Church of Norway apologizes for previous pro-life stance

March 4, 2019 (Live Action News) — In Norway, the largest Christian denomination is the Church of Norway, with an estimated 70% of Norwegians registered as members. Originally, the church was the official religion of Norway, with mandatory membership, but today, the church and the state have become separated. The church has likewise historically been pro-life, while Norway allows for legal abortion. However, the bishops of the Church of Norway recently released a statement actually apologizing for the church's pro-life stance and stunningly (and incorrectly) claiming that abortion "promotes women's health, safety and security."

"When the law of self-determined abortion was dealt with and adopted in the 1970s, the church was a clear opponent of the changes that were introduced," the statement began. "Priests and others were strong and clear in their criticism of the law for the purpose of protecting the unborn life. Today, we realize that the church's argumentation did not allow for a good dialogue. It's time to create a new conversation climate. We want to contribute to that."

The new conversation, evidently, means acknowledging that abortion needs to be legal, despite also arguing that preborn babies are, indeed, human beings deserving of protection. The statement read, stunningly:

A society with legal access to abortion is a better society than a society without such access. It prevents illegal abortions and promotes women's health, safety and security. It is not least evident in a global perspective. Internationally, we see that churches are still contributing to the burden of many pregnant women in vulnerable positions.

In Norway, abortion is legal through 12 weeks, and can be approved through 18 weeks if a woman files an application (most of which are approved). More bizarrely, the church still apologizes for not being committed enough to "women's liberation and rights."

Read the rest here.

Democrats are having an awful week — and Howard Schultz is having a good one

As an upbeat Howard Schultz tucked into lunch in Washington recently, he was having a good week because Democrats were having an awful one. The former Starbucks chief executive, who is contemplating a plunge into politics, knows that his narrow path to the presidency as an independent depends on the Democratic Party becoming as offensive as the Republican Party has become. So, because his political prospects depend on the Democratic Party making normal people wince, he cannot be displeased by:

Numerous Democratic presidential candidates embracing the Green New Deal in the nanosecond before it became a punchline. Various candidates telling 180 million Americans to have stiff upper lips about losing their private health insurance under Medicare-for-all. One candidate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), saying: There will be less paperwork when the government runs health care. Really. Another candidate, Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), who is vegan, saying that eating meat threatens the planet. New York and Virginia Democrats, expanding “reproductive rights” to include infanticide, saying that infants who survive late-term abortions will be kept “comfortable” while they die of neglect. House Democrats swatting an anti-Semite in their caucus, but having to live with rising anti-Israel sentiment among their base. And remaining hostage to a ubiquitous colleague who became the face of (a) socialism and (b) freshman Democrats by capturing a safe seat after winning a primary with the grand total of 16,898 votes.

Democrats are spewing fury about Schultz, who they think might siphon off anti-Trump votes and become Ralph Nader redux. In 2000, when George W. Bush won the presidency by defeating Al Gore in Florida by 537 votes, Nader, running as the Green Party candidate, received 97,488 Florida votes, thereby probably defeating Gore.


Read the rest here.

At this point I don't even know if I will vote at all. I haven't voted in a general election since 2012 and with things in their current trajectory, there is a good chance that will continue. I am somewhat hopeful that John Kasich will challenge Trump for the GOP nomination, though I think it a long shot. The only thing I am certain of is that the next couple of years are going to be interesting... in the Chinese curse sort of way.

Facing possible schism, Methodists reject liberal assualt on morals

Whatever they did, schism was and remains the all but certain result. But for a change it is the revisionists who failed in their attempt at a hostile takeover of one of the larger mainline Protestant denominations.

Details.

Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe votes against dissolution- considering where to go

The extraordinary General Assembly of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe met in Paris yesterday to decide the fate of the Archdiocese after Constantinople suddenly and unexpected revoked the 1999 tomos that established it as an exarchate in late November.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople explained that the parishes of the Russian Exarchate were to simply move under the Patriarchate’s local Greek bishop, though this directive was received unfavorably by the Exarchate’s hierarch Archbishop John of Chariopoulis and the clergy who met on December 15 and resolved to hold the General Assembly in late February to decide on an official response.

The Archdiocese was largely in favor of staying together as a group, and it was reported that they were considering joining the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, or the Romanian Patriarchate, among other options.

As Orthodoxie reports, Abp. John opened the Assembly with a sobering word on the need for unity and canonicity:

Today, we need to choose between life and death. Choosing life will mean the continuity of our Archdiocese in its own space in communion with the Church. Another option might be to say, yes, we stay in our own space, but we remain in a kind of terra incognita, and I think this is not the right path. So today, we must keep unity, that’s the most important, and choose a path of life. Therefore, I urge you, let not this meeting be a split between us, rather, let it be a sign of unity and a strong ecclesial sign.

 

And reporting on the results, Orthodoxie states that of the 206 voters, 191 voted against the dissolution of the Archdiocese, with only 15 voting to remain within the Ecumenical Patriarchate in its main Western European dioceses.

Read the rest here.

A Brief Reflection on Male Headship

If then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Col. 3:1-2). 

I commend you because you remember me in everything, and you maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11:2-3).

Male headship: “The head of a woman is her husband.” I suppose there’s nothing as infuriating to modern feminists as this concept. But I wonder if this ordering would be at least a little less infuriating if it were understood in all its sublime glory as another of the multitudinous patterns that the Creator God has wondrously and wonderfully woven into His glorious Creation, and which even reflects the very being and life of God Himself, as He exists forever in Holy Trinity. 

As we all are well aware, patterns of order exist everywhere in our Lord’s glorious Creation, from the paths of electrons and other subatomic particles, to the paths of planets, stars, and galaxies; from the ordering of the seasons to the planting, growing, and harvesting of crops; and in the growth and adulthood of all animate beings, from the insects and fish to the birds and mammals, from the moment of conception to their last breath on this earth. For the Church fathers, all these countless patterns of order all point to the existence of God, the Creator of all this order that is so essential to the peaceful ongoing existence of all things. 

Since human beings are also part of the created realm, we can scarcely be surprised that our own existence would also partake of patterns of order—which, when abided by, greatly contribute to our ongoing, peaceful existence while we live on this earth. This is self-evident, even with no reference to the Lord our Creator. Just imagine the chaos that would ensue if there were no patterns of order—no directional signposts—for cars and trains and airplanes to be governed by. Or if one day every driver and train conductor and airplane pilot decided to disregard all the rules and regulations, and drive and direct the train and fly wherever he or she happened to want to! 

One such pattern of order in nature is male headship, whereby in marriage, the husband has the duty to be ultimately responsible for the physical, emotional, and spiritual well being of his family, along with having the ultimate responsibility for guiding the ongoing mutual decision-making processes that are necessary for this purpose. The man, generally being the physically stronger, taller, heavier, and deeper-voiced of the two, very naturally has been given this role. The Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 2:13) and the Church Fathers also see a certain preeminence in the authority and responsibility of the husband due to the fact that Adam was created first, and then the woman from his side. 

