Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, heard every Wednesday’s Open Line program on EWTN radio (3pm ET,) received a call today asking a great question:

I go to Craton U in Omaha, a Jesuit school, and first I want to thank you for your orthodoxy…I guess my question is, that some of the Jesuits are thought to be pretty liberal, and I was wondering if that was just a local thing, or an individual thing, or..it seems that most people in our area think that Jesuits are very liberal.  My question is, is that part of the order, or does the order tell you you have to take certain stances on social issues, or is that more of an individual thing?

The answer?  St. Ignatius of Loyola taught our order that we are to “think with the Church.”

You can hear the answer in full here.  You’ll need to fast forward to about 43 minutes into the file.  And, unfortunately, you’ll need the RealPlayer to hear it.

For those who saw my post of about 2 weeks ago, here’s a follow up.  After growing progressively stronger each day, learning to drink milk, breathe without help, and generally just maturing, my nearly 2-week-old nephew went home from the hospital, and is finally where he belongs – with his mother and father at home.  Andrew came about 6 weeks early, and in just shy of two weeks he got to go home.

For those of you who did, thanks for praying for him and his parents!  Keep it up, he’s still got some growing to do.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail,

This fiery figure is being hailed as Pope John Paul II making an appearance beyond the grave.

The image, said by believers to show the Holy Father with his right hand raised in blessing, was spotted during a ceremony in Poland to mark the second anniversary of his death.

…

Father Cielecki said he was convinced the picture showed the former pontiff.

“You can see the image of a person in the flames and I think it is the servant of God, Pope John Paul II,” he said.

The skeptic in me says it’s just our minds looking for familiar forms (sort of like the faces we saw in the smoke of the WTC on 9/11/01) but at the same time, it looks pretty clearly defined, and if he’s to appear to us, why not in this way.  Time will tell, as I am sure the Vatican will be investigating.

More 

As we had a very busy day yesterday, and knew we’d have a busy one today (thus my daughter wouldn’t be taking a nap either day) we slept in a little this morning.  It wasn’t until my daughter toddled into the bedroom that we realized how late we had slept, and we quickly realized we wouldn’t be making it to the 9:30 Mass.  We figured we’d go to the 11:00 Mass instead, and we had plenty of time.

The thing is, later in the morning, there’s a whole lot more traffic, so we knew we’d have to give ourselves more time to get to the parish.  Normally it’s 10-12 minutes when we go to 9:30 Mass, but when we go to 11:00 (this was the first time in probably a year and a half that we’ve been to the 11:00.)

So, as we’re driving, I commented to my wife about how many cars there were on the road.  From the second row of the minivan, we hear a small voice, “Look at all those cars of all those hopeful people going to church!”

“What?” I said.

“I said look at all these hopeful people who belong in church!”

My wife said, “she doesn’t know it, but she just said something really profound.”

And no, we have no idea how she came up with the concept at all.

Here’s an article all about how the Nobel peace prize is a total fraud that no one takes seriously…

Alfred Nobel felt horrible about the uses to which his invention — dynamite — was put. So he endowed the Nobel Peace Prize and instructed that it go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Al Gore has done exactly none of those things.

Check out more… 

Picked this up from Glenn Beck today.  AlGore beat out a woman who saved thousands of Jewish children from the Warsaw ghettos back during the holocaust.  Because ,after all, advocacy against GW is more peaceful than saving innocent children.  Which is ironic, because the Nobel committee said that we’d have wars as a result of trying to reverse global warming.  Thought it was supposed to be a “peace” prize.  Sort of like when Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were nominated, and when terrorist Arafat won it.  Peace…right.

Oh, wait, I forgot.  Liberal academics vote on who gets the prize.  And hard-left libs are anti-Semitic.

Anyway, more on the woman who should have won the award:

Irena Sendler (also called Irena Sendlerowa in Polish language) (born 15 February 1910 in Warsaw, then Russian Empire) is a retired Polish Roman Catholic social worker. During World War II she was an activist of Polish Underground and Polish anti-Holocaust resistance in Warsaw, where she helped to save about 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto by providing them false documents and hiding places in individual and group children houses out of the Ghetto.

