, but I could feel really charged about my vote if it was for Brownback or Tancredo.  Try the quiz for yourself! 

More on splitting the Republican party

Connecticut Bishops have approved the administering of Plan B aborto-contraceptive pills to rape victims at Catholic hospitals.  They will require a pregnancy test, to make sure the rape victim isn’t pregnant…but not an ovulation test, to see if she has ovulated.  Naturally, if she has ovulated she could be too early for a pregnancy test to be positive, thus the abortifacient properties of Plan B take over to kill the baby.

So apparently, the Bishops believe that a baby conceived through rape is not worthy of life.

American Papist has the Bishops’ statement. 

Yes, that’s sarcasm. You’ll remember General Pace of the Joint Chiefs said some months ago in the national arena that he believed gay sex to be immoral. It was thrown back at him that he was anti-gay, and he responded vocally that he believe that the act itself was immoral, but he was not opposed to people with SSA serving in the military. Well, he was prodded on the statement again, and he responded:

Pace, who retires next week, said he was seeking to clarify similar remarks he made in spring, which he said were misreported.

“Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing focused on the Pentagon’s 2008 war spending request.

“We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it,” he added. “And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God’s law.”

Anti-war protesters sitting behind Pace jeered the four-star general’s remarks with some shouting, “Bigot!” That led Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to abruptly adjourn the hearing and seal off the doors.

“I would be very willing and able and supportive” to changes to the policy “to continue to allow the homosexual community to contribute to the nation without condoning what I believe to be activity - whether it to be heterosexual or homosexual - that in my upbringing is not right,” Pace said.

Liberal Democrat Senator Harkin of Iowa had some interesting response:

“It’s a matter of leadership, and we have to be careful what we say,” Harkin said.

Pace noted that the U.S. Military Code of Justice prohibits homosexual activity as well as adultery. Harkin said, “Well, then, maybe we should change that.”

There’s your Democrat platform for ‘08 folks! Elect Democrats and the folks in the armed services can have sex with whoever the heck they want without any fear of reprisal.

More

Thanks to the popularity of my post on the Traditional Latin Mass editorial from the Georgia Bulletin, I thought it only fair to include links to the letters to the editor leading up to young Mr. Milukas’s letter.

Letter of Pamela C. Garrett rejoicing the Motu Proprio (8/23/07)

Letter of Carroll Sterne, trotting out the usual tired arguments against TLM (9/6/07)

Letter of Theresa Miller Matt, responding to Sterne (9/13/07)

Letter of Joselyn Schutz, responding to Sterne, identifying herself as the generation of which he speaks (9/13/07)

Letter of 16-year-old Ethan Milukas, in response to Sterne (9/20/07)

I’ll update this post if more is said on this subject in the Georgia Bulletin. I should point out here to those who haven’t gotten to know me very well that I am not a rad-trad. For that matter, I may not be a huge regular attender of the TLM if it’s ever offered in my locality, because I am used to hearing Mass in my own language, and have only even been Catholic for 4.5 years as of this writing. But, I can certainly see nothing wrong with offering the TLM to those interested in attending regularly, and I can also see an effort on the part of liturgists and liberal baby-boomer priests to suppress it. I have been to reverent Novus Ordo Masses, and I have been to “entertaining” Novus Ordo Masses. I much prefer the former, and get really irritated by the latter.

Due to the popularity of the post regarding Abp. Gregory (of Atlanta) and his decision not to attend the St. Thomas More society’s awards luncheon, at which pro-abortion former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes is to be honored, I am posting here all articles on the subject, since the Georgia Bulletin’s website has now been updated.

Original article about the growth of STM society and their decision to honor Barnes  (8/23/07)

Editorial #1 Objecting to Barnes receiving honor (9/6/07)
Editorial #2 Objecting to Barnes receiving honor (9/6/07) (this author points out that Barnes was pro-life in the general assembly but abandoned that platform to run for governor)

Editorial response from co-founder of STM Society (9/13/07)

Editorial from someone else about St. Thomas More’s relationship w/Pope (9/13/07) 

Abp. Gregory Issues Statement on Decision not to attend STM’s award luncheon (9/20/07) 

This post will be updated if there is more discussion on the subject.

filling the young skulls full of mush with his anti-Semitic sentiments.  At least the president of Columbia U had the decency to refer to him as a petty and cruel dictator.

Vilified as a Holocaust denier, a supporter of terrorism and a backer of Iraqi insurgents, the president of Iran was actually able to make New Yorkers burst into laughter — but not at a joke.

“In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University on Monday in response to a question about the recent execution of two gay men there. “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon,” he continued. “I do not know who has told you we have it.” Loud laughs and boos broke from the audience of about 700 people, mostly students at the Ivy League school whose garb included “Stop Ahmadinejad’s Evil” T-shirts. Everyone from presidential candidates to Sept. 11 families had expressed outrage that Ahmadinejad would speak there. After his assertions that Israel persecutes Palestinians and that Iran’s nuclear program is for energy not weapons, the Iranian leader’s comment on gays broke the tension. But it spurred strong reaction too. “This is a sick joke,” said Scott Long of Human Rights Watch, saying Iran tortures gays under a penal code that punishes homosexuality between men with the death penalty.

The way I see it, the left entrenched in academia has a real quandary here.  The guy is anti-Semitic, and we all know that the left is generally anti-Semitic (including their fearless leader, Hillary, with her F.J.B. comment many years ago) but on the other hand, he’s anti-gay and he uses the word retarded.  That makes him as bad as any conservative.  Decisions, decisions…do they support this guy because he hates Jews and America, or do we vilify him because he’s a supporter of terrorism?