Of course, every husband, as the servant-head, should always be seeking the input of his wife in the decision-making processes, which should always be decidedly mutual, with decisions being reached virtually always by consensus. Similarly, the husband should also be steadily encouraging his wife to contribute greatly to the marital enterprise as a whole, with all her particular strengths and gifts as well. 

Read the rest here.

German [Catholic] bishop: female priests ‘will come’, tradition won’t stop it

February 14, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A German bishop has stated that it is no longer convincing to argue against female priests because tradition does not allow it, adding that it is only a matter of time before they will come.

Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg made these comments in a Feb. 12 interview with German news service Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA). He claimed about the female priesthood that “it is not convincing anymore to rigorously reject it and merely to argue with the help of tradition.” While Feige suggested that currently the female priesthood is still improbable due to resistances in the Church, he is convinced that “it will come, however.”

“Not too long ago, I could not have imagined it this way,” the prelate added. Here, Bishop Feige referred to Pope Francis, saying that one cannot preserve the Church's teaching as is, without allowing for some development. Much has been changed in the past, and not only in details, he explained.

“Could the Spirit of God not also today lead us to new insights and decisions,” Feige said.

Commenting on the question of celibacy, the Eastern German prelate — who grew up under Communism — said he could imagine that there will be more married priests in the future. Celibacy, he said, “can over time become a burden.” He added that celibacy “is not a Divine law.” Therefore, married priests “are well possible, and they do exist already, after all –  with the same dignity and sacramentality – in the Catholic Eastern rites.” The question, however, is how the Universal Church can come to a decision in this points, Feige explained.

For him, it is important that the profile of the priest will be changed, away from an “archaic-bourgeois” style and toward a “dynamic-alternative” one. In the face of high numbers of non-Christians in his surroundings in Magdeburg, Feige argued that it is important for priests “not to instruct anyone from a superior position or to discipline him, but really to serve.”

Bishop Feige is not the only German-speaking prelate in favor of female priests. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn published last year his idea that one day there would be female priests and bishops. On another occasion, he said that he hoped for the day when he would ordain female deacons.

Read the rest here.

The 1527 Sack of Rome

For history enthusiasts. On which note, IMO this is one of the better channels on YouTube.

British Government Report Slams Facebook as "Digital Gangsters"

Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition law and should urgently be subject to statutory regulation, according to a devastating parliamentary report denouncing the company and its executives as “digital gangsters”.
The final report of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee’s 18-month investigation into disinformation and fake news accused Facebook of purposefully obstructing its inquiry and failing to tackle attempts by Russia to manipulate elections.
“Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised ‘dark adverts’ from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day,” warned the committee’s chairman, Damian Collins.
The report:

• Accuses Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, of contempt for parliament in refusing three separate demands for him to give evidence, instead sending junior employees unable to answer the committee’s questions.
• Warns British electoral law is unfit for purpose and vulnerable to interference by hostile foreign actors, including agents of the Russian government attempting to discredit democracy.
• Calls on the British government to establish an independent investigation into “foreign influence, disinformation, funding, voter manipulation and the sharing of data” in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 general election.
  
  Read the rest here.

RIP- Bruno Ganz

He was perhaps the greatest actor that most English speaking people have never heard of. To the extent he is well known among anglophones it is for his masterful performance as Adolf Hitler in the German film Downfall (Der Untergang), which spawned scores of satirical YouTube parodies using clips from the movie showing some of the Fuhrer's infamous rants. For a good part of his life though, the Swiss native was recognized as one of the finest German speaking actors in the trade. In recognition of which he was the most recent holder of the famed Iffland-Ring for more than twenty years. Mr. Ganz has reposed at the age of 77.

The OCA is talking to some conservative Protestants and the usual suspects are upset

Details here. My comment is somewhere underneath.

Investigation finds no evidence of ‘racist or offensive statements’ by Covington Catholic students

An investigation released Wednesday into an encounter between Covington Catholic High School students and Native American activists at the Lincoln Memorial last month largely supports the students’ accounts of the incident, which prompted immediate and widespread condemnation of the boys after a video of the encounter went viral.

A short video clip showed Nathan Phillips, playing a traditional drum, in an apparent standoff with student Nick Sandmann, who was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School, which arranged the trip, were among those who initially condemned the boys’ actions in the video.

The report, prepared by Greater Cincinnati Investigation, Inc. and dated Feb. 11, employed four licensed investigators for approximately 240 hours to take statements from students and chaperones, as well as to interview third-party witnesses and review about 50 hours of video. Investigators were not able to interview either Phillips or Sandmann in person and instead reviewed the student’s written account.

The investigators said they found no evidence that the students responded in an offensive manner to the black Hebrew Israelites or that they chanted “build the wall.” After asking chaperones, they performed a school cheer, according to the report, to drown out the black Hebrew Israelites.

Read the rest here.

I think there are more than a few people who owe these kids an apology. Not holding my breath though.

Catastrophic Flooding in Australia

Large tracts of rural Australia, primarily Queensland, have been stricken with flooding of biblical proportions after enduring a prolonged drought. There have been severe losses among wildlife and livestock.

Details.
Warning: The linked story has images that may be disturbing.

California abandons $77 billion high-speed rail plan

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday he’s abandoning a plan to build a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, a project with an estimated cost that has ballooned to $77 billion.

“Let’s be real,” Newsom said in his first State of the State address. “The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.”

The idea championed by Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, is years behind schedule. The latest estimate for completion is 2033.

Newsom, though, said he wants to finish construction that’s already under way on a segment of the high-speed train from Bakersfield to Merced, through California’s Central Valley, arguing it will revitalize the economically depressed region.

He’s also replacing Brown’s head of the state board that oversees the project and pledged more accountability for contractors that run over on costs.

Read the rest here.

Orbán announces major family protection package for Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a seven-point family protection action plan in his state-of-the nation address in Budapest.

“This is Hungary’s answer to challenges, rather than immigration”, the prime minister said.

Listing the points of the action plan, Orban said

• every woman under 40 years of age will be eligible to a preferential loan when they first get married.
• The preferential loan of the family home purchase scheme (csok) will be extended; families raising two or more children will now also be able to use it for purchasing resale homes.
• The government will repay 1 million forints of the mortgage loan of families with two or more children. This measure was first announced in August 2017 for families with three or more children, with the government paying off 1 million forints of families’ mortgages for every third and subsequent child from January 2018. The measures has now been extended to include families raising two children.
• Women who have had and raised at least four children will be exempt from personal income tax payment for the rest of their lives.
• The government will launch a car purchase subsidy programme for large families. Families raising at least three children will be eligible to a grant of 2.5 million forints to buy a new car seating at least seven people.
• The government will create 21,000 creche places over three years.
• Grandparents will also be eligible to a child-care fee and look after young children instead of the parents, the prime minister added.

