Ok, get ready for a truly great homily.  Divine Mercy posts about this, and refers to it as the homily every Catholic should have heard this past Sunday, 40 years after the publishing of Humanae Vitae.  Bear with me, it’s 35 minutes long and will take a while to download.  Comes from St. Lambert’s parish, Skokie, IL.  Worth your time…listen to all of it.

A new service came out 2 days ago called PickAFig.com. If you are familiar with Digg or Reddit or Del.Icio.Us, then you are familiar with the concept - this is a Digg type of service for news and blogs of Catholic interest. If you see a post you like, you can just go over to PickAFig and submit it…other folks will see it, read it, and if they like it, they can upvote it so that more people will see it - and ultimately the best posts rise to the top. I am working on figuring out how to put a vote button here on my blog posts so you can just vote for them from here. Until then, you’ll have to go to the site to upvote them. If you want to.

We originally brought this story to you some time ago. Catholic News Service has picked it up now, with more information.

In a talk with the daunting title of “Endocrine Disruptions: Chemical Contraceptives in Sewage Effluents,” LeChevallier explained that like secondhand smoke, “secondhand estrogens are being released into the environment,” to devastating effect on fish, panthers, alligators and other wildlife.

He said the media “did a little bit of a disservice” to the American public when they reported earlier this year that the levels of contaminants found in drinking water could seriously harm humans.

For example, “you would have to drink 100 million gallons to get the dose found in one Tylenol,” he said.

But “the synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills can wreak havoc on the sex lives of fish,” LeChevallier said, citing reduced penis size in male fish, masculinized female fish and other sex-related changes.

Because the synthetic estrogen is not absorbed well into the body, much of the drug is released into the environment through women’s urine, he said. In addition, used contraceptive rings and patches are having a further polluting effect, he said.

Barillas’ presentation focused on the “distinctly Catholic approach to environmental concerns,” which she said is neither “a new message for us” nor “an issue that is out there just for people who live close to the woods.”

Of special concern for Catholics is the fact that “the poor and powerless are most likely to bear the burden of our environmental carelessness,” she said.

“The poor, the elderly and persons with disabilities often are exposed to multiple contaminants,” Barillas said, adding that children especially are at risk because they suffer “greater exposure pound for pound” and have a “diminished ability to detoxify and excrete many chemical toxins.”

Full article

As I recall, one article I read on this from the MSM quoted an enviro-nut as saying something like “well, we can’t get rid of every environmental contaminant.” They try to get rid of all the others, but for some reason, this one gets a pass (oh yeah, that whole contraceptive culture is the reason this one gets a pass…)

Well, the sky didn’t fall, the world didn’t end, and the earth didn’t open up under his house when a certain University of Minnesota professor desecrated a Communion host today along with some pages of the Koran.  (Personally, if I were he, I would be more concerned with the repercussions of the latter than the former.)  What he was doing was akin to those telling Christ to come down off the cross.  He didn’t then, and he didn’t now.  God know the guy doesn’t need any more attention than he’s already gotten.  For one, I hope his 15 minutes are up; most likely, this madness which has only been fueled by attention will grow thicker once the attention ends, and he will descend to the point that only a university would want to hire him (oh…wait…) Of course he’d want his name mentioned in my blog post.

For my part, I just shipped an email off to Archbishop Gregory:

Your excellency, I have been watching for the last couple of weeks as the saga has unfolded with University of Minnesota professor [name redacted] and his efforts to obtain (allegedly) consecrated Communion hosts specifically for the purposes of desecrating them.  Today he went through with his plan, and seems rather amused at the lack of consequence to his actions.  While I had no illusion that our Lord would create some sort of cataclysmic event to befall [name redacted] (He was the one who instead said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do” on the cross) the apparent lack of consequence has me concerned that there may be some malcontents around the country who will try and mimic Myers’ desecration.  It seems to me that our American practice of receiving Communion in the hand may well make it very easy for such malcontents to obtain consecrated hosts for sacrilegious purposes.  Knowing that Communion on the tongue has been the norm for the majority of the Church’s history, and that it remains the preferred method in the U.S., I am curious if the Bishops of the U.S. might consider a change to exclusive practice of Communion on the tongue for a time period while we wait for the furor over this to die down.