More from WikiPedia 

Enviro-nut AlGore has won the Nobel Peace Prize, proudly following the footsteps of disgraced former President Jimmy Carter, terrorist Yassir Arafat, and a motley crew of socialists. Well, now the kooks are coming out of the woodwork saying that AlGore should run for President again! Check out their poster! Yes, that’s the earth and the sun behind him, basically replacing the the hammer and sickle. And, he’s wearing a green work shirt too…

Do the kooks running this website think that America’s memory is so poor that we won’t recognize this as being straight from Stalin’s Russia?

Someone has updated wikipedia to reflect this development:

In a delivery only he is capable of, Jackie Mason says that Fred Thompson won the Republican debate the other night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0KPgWzUm5s

Here a letter commending Abp. Gregory’s non-attendance at a luncheon honoring pro-abort former Governor Roy Barnes of Georgia:

To the Editor:

Archbishop Gregory is to be commended for not attending the St. Thomas More Society luncheon honoring former Gov. Roy Barnes. Abortion is opposed by the majority of people in the U.S., and the Catholic Church has led the fight since 1973 against legalized abortion. Abortion is the greatest infringement of civil rights with over 40 million Americans having lost their lives through abortion because they were too small to protest. The African-American community suffers disproportionately with approximately 50 percent of all black children being aborted. Former Gov. Barnes promised to veto any bill that attempted to restrict abortion during his term of office. It is one thing to dialogue with those who disagree with us; it is another to honor them as though they are on the right path. That is misguided charity and not ecumenism. We can be thankful for an archbishop that stands up for the weak and oppressed.

Kathleen M. Raviele, MD, FACOG, Atlanta Guild of the Catholic Medical Association

Dr. Raviele is an ultra hardcore Catholic Ob/Gyn doctor.  There are few things that make me want to live in metro Atlanta as opposed to quiet little Rome, but Dr. Raviele is one of them.  I’d absolutely love for my wife to be able to use Dr. Raviele’s services, and for my daughters (one 2.5 years old and one in utero) to be able to go to her office in about 15 years and not worry about them being offered artificial contraception.  My wife attended high school with her daughter, and and the recent class of ‘97 10-year reunion, I had the privilege of meeting her.

We have at least one Catholic Ob/Gyn in Rome, but he’s tied to one of the major practices…if he struck out with his own truly Catholic practice we’d go with him in a heartbeat.

Again, from the Georgia Bulletin, we feature an editorial from a student at St. Piux X High School in Atlanta (my lovely bride’s alma mater.)

To the Editor:

I am writing this in response to Mr. Sterne’s letter in the Sept. 6 edition of The Georgia Bulletin.

I am 16 years old and a student at St. Pius X Catholic High School. My family has attended St. Francis de Sales Traditional Latin Mass Parish since its inception 10 years ago. I have also grown up in Catholic schools, where I am able to experience the Novus Ordo Rite. I enjoy the morning Novus Ordo Masses offered at St. Pius X High School, but I treasure the solemnity, reverence and piety I see in the Latin Mass at St. Francis de Sales.

You cannot compare the Latin Mass to opera; opera is a form of entertainment, while Gregorian chant is composed strictly for the Catholic Church. There is also a large time difference of the institutions of the two things. They are close to a thousand years apart.

With respect to the willingness and expectations of teens to attend a Latin Mass, I wonder whether it is not so much the language used to celebrate the Mass as much as it is the lack of faith formation. Why is it that so many adults believe that it is necessary to make the Mass more “entertaining” in order to coax teenagers to attend?

At St. Francis de Sales, there are many children and teenagers. We have weekly catechism classes for all ages, confirmation classes, adult enrichment classes and a thriving Scout troop. The teenagers at my church seem to have a deep love of the Traditional Latin Mass and do not mind at all praying the Mass in Latin.

Freely allowing the Latin Mass as Pope Benedict XVI seems to have done this summer is hardly an “eradication” of Vatican II. It is the “Extraordinary Rite.” It is offered at but a single parish in the archdiocese. The Ordinary Rite in English is offered daily at hundreds of parishes throughout Georgia.

Robert Q. Shaffner, Atlanta

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