Read the rest here.

Bulgarian Church calls for abortion ban, religious education in schools, no sex education

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has called for an overhaul of the government’s National Strategy for the Child 2019-2030, arguing for a ban on abortion and for compulsory religious education in schools and the removal of sex education from the curriculum.

The strategy was posted on the government’s strategy.by website for comments from January until February 8. The Synod published their comments on the patriarchate’s website which were then added to the governmental website, reports the Sofia Globe.

In taking the Orthodox stand against abortion, the Synod said that banning such murder would allow for society and children in particular to have a full chance at existence and “blessed progress,” giving society the chance to overcome its demographic crisis.
Abortion is “unworthy of the Bulgarian nation,” the bishops’ statement reads.

The bishops also called for religious education in schools, saying:

Religious education in kindergartens and schools educates not only the minds but also the hearts of the smallest members of our society, which means that religious activities (in particular: Orthodox Christianity) reveal to children the sacred secret of this, that man is created in the image of God, and that to educate means to develop not only intellectually, but also to be perfected in faith, hope, love, charity and godliness. This is and should be the highest goal of any education, of any education-form, that man should be likened to the image of his Creator,

 

The Synod also voiced its opposition to the teaching of sex education in schools, calling for students to instead learn about true love, and not “sexuality that is taken out of the context of love,” and that abstinence is the best contraceptive. Such education should not be left in the hands of those who push an LGBT agenda, the bishops write.

“Children’s rights, parents’ rights, and the protection of the traditional family have a direct bearing on national security, state prosperity and eternal salvation in God,” the bishops also said.

The bishops also addressed issues of child violence and drug abuse, protecting parental rights, and the elimination of familial policies imported from outside Bulgaria that are impractical for Bulgarian society.

Source

My Hero (for at least the next 12 hrs give or take)

I am not in the habit of cheering for billionaires. But I'm making an exception here. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is the world's richest man, with a personal net worth exceeding the GDP of more than a few countries (combined). Yesterday he struck a blow for all of us, great and small. Being confronted with what looks to my layman's eye to be a pretty naked attempt at extortion, he turned the tables on a bunch of thugs and character assassins masquerading as journalists. And he did it at not inconsiderable cost (not money wise) to himself. The press and pundits are having a field day with this. One can only imagine what the late night comedians are going to do with it.

But it really is serious stuff. There are all kinds of rumors running around about who may have been behind it, and why. For now I will just say that I hope Jeff sues these SOBs right down to their boxers.

But no farther please.

The details can be found here. (Caution- some of the material is salacious.)

God Agrees To Spare Virginia If Just 10 Democrats Who Never Wore Blackface or a KKK Hood Can Be Found

VIRGINIA—In a statement issued from on high, the Almighty has agreed to spare the state of Virginia from His imminent wrath if state officials can locate just ten Democrats who never wore blackface or a KKK costume at some point in their lives.


God had announced His plan to immediately destroy Virginia, but Democrat leaders quickly begged him to spare the state if they could locate just 50 Democrats who never dressed in blackface. Being unable to do so, they managed to get the Lord to reduce the requirement to 40, then 30, then 20, and finally just 10.

Virginians' relief, however, quickly turned to panic as Democrat lawmakers announced they couldn't find a single leftist politician who hadn't dressed in a horrifically racist costume in their college years. They thought they found one but he was accused of sexual assault and so didn't count.

The state's citizens immediately began gathering their things and fleeing for other states, being careful not to look back.

Source.

Washington State Braces for Potentially Severe Measles Outbreak

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Amber Gorrow is afraid to leave her house with her infant son because she lives at the epicenter of Washington state’s worst measles outbreak in more than two decades. Born eight weeks ago, Leon is too young to get his first measles shot, putting him at risk for the highly contagious respiratory virus, which can be fatal in small children.

Gorrow also lives in a community where she said being anti-vaccine is as acceptable as being vegan or going gluten free. Almost a quarter of kids in Clark County, Wash., a suburb of Portland, Ore., go to school without measles, mumps and rubella immunizations, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) recently declared a state of emergency amid concern that things could rapidly spin out of control.

Measles outbreaks have sprung up in nine other states this winter, but officials are particularly alarmed about the one in Clark County because of its potential to go very big, very quickly.

The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the nation’s most vocal and organized anti-vaccination activists. That movement has helped drive down child immunizations in Washington, as well as in neighboring Oregon and Idaho, to some of the lowest rates in the country, with as many as 10.5 percent of kindergartners statewide in Idaho unvaccinated for measles. That is almost double the median rate nationally.

Libertarian-leaning lawmakers, meanwhile, have bowed to public pressure to relax state laws to exempt virtually any child from state vaccination requirements whose parents object. Three states allow only medical exemptions; most others also permit religious exemptions. And 17, including Washington, Oregon and Idaho, allow what they call “philosophical” exemptions, meaning virtually anyone can opt out of the requirements.

All those elements combine into a dangerous mix, spurring concern about the resurgence of a deadly disease that once sent tens of thousands of Americans to hospitals each year and killed an estimated 400 to 500 people, many of them young children.

Read the rest here.

Beseeching the Mother of God for protection from schismatics in Ukraine

NOOOO!!!

MLB is considering a series of rules changes including making the DH universal.

Details.

Some of these ideas I can live with. But if they force that candy @$$ DH rule on the National League I am going to just give up and start watching golf or ping pong. And putting someone on 2nd base who didn't get there by swinging a bat is pure 100% Grade A fertilizer.

Update on Richie Bonillas (Latest Update:03-22-2019)

The latest update from the family...

Richie has taken a downturn.

Doctors are holding off Richie’s move to rehab until his lung improves. He had a partial lung collapse yesterday and another episode where his heart rate dropped significantly. Brian (Richie's dad) is hoping he will go to the rehab floor either today or tomorrow.

Doctor plans to do an MRI to try to determine the cause of his heart rate dropping into the 30’s and 40’s. They think it could be neurological. I’m not sure why they are holding off on the MRI. They may want to do it when his heart rate drops.

Further updates will be posted to this thread as I receive them.

Update: 02-14-2019
After almost 2.5 months in ICU, Richie was moved to Rehab yesterday. New doctors, nurses and support staff. One step at a time.

Update: 03-22-2019
I have received the following update...
Richie has Acute Flaccid Myelitis. It is similar to polio but not polio. Basically no treatment for it but supportive care. They said it may be a virus but don’t know for sure. It is very rare.
Because it damages the spinal cord it also damages the heart by sometimes causing the heart rate to drop to a rate that can be fatal. Local doctors and doctors from Stanford are all in agreement to put in a pacemaker but say it does not always work.
Brian is at odds about putting his son through all of this but Grandpa thinks Brian is in shock and is very angry. Brian and Shannon will need to make this decision.