It seems to me that this would have two effects - first, to make it more difficult for those who intend harm to the Eucharist to obtain the Eucharist, and second to reassure the Catholic faithful that the Church is doing all she can to protect the Eucharist and catechize all Her faithful to the Eucharist’s faithfulness.

I am but a neophyte with only 5 years of Catholicism under my proverbial belt - you and the other Bishops have a great deal more knowledge and wisdom on these matters as I do. Still, I recognize my Lord in the Eucharist and would prefer to see the Church taking steps to protect Him.

I am respectfully yours,

Chris Lewis
St. Mary’s Parish
Rome, GA

Jimmy Akin has a good roundup of the whole mess (and a link to the prof’s blog, if you want to give him the traffic he craves)

Some groups protest the Church’s teachings on sexuality…but here’s a group that is really going for the throat:

One of Italy’s leading animal rights groups said Monday it was launching an internet petition to demand Pope Benedict XVI stop wearing fur during religious ceremonies at the Vatican. Lorenzo Croce, chairman of the Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment (AIDAA), denied being provocative or wanting to make an anti-religious statement.

“We just want to ask him in a message of love and peace to give a strong signal towards the protection of animals and the environment through a small but very significant personal sacrifice,” Croce told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Since his election Benedict has taken to wearing a number of traditional religious garments, including a small red velvet cape with a white ermine border, which he wears in winter along with a hat the same colour.

All of which leads one to wonder, what is a “leading animal rights group?”

Our seminarian contributor Tim will get a kick out of this.  A pro soccer player is leaving the game for the priesthood.  H/T to the Curt Jester.

“I felt called to something greater,” Hilgenbrinck said. “At one time I thought that call might be professional soccer. In the past few years, I found my soul is hungry for something else.

“I discerned, through prayer, that it was calling me to the Catholic Church. I do not want this call to pass me by.”
Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on Monday when he left the New England Revolution and retired from professional soccer to enter a seminary, where he will spend the next six years studying theology and philosophy so he can be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.

In today’s press conference, our President, for once, stood up to the MSM bullies and gave clear conservative statements:

[Asked by a reporter if he would call on Americans to conserve energy, Bush responded:]
“They’re smart enough to figure out whether they’re going to drive less or not. I mean, you know, it’s interesting what the price of gasoline has done,” Bush said at a news conference in the White House press room, “is it caused people to drive less. That’s why they want smaller cars: They want to conserve. But the consumer’s plenty bright. The marketplace works.”

“You noticed my statement yesterday, I talked about good conservation and — you know, people can figure out whether they need to drive more or less,” he said. ”They can balance their own checkbooks.”
“It’s a little presumptuous on my part to dictate how consumers live their own lives,” the president added. “I’ve got faith in the American people.”

[Asked by another reporter why oil companies were trying to expand exploration for oil, Bush said,]

“It seems like it makes sense to me to say to the world at we’re going to use, you know, new technologies to explore for oil and gas in the United States … to send a clear message that the supplies of oil will increase,” he said.

“The president doesn’t have a magic wand,” the president added. “You can’t just say: ‘Low gas!’ ”

My favorite part?

At one point he referred sardonically to “your wonderful newspapers” and “your TV shows.”

“Is that what you call them – TV shows?” he teased. “Newscasts!”

Of course they are more TV shows than newscasts…

More

Seeing that UCF student and Webster Cook got a bunch of attention (albeit negative) as a result of stealing a consecrated Communion host, another publicity hungry guy has decided to get in on the act.  A University of Minnesota at Morris professor has invited readers of his blog to do what it takes to get consecrated hosts to him, and he’ll desecrate them, then post photos and videos on his blog.  He’d want for me to mention his name.

So, what to do. I have an idea. Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers? There’s no way I can personally get them — my local churches have stakes prepared for me, I’m sure — but if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I’ll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won’t be tempted to hold it hostage…but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web. I shall do so joyfully and with laughter in my heart. If you can smuggle some out from under the armed guards and grim nuns hovering over your local communion ceremony, just write to me and I’ll send you my home address.