More

TLM - a new abbreviation around St. Blogs. It means “Traditional Latin Mass.” This is more accurate than calling it the “Tridentine Rite” apparently. Anyway, from the Georgia Bulletin I got in the mail today, comes this letter from one Ethan Milukas of Peachtree City, Georgia, USA. As in my other post this date, the Bulletin hasn’t updated their website, so what you see in the block quote is a direct transcription by me.

I am 16 years old, and for the past 11 months, I have attended the traditional Latin Mass weekly, while still attending the Novus Ordo Mass during the week. Because of this, I decided to address certain points made by Carroll Sterne in the Sept. 6 edition of The Georgia Bulletin. Mr. Sterne speaks about the type of Mass that someones of a younger generation is drawn to, and I thought that a teenager’s point of view might be helpful.

Mr. Sterne in his letter gives voice to the opinion of many of today’s liturgists when he says that no one from a younger generation would be drawn to the Latin Mass (many take this even further and assume that we would not like a reverent Novus Ordo Mass either.). This opinion causes many of those who plan modern liturgies to do veritable back flips in an attempt to draw teenagers and young adults in. Sometimes this works, but it has a side effect: by doing these things, liturgists show that they have absolutely no faith in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to change the lives of those in my generation. My generation knows about this lack of faith, we are able to see it every time we go to a “teen Mass” and experience priests ad-libbing prayers in an attempt to make them more relevant to us.

This lack of faith backfires; it sends us the message that we also should distrust the power of the liturgy, and it also can turn the Mass into something of a joke. After experiencing this for months, I attended a Traditional Latin Mass and experienced something that I’d never seen before: Here was a priest who expected my life to be changed without adding anything to the Mass in an attempt to bring this change about. This priest had perfect faith in the power of the liturgy, and it showed. It was beautiful. The traditional Mass did more to change my life that any “relevant” teen Mass ever did.

Let not your heart be troubled. This kid knows what he’s talking about and he’s being bravely and bluntly honest - kids can see through these priests trying to put on a show. By the way, a Google search reveals that Ethan has entered into an editorial debate over whether Jesus had siblings, as well as writing the Bulletin over what he saw as an omission to a pro-life story they ran. He’s also an excellent archer.

UPDATE: You can now see Mr. Milukas’s letter in its original context at the GA Bulletin’s Website
Also, I have created a post containing links to all the editorials about the TLM that have appeared in the GA Bulletin.

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, of Atlanta, puts out this statement:

I have decided not to be present at the St. Thomas More Society’s Awards Luncheon following the Red Mass because the organziation has independently selected 3 attorneys to honor, one of whom is former Governor Roy Barnes. While I recognize and applaud Governor Barnes’ efforts surrounding the controversy of the Georgia state flag, his support of abortion is contrary to the church’s teaching. The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the very foundation of a moral vision for society.

Background: STM Society is an independent society of Catholic lawyers, but in their annual luncheon and Red Mass they welcome attorneys of all faiths (or lacks thereof) and thus they honor jurists for various acts. Former Gov. Barnes is being honored for getting the Georgia flag changed, and also for dedicating much of his service as a lawyer to the poor since he left office. But when he ran for governor in 1998, he was loudly pro-abortion. He’s not Catholic, so he is not bound by the Church’s teaching on the subject. But, in the Catholic community in Atlanta there’s been an outcry that a Catholic organization shouldn’t be honoring anyone who’s pro-abortion, especially vocally and publicly so. STM Society operates independently of the diocese, so the Bishop can’t keep them from giving Barnes an award. But, he is making a statement by not going to the awards luncheon.

In the Georgia Bulletin I got in the mail yesterday, there’s the statement above as well as an accompanying story on the subject. As of this writing, the Georgia Bulletin’s website hasn’t been updated, so I can’t link you to the article, but I will transcribe parts of it here:

“We appreciate Archbishop Gregory’s celebrating the Red Mass and his friendship to our Society. We will miss him at the luncheon, and it is an unfortunate turn of events that will cause his absences,” [Michael Sullivan, immediate past president of the society] said in a written statement.

The Church is losing an opportunity to build bridges in an ecumenical spirit because of a “small but loud minority,” he said. “the vast majority of catholics, not to mention our non-Catholic guests-applaud the specific good actions for which we are recognizing these three honorees,” Sullivan said.

Ahh, there we go. Insult the Bishop and state that he would never reasonably make the decision not to attend based on his principles, but rather based on a small but loud minority. Never mind that it could scandalize the Church and Her members for the Bishop to be present where a publicly pro-abort politician is honored.

Andrew Nelson, staff writer for the Bulletin, includes much superfluous information from people and semi-Catholic colleges in his article. Examples:

Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, a political scientist of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said the Atlanta lawyer group faces the same dilemma as Catholic colleges. In fact, he thinks Catholic groups could avoid the disputes by not ranting honors to elected officials altogether. [I could agree with this one]

Critics may “falsely assume” a church group is applauding a politician’s entire career, instead of one specific act, he said.

“They might want to honor someone for their work with the poor, of with heath care, or immigrants,” he said. “…Does he have to be perfect on every position the Church has?” [poor, health care, immigrants? reads like a list of leftist talking points. coincidence?]

Kudos to the Archbishop for doing the politically incorrect thing! I’ll get links up to the actual articles if/when they are posted to the Bulletin’s website.

UPDATE: The full text of the article cited here can now be found here.
I’ve also posted links to the original article and all the follow up letters to the editor here.

A week or two ago we told you about Planned Parenthood’s tactics in getting a clinic set up in Aurora, IL.  Well, the protestors showed up and now the city is taking a good hard look at the permitting procedures, and won’t issue the death chamber an occupancy permit.  PP sued the city for an emergency occupancy permit, and PP lost.  They’ll try again, of course.

Gerald has the details