American Expatriates in Russia

Rod Dreher has an interesting, and I suspect some will find it controversial, post on an American family that decided to take the ultimate leap. They emigrated to Russia. I am not going to excerpt this as there is a lot to digest.

Read it here.

Good News

 02-02-2019

Richie Bonillas is making slow but steady progress. The latest word is that if all goes well he will be moved from ICU to rehab on Monday. The family is somewhat exhausted as to be expected. Your prayers have been and remain deeply appreciated.

Concelebrated hierarchical liturgy on the Feast of St. Mark of Ephesus

On the Feast of St. Mark of Ephesus the Patriarchs of Antioch, Moscow and Belgrade concelebrate the Divine Liturgy.

(Hello Constantinople... anyone paying attention?)

UK: Just one in ten babies is baptised into the Church of England

Only one in ten babies is baptised into the Church of England – and in London, the figure is even lower at three in every 100, a national breakdown of the Church’s strength has revealed.

The tiny minority of infants who are introduced to Christianity by the CofE in London is mirrored in other major cities.

In Birmingham, only 5 per cent of babies are christened by the Anglican church; in Bristol it’s 6 per cent; in Manchester 8 per cent; and in Nottingham 9 per cent.

But the proportion of newborn children who are baptised is much higher in provincial towns and rural areas. In the Hereford diocese, for example, one in four babies is christened by the CofE.

The figures come from an analysis of churchgoing in 2017 in the CofE’s 46 dioceses. It shows that across England an average of 10 per cent of babies under one were baptised – down from 14 per cent in 2007.

Less than 50 people attend Sunday services at a typical English parish church. The figures for the London diocese do not include the capital south of the Thames, which is the Southwark diocese, where 5 per cent of babies under one are baptised into the CofE.

Read the rest here.

This is hardly surprising when the CofE has devolved into little more than a left-wing social club. Albeit one with very nice stained glass windows. It is not exactly surprising that a "church" is unlikely to attract people who are looking for articles of faith beyond whatever is currently trendy or politically correct.

Quote of the day...

"It is, the most disgraceful, atrocious, unjust, detestable, heathenish, barbarous, diabolical, tyrannical, man-degrading, woman-murdering, demon-pleasing, Heaven-defying act ever perpetrated in any age of the world by persons claiming to have consciences and a belief in a just God!"

 -Rodney French (1850 in response to the Fugitive Slave Act)

Hello New York...

A Critique of Old Calendarist Ecclesiology

Since its inception, the Old Calendarist movement has generated a substantial degree of debate. Although not all Old Calendarist groups share the same beliefs, the following three views are certainly among the most prevalent:

1) Ceasing commemoration of heretical hierarchs is obligatory (not optional)

2) Communion ought to be broken not only with erring clergymen, but also with those who, albeit Orthodox, maintain communion with them

3) Heretical clergy lose the grace of the mysteries even prior to synodal condemnations

The purpose of this paper is to critique these tenets using a range of examples from the history of the Church. Moreover, since several other matters relating to zealotry (such as the change in the Church’s Calendar) also remain highly misunderstood amongst both Old Calendarists and New Calendarists alike, they too shall be addressed..

Read the rest here.

Report: Orthodox Church of Cyprus to recognize schismatic Ukrainian church

The source is an anti-Russian news site, but they made some specific claims and quotes. I believe the report is credible. It's also not very surprising. I have generally expected that Cyprus and possibly the Greek and Romanian Churches would fall in line with Constantinople. Presumably Moscow will sever communion with Cyprus once this becomes official.

Ultrasound Unable To Detect Heartbeat In New York State Legislators

ALBANY, NY—After the New York State Legislature voted to greatly expand abortion rights all the way up until the point of birth Tuesday, doctors quickly ordered echocardiograms on every lawmaker who voted for the bill, but tragically, no heartbeats were found by any of the ultrasounds.

Physicians desperately searched the chest cavities of the legislators for any sign of a heartbeat but found only a black void where normal human beings have a heart.

"Not a single one of these legislators appears to have a heart," said one doctor gravely. "This is a known medical condition. When you try to justify the murder of infants, you slowly sear your conscience. As a side effect, your heart begins to harden. Finally, it becomes pure stone and eventually withers away into nothing, leaving you with a black void: a husk of a human."

"It's really the only way you could possibly cheer on something like the murder of babies," he added as he performed another cardiac ultrasound. "Nope, this one's coming up negative too: just blackness where normal people have a heart."

Doctors also ordered blood tests but found only cold hatred running through the veins of every legislator who voted to further oppress the unborn.

Source
HT: Brian W.

Quote of the day... an indictment of American Conservatism

It may be inferred again that the present movement for women’s rights, will certainly prevail from the history of its only opponent, Northern conservatism. This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity, and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it he salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious, for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom. It always—when about to enter a protest—very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop, that its “bark is worse than its bite,” and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent rôle of resistance. The only practical purpose which it now subserves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it “in wind,” and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy from having nothing to whip. No doubt, after a few years, when women’s suffrage shall have become an accomplished fact, conservatism will tacitly admit it into its creed, and thenceforward plume itself upon its wise firmness in opposing with similar weapons the extreme of baby suffrage; and when that too shall have been won, it will be heard declaring that the integrity of the American Constitution requires at least the refusal of suffrage to asses. There it will assume, with great dignity, its final position.”

-Rev. Robert L Danby (1820 – 1898)

HT: Bill Tighe

Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen): A Canonical Crisis in the Orthodox Church

 The actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (EP) in its process of granting a Tomos of autocephaly to the schismatic groups in Ukraine have created a canonical crisis. This point of “judgment” (the real meaning of “crisis”) is not so much about Ukraine, per se; but about the nature of the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and of primacy, indeed of episcopacy in the Orthodox Church. Thus, it affects every Orthodox Church and every Orthodox Christian. It has nothing to do with nationalism, though this has been a tool for manipulation of various parties involved; it has nothing to do with a rivalry between Moscow and Constantinople, though this is certainly exacerbated by the situation. It has nothing to do with Greeks versus Russians, or with Constantinople’s frustration with Moscow over the Cretan council. The roots of this crisis are a hundred years old, and its foundations date back to the Roman Empire.

It is a time of judgment for Orthodoxy, to make us deal with reality as it is, and not how we imagine it to be, not how we would like it to be. This means that to resolve this crisis we have to look at the history of the past several hundred years, and the current situation, and make some decisions as to how we are going to proceed as the Church. This brings up many corollary questions: What is the relationship between the Church and the world, the Church and secular governments, the Church and the nation-state? How does the Church engage in missionary outreach, and the nature of those missions? How do the Local Churches relate to one another, maintain communion with one another and support one another, in relation to the secular world?