Brilliant, he calls it a “communion ceremony.”  Truly he knows what he’s up against.  Also note how courageous and outspoken he is.  Doesn’t have the guts to try and get Communion himself but instead throws out hyperbole about the local Church having stakes already prepared for him.  Great publicity stunt anyway.  Bill Donohue has to get his say in, of course:

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:

“The…blog can be accessed from the university’s website. The university has a policy statement on this issue which says that the ‘Contents of all electronic pages must be consistent with University of Minnesota policies, local, state and federal laws.’ One of the school’s policies, ‘Code of Conduct,’ says that ‘When dealing with others,’ faculty et al. must be ‘respectful, fair and civil.’ Accordingly, we are contacting the President and the Board of Regents to see what they are going to do about this matter. Because the university is a state institution, we are also contacting the Minnesota legislature.”

Bill Donohue does a good job here of being measured and reasonable.  Not reacting with anger and hyperbole (as the prof did) but rather simply say it’s time to call the university system to follow through with their stated policies.

Meanwhile, I hope priests all over the country are aware of this and are reminding their EMHCs to make sure everyone consumes the hosts they’re given.  It’s a pipe dream, but it seems this would be a great time for the Bishops to temporarily stop using EMHCs altogether and instead have only ordinary ministers (priests, deacons, and acolytes, for you non-Catholic readers) distributing Communion.

One of my co-workers emailed me today, asking essentially why the Catholic Church was in such an uproar over the guy stealing the Eucharist from a Catholic Center Mass at University of Central Florida.  He cited this article.  The Curt Jester covered it a few days ago, and had a substantially longer article, a good bit more detailed than the one my co-worker saw.  (read both articles before continuing to read this post.)
Well, I had to give my co-worker an explanation of what the big deal was…remember, he’s a protestant.  There’s not a short explanation that will suffice to explain the gravity of what Mr. Cook did.  So on goes my apologetics hat…and here we go:

Cook is (or maybe was) Catholic, and he took a non-Catholic friend to Mass with him on the UCF campus.  The friend wanted to see what a Communion host looks like, so Cook received Communion in the hand (as is traditionally accepted in the USA) but instead of immediately consuming, he took it back to his seat.  One of the Eucharistic Ministers (lay people who assist in distributing Communion when it would be impractical for the priest to distribute to every single person himself) noticed he hadn’t consumed it, and confronted him on it.  The Catechism as well as the General Instructions for the Roman Missal (aka the liturgical norms) state that the Eucharist is to be consumed immediately upon receipt.  So, when she confronted him, he refused to consume it, rather got away from her; rather than do what he claims he originally intended and consume it upon reaching his seat after showing it to his friend, he instead put it in a plastic bag and held it “hostage” in his dorm for a week.  On top of that, he mounted a campaign in the student government of UCF to try and have the Catholic Center on campus’s funding taken away, and filed an abuse claim against the Catholic Center on campus.  Other officials within the student government of the school called the Catholic Center and apologized for the guy’s actions.

Now, in terms of whether it’s a “hate crime,” essentially Cook committed a crime against himself and against God according to the Catholic way of thinking.  Since we believe that the Holy Spirit changes the substance of bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ,  the vessels we use to contain and store the Eucharist are made of precious metals in order to show proper respect to the Real Presence of Christ.  When there are excess consecrated hosts, we store them in the tabernacle, which is in a prominent place in the church, and is typically very ornate, made of precious metal (typically gold), and there’s a red candle placed nearby so anyone passing through will know Christ is present there reserved in the tabernacle, and is invited to kneel and pray before the Eucharist.  It is permissible for Eucharistic ministers to take communion from the church to shut-ins or hospitalized parishioners, but they carry it in a container, again, made of precious metals, and have very specific instructions on its handling.

Presumably, as a college student, Cook has received substantial catechesis through the years on the sacredness and importance of the Eucharist.  This would have started when he was a very small boy, continued with his first confession and first communion when he was 8 years old or thereabouts, and then his Confirmation around age 16.  That he has chosen to remain faithful following Confirmation now that he’s at college away from mom and dad “forcing” him to go to church implies that he has some knowledge and understanding of the importance of the Eucharist, because, as has been repeatedly said in Church teaching, the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life.