The real issue is, what is the nature of the primacy of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Orthodoxy and how does it work in relation to the Synodal constitution of the Church?

There are two systems of presuppositions which have clashed in Ukraine. First, the conciliar vision of the Church which sees Local autocephalous Churches as having full authority over their defined territories, and missions, with full jurisdiction over juridical, canonical and disciplinary matters residing in the Synod of that Local Church. The Patriarch of Constantinople has primacy of honor as the first among equals, on the basis of the ancient canons. However each Synod has its own primate, and each functions independently as autocephalous. The second system has a set of presuppositions which vest final authority in the Ecumenical Patriarch over all canonical decisions, with a right of appeal and the right to overrule the other patriarchs, primates and their Synods, and whose decisions cannot be appealed. The conciliar/synodal model has been the operating principle of most of the Orthodox Churches for the past several hundred years. The Constantinopolitan model has been developing over the last century, on the basis of interpretations of the ancient canons, and has most recently been applied in Ukraine. It relativizes the autocephalies of the national Churches, and asserts not only primacy of honor but primacy of jurisdiction over all the Orthodox Churches, and sole jurisdiction outside of their national territories.

The specific conflict between these two visions of the Church manifested itself in Ukraine. While the interference of political powers and their financial ability to influence the leading actors, as well as the personal motivations of various actors involved, are important,they are side issues. The current conflict arose from the process of granting the Tomos of autocephaly to the schismatics in Ukraine, and especially, the validation of their schism. This was done despite the presence of the much larger canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, an autonomous Church under the Moscow Patriarchate. There was no consultation nor agreement with the UOC-MP, and they did not request autocephaly. The process involved the petition to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for autocephaly from the President of Ukraine, P. Poroshenko, on behalf of two groups that had long been in schism from the canonical Church in Ukraine. These bodies were led by former clerics who had been legitimately defrocked and anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church, of which they had been members: the so called “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko and “Metropolitan” Makary. The excommunication and expulsion of Denisenko had been universally recognized as just, for abuse of power and corruption, and for schism; and supported, even by Patriarch Bartholomew, who had also affirmed the complete competence and jurisdiction of the Russian Church to deal with these issues. Poroshenko’s petition included an appeal to overrule the decisions and disciplines levied against these clerics by the Russian Synod. The EP appointed two Exarchs, bishops from North America, to work out the details of the relationship with Constantinople and bring the two groups together. By entering Ukraine on official Church business without the blessing of the canonical Metropolitan of Kiev, Metropolitan Onuphry, the Exarchs of Constantinople violated the canonical territory of the autonomos Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and of the Patriarchate of Moscow of which it is part. Interfering in the Church affairs of another Local Church, and invading their territory are major canonical infractions. As a result, Moscow resolved to cease commemorating the Patriarch Bartholomew. Constantinople then withdrew the 300-year-old document, ceding jurisdiction of Kiev to Moscow. The biggest canonical infractions came, however, when the EP validated these schismatic groups and declared them fully canonical, took them under his jurisdiction, and validated the priesthood and episcopacy of their clergy. Moscow had no choice but to break communion with Constantinople at this point. Constantinple later established them with a Tomos of Autocephaly. In addition, the EP has established a stavropegial diocese, under himself, on the territory of Ukraine. He is operating on the basis of his own presuppositions; but they are not shared by the rest of the Church. Rather, he is seen as operating unilaterally, without consultation or conciliar consensus with the other Orthodox Churches.

Perhaps the most significant act in this process has been the validation of the clergy of the schismatic groups, and the recognition of their organization as a legitimate church within the Patriarchate of Constantinople, albeit nominally autocephalous. None of the other actions of this process touch on the sacramental constitution of the Church; these, however, cut to the very nature of episcopacy and priesthood, and of the Church itself. Everything else, as offensive as it has been to the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches, is essentially administrative and juridical. Not that these are not important, but they do not have any implications for sacramental integrity of the Church or the continuity of the Tradition. If this schism was just administrative, the parties would eventually reconcile, even if grudgingly, as after Constantinople invaded and divided the Church in Estonia. There was a break in communion for a time, as there is now between Jerusalem and Antioch. But there was no issue that forced the rest of the Churches to take sides and go into schism with the others.

The schismatic clergy all had cut themselves off from the canonical Church. Some had been canonically ordained, most were uncanonically ordained by schismatic bishops, and some had never been ordained as bishops. In an unprecedented sweep of the pen, the Patriarch of Constantinople declared all these clergy valid and canonical, lifting the defrockings and anathemas, and placing them under his omophorion—figuratively. Then the EP demands that they commemorate the new primate as the head of a legitimate Orthodox Church, and serve with him and his clergy, and does so himself. So all the Churches, the primates and Synods, must choose: Will they serve with clergy from this new Ukrainian Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate? Those clergy and faithful will also go all over the world, to Jerusalem, Mt. Athos, Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, Romania. Will they be received to communion? Will they be allowed to serve? Will their Baptisms be recognized?

Read the rest here.

Two 17 year olds try to figure out a rotary telephone

Prayers please...

In your mercy please pray for the child of God Richie Bonillas who is gravely ill.

Anti-Catholic bigotry is alive in the U.S. Senate

Those who want to understand how Democrats manage to scare the hell out of vast sections of the country need look no further than the story of Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and the Knights of Columbus.

In considering the confirmation of Brian Buescher to a federal judgeship last month, Harris and Hirono submitted written questions that raised alarms about his membership in “an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men.” “Were you aware,” Harris asked, “that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?” And: “Have you ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against women’s reproductive rights?” And: “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?”

For those who know the Knights of Columbus, this is a bit like accusing your Aunt Harriet’s knitting circle of being a Mexican drug cartel. In most of the country, the Knights of Columbus is a respected fraternal organization consisting of men who hand out coats to needy children, promote devotion to the Virgin Mary, support crisis pregnancy shelters and protest doggedly each year in the March for Life.

Hirono regards the traditional moral views of the Knights as “extreme positions.” The difficulty with this line of reasoning is that they are exactly the same positions of the Catholic Church itself. So why wouldn’t a judge’s membership in the Catholic Church — with its all-male clergy, opposition to abortion and belief in traditional marriage — be problematic as well?

The difficulty with a reductio ad absurdum comes when people no longer find it absurdum. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has made the argument bluntly. In raising concerns in 2017 about appeals court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s Catholic faith, Feinstein said, “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.”

So is it fair to say that Harris, Hirono and Feinstein would want judicial nominees to quit religious organizations that hold “extreme positions” or recuse themselves from all matters of morality that the senators regard as tainted by religious dogma? That sounds like an exaggeration. But here is a question that Hirono asked both Buescher and Paul Matey, another appeals court nominee: “If confirmed, will you recuse yourself from all cases in which the Knights of Columbus has taken a position?”

This is not just a liberal excess; it is a liberal argument. Religious liberty, in this view, reaches to the limits of your cranium. You can believe any retrograde thing you want. But you can’t act on that belief in the public square. And you can’t be a member of organizations that hold backward views and still be trusted with government jobs upholding the secular, liberal political order.

Read the rest here.

RIP: Jack Bogle

 
The father of the low cost index fund and a man often called the conscience of Wall Street, Jack Bogle has passed at 89. Warren Buffet said that Jack did more for the ordinary investor than any man he knew. I think that about sums it up.

Memory eternal.

Some Good News From the Other Side of the Tiber

In a moment in history where good news from the Roman Catholic Church is not altogether common...

The US Military Academy has witnessed its first solemn High Mass according to the old rite in at least 57 years.

Details.

Worse than you thought: inside the secret Fitzgerald probe the Navy doesn’t want you to read

A scathing internal Navy probe into the 2017 collision that drowned seven sailors on the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald details a far longer list of problems plaguing the vessel, its crew and superior commands than the service has publicly admitted.

Obtained by Navy Times, the “dual-purpose investigation” was overseen by Rear Adm. Brian Fort and submitted 41 days after the June 17, 2017, tragedy.

It was kept secret from the public in part because it was designed to prep the Navy for potential lawsuits in the aftermath of the accident.

Unsparingly, Fort and his team of investigators outlined critical lapses by bridge watchstanders on the night of the collision with the Philippine-flagged container vessel ACX Crystal in a bustling maritime corridor off the coast of Japan.

Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through busy waterways.

The probe exposes how personal distrust led the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock, to avoid communicating with the destroyer’s electronic nerve center — the combat information center, or CIC — while the Fitzgerald tried to cross a shipping superhighway.

When Fort walked into the trash-strewn CIC in the wake of the disaster, he was hit with the acrid smell of urine. He saw kettlebells on the floor and bottles filled with pee. Some radar controls didn’t work and he soon discovered crew members who didn’t know how to use them anyway.

Fort found a Voyage Management System that generated more “trouble calls” than any other key piece of electronic navigational equipment. Designed to help watchstanders navigate without paper charts, the VMS station in the skipper’s quarters was broken so sailors cannibalized it for parts to help keep the rickety system working.

Since 2015, the Fitz had lacked a quartermaster chief petty officer, a crucial leader who helps safely navigate a warship and trains its sailors — a shortcoming known to both the destroyer’s squadron and Navy officials in the United States, Fort wrote.

Fort determined that Fitz’s crew was plagued by low morale; overseen by a dysfunctional chiefs mess; and dogged by a bruising tempo of operations in the Japan-based 7th Fleet that left exhausted sailors with little time to train or complete critical certifications.

Read the rest here.

Full English Text of Tomos Granting Autocephaly to the Schismatic Church in Ukraine

For the record.

Brexit Deal Voted Down

Prime Minister Theresa May has just suffered the worst parliamentary defeat of any British government in modern political history. Her Brexit deal with the EU was voted down by a margin of 230 in the House of Commons. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately tabled a motion of no confidence in the government.

I am not aware of any government that upon sustaining a loss on their signature policy legislation in the Commons did not immediately resign and call for a general election.

Unbelievable.

A Moment in Time

It's a cold wet November day in Colchester Connecticut and three buddies are settling into a booth in Art's Sportsman's Tavern for a beer, a smoke and some friendly conversation. Maybe about the weather, the fishing or FDR's chances of winning a third term on election day.

And somebody snapped a picture.

NY Governor Cuomo vows no budget unless abortion is made legal up to birth

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is refusing to sign the state’s budget unless the legislature passes a bill that makes abortion up until birth for any reason legal in the state. He is also calling on the legislature to enshrine abortion as a right guaranteed in the state constitution.

While delivering a pro-abortion speech at Barnard College in Manhattan with former first lady Hillary Clinton at his side, the 61-year-old Democrat vowed not to support the 2019-2020 state budget legislation until the state legislature approves the Reproductive Health Act and the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act.

Read the rest here.

Christ is born!

Reports: Vatican may be trying to rehabilitate McCarrick

This is deeply disturbing.

Details

Merry Christmas from Ireland

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), the Republic of Ireland’s version of Planned Parenthood, will begin aborting babies January 7, reported the Irish Examiner. The legalization of the murderous procedure in the predominantly Catholic nation came after Ireland’s president signed legislation passed in December by Ireland’s parliament — which was responding to a referendum earlier in 2018 by which Ireland’s citizens voted by a two-to-one margin to repeal their constitution’s Eighth Amendment protecting the right to life of unborn children.

Source

The People vs. Donald J. Trump: The case for impeachment

The presidential oath of office contains 35 words and one core promise: to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Since virtually the moment Donald J. Trump took that oath two years ago, he has been violating it.

He has repeatedly put his own interests above those of the country. He has used the presidency to promote his businesses. He has accepted financial gifts from foreign countries. He has lied to the American people about his relationship with a hostile foreign government. He has tolerated cabinet officials who use their position to enrich themselves.

To shield himself from accountability for all of this — and for his unscrupulous presidential campaign — he has set out to undermine the American system of checks and balances. He has called for the prosecution of his political enemies and the protection of his allies. He has attempted to obstruct justice. He has tried to shake the public’s confidence in one democratic institution after another, including the press, federal law enforcement and the federal judiciary.

The unrelenting chaos that Trump creates can sometimes obscure the big picture. But the big picture is simple: The United States has never had a president as demonstrably unfit for the office as Trump. And it’s becoming clear that 2019 is likely to be dominated by a single question: What are we going to do about it?

The easy answer is to wait — to allow the various investigations of Trump to run their course and ask voters to deliver a verdict in 2020. That answer has one great advantage. It would avoid the national trauma of overturning an election result. Ultimately, however, waiting is too dangerous. The cost of removing a president from office is smaller than the cost of allowing this president to remain.

Read the rest here.

For the record

The Ecumenical Patriarch has signed the tomos recognizing the schismatic Ukrainian church. I will be interested to see what's in the fine print. Beyond which, unless the local churches can be moved to take a stand, I see no end to this schism in the foreseeable future.

New Ukrainian Church and Greek Rite Catholics Pledge Cooperation

According to information published by the Ukrainian website RISU, “the primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Uniate) have already met and agreed to work out a roadmap, in order to deepen the relationships between the two Churches”.

In an interview with the Ukrainian TV channel Pryamyy, Metropolitan Epifaniy declared...

 “We have outlined a definite path for our future cooperation, and from now on, we will seek for points of convergence that will unite us, in the field of spiritual education and other areas of our lives. Ad hoc commissions will be created by our Orthodox Church and by the Greek Catholic Church, and we are developing the roadmap for our cooperation”.

He stressed that the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) have always had a common goal, namely to work for the development of the Ukrainian State. This is a permanent goal.