In Catholic philosophy, there are 2 types of sin – venial sin and mortal sin.  Venial sins cloud up our relationship with God, but they are not capable of totally cutting us off from Grace in the way that mortal sins are; essentially, mortal sins create a block between us an God which remains until we repent (and the way we do that is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, at which time the priest acting in persona Christi assures us of our absolution – read that carefully, the priest doesn’t forgive sins, he simply quotes Jesus and assures us of forgiveness, but that’s a topic for another time altogether.)  Three conditions must be met for something to constitute mortal sin: 1) it must be a grave matter, 2) the person must know it’s a grave matter, and 3) it must be committed of the person’s own free will.  If any  one of these conditions is not met then while still sin, it may not be considered mortal.  A good example of this is when hostages are forced to renounce their faith at the point of a gun; yes, it’s grave, they know it’s grave, but they aren’t doing it of their own free will – thus it is not a mortal sin.

So let’s apply the conditions to what Cook did.  Deliberately disrespecting the Eucharist by not either consuming it or properly reserving it is definitely a grave matter; by virtue of being an adult Catholic, Cook presumably knows this; and he admits he did it of his own free will.  Of course I can’t read his soul to tell whether he was fully cognizant of the gravity of what he was doing, I’m just guessing.  But to me it looks like if he disrespected (dare I say blasphemed against) the Eucharist, and is unrepentant, he has essentially excommunicated himself – that is, he has removed him self from communion with God and with the Church.  It would not be a stretch to say that he is messing with his eternal destiny…I will not make a statement specifically one way or another, but I will say he is treading in dangerous territory.

The good news for him, is that God and the Church seek reconciliation with him.  If he wishes to be reconciled to the Church all he has to do is repent through making a good confession (and if he’s a Catholic, he knows this and presumably subscribes to this belief)– one in which he examines his conscience and states by his words and actions that he is contrite about what he did.  The confessional is in parallel with the parable of the prodigal son – the father runs out to greet him, saying that this song who was lost is found, who was dead is alive again.  God welcomes the penitent back into His house, and at that point, since God’s forgiven him, so should the rest of the community.  I think what’s bugging the people who are reacting uncharitably to this guy is that even though he claims Catholicism as his faith, he is unrepentant about what he did and is in fact making it as big of a deal as he can.  That said, it’s absolutely inappropriate for him to receive death threats (if God wants to take him out, He doesn’t need any help); charitable reminders about the gravity of what he has done are not problematic (Biblical explanation of Church Discipline, etc.) but uncharity towards him is a big problem.  I would hope that the pastors in the area are telling their parishioners what is and is not appropriate for this situation.  And I hope some priests have been in touch  with him, inviting him back to get things straightened out.

The Eucharistic Minister did the right thing in confronting Cook at Mass.  The Church has a big problem all around the world with wiccans and other occult groups trying to obtain consecrated hosts for their rituals, and really the only way to do it is to receive Communion and then hide the host rather than consuming it.  I haven’t heard much detail but I know some of these groups believe that in fact the Eucharist is what Catholics believe it is, and they believe that by using a consecrated host in their rituals they can increase the power of evil (or satan or whatever) over good.

Situations like this do point out a reason why some folks are strongly in favor of eliminating the practice of receiving Communion in the hand (which is almost unique to the USA) and revert to receiving only on the tongue – that is the priest places the host on your tongue and you consume it – you don’t really have the option of not consuming it because it’s already in your mouth.

My co-worker responded: ” I see why there’s such an uproar.  They didn’t mention the malicious other actions this guy took.  No wonder the church is upset about this and takes these actions very seriously.  Thanks for enlightening me on this situation.”

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Here’s an article that you won’t hear in the MSM.

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What’s now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

“Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq,” said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called “dirty bomb” - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

The yellowcake wasn’t the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.

Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.

Move along, nothing to see here.  A dictatorial madman just had the means to terrorize his own people or the people of another country.