As reported, Patriarch Svyatoslav (Shevchuk), the head of the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church contacted Metropolitan Epifaniy, the Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He wrote that, in the name of his Church, he was reaching out to Epifaniy and all the Orthodox brethren, offering them to journey together towards unity.

Source

Hmm...

Moscow writes a letter to Constantinople

Wow. 

Happy New Year

Louis Armstrong & Jimmy Durante sing Old Man Time

Sweden Isn't Socialist (mostly)

For years, I've heard American leftists say Sweden is proof that socialism works, that it doesn't have to turn out as badly as the Soviet Union or Cuba or Venezuela did.

But that's not what Swedish historian Johan Norberg says in a new documentary and Stossel TV video.

"Sweden is not socialist -- because the government doesn't own the means of production. To see that, you have to go to Venezuela or Cuba or North Korea," says Norberg.

"We did have a period in the 1970s and 1980s when we had something that resembled socialism: a big government that taxed and spent heavily. And that's the period in Swedish history when our economy was going south."

Per capita GDP fell. Sweden's growth fell behind other countries. Inflation increased.

Even socialistic Swedes complained about the high taxes.

Astrid Lindgren, author of the popular Pippi Longstocking children's books, discovered that she was losing money by being popular. She had to pay a tax of 102 percent on any new book she sold.

"She wrote this angry essay about a witch who was mean and vicious -- but not as vicious as the Swedish tax authorities," says Norberg.

Yet even those high taxes did not bring in enough money to fund Sweden's big welfare state.

"People couldn't get the pension that they thought they depended on for the future," recounts Norberg. "At that point the Swedish population just said, enough, we can't do this."

Sweden then reduced government's role.

They cut public spending, privatized the national rail network, abolished certain government monopolies, eliminated inheritance taxes and sold state-owned businesses like the maker of Absolut vodka.

Read the rest here.

The Rodney Dangerfield of Presidents

President William H. Taft

Western Union Telegram from the Secretary of War to President Taft April 7, 1911...

"Heard you went riding yesterday. stop. How is the horse? stop - Jacob Dickinson"

By odd coincidence, President Taft replaced his War Secretary a few weeks later.

The Psalms and Our Salvation with Father Patrick Reardon

Ukraine plans to seize 8 monasteries from the UOC and transfer them to Constantinople

President Petro Poroshenko has yet to publish the agreement on cooperation that he signed with Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople on November 3, despite the fact that he was required to do so by Ukrainian law more than a month ago already.

Parliamentary Deputies and media representatives have repeatedly called on Poroshenko to publish the agreement.

However, the Ukrainian site Vesti has learned that an addendum to the cooperation includes a list of Ukrainian churches and monasteries that Poroshenko pledged to transfer to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The list includes 12 properties altogether, 8 of which are monasteries of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the primacy of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, which has repeatedly protested Constantinople’s reckless and prideful interference in its own internal affairs.

The official site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has also ran the story.

According to Vesti’s source, the issue of the transfer is under the control of the presidential adviser Rostislav Pavlenko, who “edits the list taking into account the interests and desires of Bartholomew and his Exarchs. To clarify the situation and find out who is hesitating---Andrei Yurash, the head of the Department of Religions and Nationalities of the the Ministry of Culture, was sent to the western provinces.”

The 12 properties to be transferred (in addition to St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kiev, which was already transferred by resolution of the Verkovna Rada) are:

Read the rest here.

Another tradition down the tubes

The Navy is abolishing the age old punishment of confinement on bread and water. I knew a few guys who got tossed in the brig on B&W for three days. None of them had any complaints. They had in fact screwed up, and the normal alternative would have been getting busted down a grade, fined a half months pay x 2 months (that's at their new pay grade) and restricted to the ship with extra duty for anywhere up to two months.

Details.

Reports: Pope Francis to abolish office overseeing Latin Mass

Rorate Caeli has the story.

Christ is born!

Wishing all who celebrate the Nativity today, a blessed feast. Merry Christmas!

Facebook Allowed Netflix, Other Buisneses to See Your Private Messages

For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews.

The special arrangements are detailed in hundreds of pages of Facebook documents obtained by The New York Times. The records, generated in 2017 by the company’s internal system for tracking partnerships, provide the most complete picture yet of the social network’s data-sharing practices. They also underscore how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age, traded on a vast scale by some of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.

The exchange was intended to benefit everyone. Pushing for explosive growth, Facebook got more users, lifting its advertising revenue. Partner companies acquired features to make their products more attractive. Facebook users connected with friends across different devices and websites. But Facebook also assumed extraordinary power over the personal information of its 2.2 billion users — control it has wielded with little transparency or outside oversight.

Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.

Read the rest here.

This is outrageous

Rod Dreher has the story. Not only should she be entitled to her job back, she should get back pay, compensation for her legal expenses and punitive damages from the state.

HT: Dr. Tighe

Lincoln is bringing back "suicide" doors

2019 Lincoln Continental

I can't remember the last time I saw a car with rear hinged doors. Now I'm just waiting for the return of running boards and hood ornaments.

Two pieces worth a read

The Special Bishop of Caesar:

While criticism of the close relationship between the Russian Church and state is (with good justification!) common, less attention is paid to the fact that the Patriarchate of Constantinople exists and claims primacy solely due to its relationship with now-extinct civil authorities. But it is only this history that can explain much of Constantinople’s modern-day behavior. There is, to put it bluntly, an emperor-shaped (or, more accurately, a sultan-shaped) hole in Constantinople’s heart that forces Ecumenical Patriarchs to court the support of the most unexpected worldly powers, from Harry Truman in Athenagoras’ day to Petro Poroshenko today. Writing in 1911, the English Roman Catholic scholar Adrian Fortescue sketched the pathos of Constantinople’s role as ‘the special bishop of Caesar’ with equal erudition and acerbity:

Read the rest here.

Roger Scruton: The Fury of the Modernists

It's not what you think it's about. But it's good, as is almost everything I have read by Sir Roger.

Read it here.

Anglican orders not 'invalid' says Cardinal, opening way for revision of current Catholic position

One of the Vatican’s top legal minds has opened the way for a revision of the Catholic position on Anglican orders by stressing they should not be written off as “invalid.”  

In a recently published book, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, calls into question Pope Leo XIII’s 1896 papal bull that Anglican orders are “absolutely null and utterly void.”

“When someone is ordained in the Anglican Church and becomes a parish priest in a community, we cannot say that nothing has happened, that everything is ‘invalid’,” the cardinal says in volume of papers and discussions that took place in Rome as part of the “Malines Conversations,” an ecumenical forum. 

“This about the life of a person and what he has given …these things are so very relevant!” 

For decades Leo XIII’s remarks have proved to be one of the major stumbling blocks in Catholic-Anglican unity efforts, as it seemed to offer very little room for interpretation or revision. 

But the cardinal, whose department is charged with interpreting and revising Church laws, argued the Church today has a  “a very rigid understanding of validity and invalidity” which could be revised on the Anglican ordination question. 

“The question of validity [regarding the non-recognition of Anglican orders, while the Pope would give pectoral crosses, rings or chalices to Anglican clergy], however, is not a matter of law but of doctrine,” he explains in a question and answer format. “We have had, and we still have a very rigid understanding of validity and invalidity: this is valid, and that is not valid. One should be able to say: ‘this is valid in a certain context, and that is valid another context’.”

Read the rest here. 

Ummm... sorry. They are invalid and we (Orthodox) need to cease accepting their baptisms. The CofE and their North American constituencies are simply pagan. That Rome does not seem to grasp this is alarming further evidence of the crisis in their own communion.

California Moves to Tax Text Messages

California: WTF!
Texas: Sux 2 b u

Details

I am so glad to be out of that left wing lunatic asylum masquerading as a state.

[Retracted] Former Exarchate of Western Europe for Parishes of the Russian Tradition, Recently Abolished by Constantinople, to Request Reception by Moscow

[Note: The below linked story has been retracted by the publisher. The letter on which the story was based has been exposed as a deliberate fraud, likely created by an agent provocateur intending to sow discord in an already severely strained situation. See the links in the comment thread for more details. -A/O]

The Archdiocese of the Russian Churches in Western Europe, officially the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe, reportedly intends to ask to be accepted into the Russian Orthodox Church. 

The Archdiocese had been a part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople for decades, though it was suddenly abolished without warning by the Holy Synod of the Constantinople on November 27. The Patriarchate then officially announced that it had revoked the 1999 tomos that gave the care of the Archdiocese to its own Archbishop-Exarch and that the Russian parishes were to be integrated into the dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople already present in their countries. The Archdiocese then announced that it would hold a clergy meeting on December 15 that would set a date for a General Assembly that would formulate a response to Constantinople. 

And today, a Russian translation of a letter sent from the Archdiocesan hierarch Archbishop John (Renneteau) of Chariopoulis to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, received by the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, has been published on Credo Press, revealing that the Archdiocese intends to petition for canonical recognition by the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Read the rest here.

Instant Karma

So I'm driving along Rt 41 this morning, a two lane highway in each direction. I'm in the right lane northbound doing maybe five over the posted speed limit and another car is pacing me in the left lane. Not a big issue until some guy comes flying up from behind and seeing the left lane blocked, he gets behind me in the right lane.

And when I say behind, I mean the distance separating the pupils on a cross eyed flea.

This is annoying but when he starts flashing his lights and laying on the horn, my temperature starts rising. This goes on for a minute or two and I am just about to tap the breaks to make my irritation with his behavior clear when the guy on my left (coincidentally the passing lane) turns off. At which point the jerk behind me does a fly by while giving me a very rude hand signal.

This is a Christian blog so we will just pretend that there is a loud continuous bleeping sound for the next thirty seconds representing what I was shouting at this obnoxious clown.

Anyways the obnoxious clown is out of sight in less than a minute. He had to be doing upwards of 80 mph.

And then, maybe three or four minutes later, there came the clear evidence of a justly outraged deity. Ahead in the distance I saw the unmistakable flashing blue lights of the Florida State Police. Even before I could get close enough to see who was pulled over, I just knew it was him.

I smiled and waved as I slowly passed by.

Absolutely nothing is going to ruin the remainder of my day.

More Anglican Apostasy

The CofE is planning a sacrilegious parody of baptism for the benefit of the alphabet crowd. Rod Dreher has some good commentary on the subject. The money lines being...

Serious, non-trolling question to traditionalist Anglican readers: how do you stand it? Is there anything that would make you leave? If not, then seriously, what specific practices (if any) do you embrace to allow you to endure this kind of breakdown in the institution? What is the argument for remaining (or remaining in communion with Canterbury as it descends into madness)?

Read the rest here.

Happy Birthday

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

(B. December 11, 1918)

Report: Constantinople plans to keep Ukrainian Church under its jurisdiction

Kiev, December 5, Interfax - The statute regarding Ukraine's "unified local church" drawn up by the Constantinople Patriarchate does not actually provide for this church's autocephaly, contrary to Kiev's expectations, the online Ukrainian publication Vesti reported on Tuesday.

According to Vesti, some key provisions of this statute show that there is no reason to expect the autocephaly (independence) of the new church; it will be fully subordinate to Constantinople as a metropolitanate.

One of the key provisions of the statute stipulates that the Ukrainian church will be inseparably linked to the Constantinople Patriarchate and, through it, to all other Churches. This is essentially the current status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is linked to the Orthodox world via the Russian Orthodox Church.

The draft statute says that the Orthodox church in Ukraine will be led by a metropolitan, not a patriarch, Vesti reported.

The Ukrainian church's assembly of bishops would be required to consult the Constantinople Patriarchate on all important matters; the latter would share whatever it saw as essential with the assembly and would not be required explain its decisions, according to Vesti.

What is more, the Ukrainian church would receive chrism used during sacraments only from Constantinople, which is regarded as one of the main indicators of the absence of real autocephaly, it said.

The "unified local church" would also be unable to canonize saints on its own, but would have to submit their names to Constantinople for endorsement.

The draft statute also stipulates that the Constantinople Patriarchate would act as the top appellate institution.

It was reported earlier that the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate had approved a draft statute for a nascent church independent of Moscow at the Synod's meeting on November 27-29.

Source

If this is true (and that is a big "if")... the EP appears to be planning to annex the Ukrainian Church and turn it into a Greek religious colony. Wow. Just wow.

Memory Eternal

G H W Bush was an imperfect man who made his share of mistakes. But he was all class and one of the last of the old school (and old money) aristocrats with a strong sense of noblesse oblige. Whatever one may think of his presidency, on balance I think it was pretty good, it's hard to fault the man's character.

In the end I think his last great act of public service was dying when he did. In an era where our politics have become toxic, our president profoundly narcissistic, venal and morally corrupt, Mr. Bush reminds us that selfless public service, honor and common decency are not incompatible. He leaves us with a glimpse of what once was, and can be again.

Far from the despondency expressed by many pundits who saw this as a funeral for all that was good in the Republic, I was left cautiously hopeful. I refuse to believe that Mr. Bush represents the last gasp of a dead world. Rather I see something that we can aspire to. The trick is to look not for demagogues who will tell us whatever they think we want to hear, but rather men of honor and character who will tell us what we need to hear. Men who seek the greater good, standing for something more than self and without trying to enrich themselves and their relations in the process.

To be clear, I am not trying to canonize President Bush. But in a world temporarily disordered by the ascendancy of lesser men, one cannot help but note the contrast and hope that in due course this too will pass.