Beatifying a torturer

Bill Cork on John Allen on Pope Benedict's upcoming beatification of Fr. Gabino Olaso Zabala. First Allen:

According to written testimony from the victim, Olaso participated in the 1896 torture of a Filipino priest named Fr. Mariano Dacanay, who was suspected of sympathy for anti-Spanish revolutionaries. Dacanay’s own account asserts that Olaso and a handful of other Augustinians encouraged guards who were administering the torture, and that at one point Olaso himself kicked Dacanay in the head, hard enough to leave the suffering priest semi-conscious.

Historians generally regard Dacanay’s testimony as credible. Augustinian Fr. Fernando Rojo, the Rome-based postulator for the cause of Olaso and the other Augustinian martyrs, told NCR Oct. 10 that he does not see “any reason to doubt the basic historical accuracy of the facts” contained in Dacanay’s account.

Then Cork:

Allen offers the excuse, “To be sure, Olaso’s conduct must be understood in the context of his times, since the late 1890s were a violent era in the Philippines.”

But he was a priest, a representative of the Prince of Peace, whose teachings of non-violence have been spread for 2000 years. That’s the true historical context.

And what of the historical context for this beatification–the world today?

Then Allen:

Nonetheless, the revelation that someone set for beatification by Pope Benedict XVI was a willing participant in torture may be disconcerting - in the first place for Filipinos, who see the 1896 rebellion as a key moment in the birth of their nation; and more broadly for those concerned with contemporary moral and legal debates over torture, especially in the context of the “war on terrorism.” Despite clear official Catholic teaching against torture, some may wonder if the church is sending a mixed message by beatifying someone who apparently administered torture himself.

Me: "Disconcerting"? You don't say. How about "appalling"? Too strong? After all, torture was all the rage in late-nineteenth-century Philippines. And, let's not forget, Olaso isn't the first beatified guy with a "checkered past." As Allen points out, St. Mark Ji Tianxiang was canonized in 2000 even though he was a known opium addict. And Fr. Jean-Marie Gallot was beatified in 1955 despite the discovery that he had been a Mason. See, not all saints led spotless lives.


"Catholics United" Takes Up S-CHIP Battle

HT: DemFromCT

Ad Campaign Criticizes Pro-Life Members of Congress for Voting against Children's Health Insurance

Washington, DC- Catholics United will launch a radio advertising campaign targeting ten members of Congress whose opposition to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) have compromised their pro-life voting records.

The ads, which feature a mother urging her Congressional Representative to support SCHIP, will primarily air on Christian and talk radio stations from Monday Oct. 15 to Wednesday, Oct. 17 as Congress approaches a critical Oct. 18 vote to override President Bush's veto of bipartisan SCHIP legislation.

"Building a true culture of life requires public policies that promote the welfare of the most vulnerable," said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. "At the heart of the Christian faith is a deep and abiding concern for the need of others.  Pro-life Christians who serve in Congress should honor this commitment by supporting health care for poor children."

The following members of Congress have voted against SCHIP, which provides high-quality health coverage to more than six million children whose families would otherwise be unable to afford insurance. Radio ads will air on local radio stations in their congressional districts.

                          Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida

                          Rep. Joseph Knollenberg, Michigan

                          Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Michigan,

                          Rep. Tim Walberg, Michigan

                          Rep. Steve Chabot, Ohio

                          Rep. Gene Taylor, Mississippi

                          Rep. Michelle Bachmann, Minnesota

                          Rep. Sam Graves, Missouri

                          Rep. Thelma Drake, Virginia

                          Rep. John Peterson, Pennsylvania

The script for the radio commercial reads: "I'm the mother of three children, and I'm pro-life. I believe that protecting the lives our children must be our nation's number one moral priority.  That's why I'm concerned that Congressman X says he's pro-life but votes against health care for poor children.  That's not pro-life.  That's not pro-family.  Tell Congressman X to vote for health care for children. Call him today at XXXX, that's XXXXX."





Criterion, criterium, criteria, criterias?

With apologies for having distracted Eduardo's thread on abortion, I decided to make this a separate thread.  David Gibson wrote that "data" as a singular noun is acceptable in certain contexts, at  least according to Merriam-Webster online.  For me "this data" has the same effect as fingernails screeching down a blackboard.  But I'm old...

So I checked Merriam-Webster for two analogous cases, and here is what it said, first, about "memorandum/memoranda":

"Although some commentators warn against the use of memoranda as a singular and condemn the plural memorandas, our evidence indicates that these forms are rarely encountered in print. We have a little evidence of the confusion of forms, including use of memorandum as a plural, in speech (as at congressional hearings). As plurals memoranda and memorandums are about equally frequent."

and then  about "criterion/criteria":

"The plural criteria has been used as a singular for over half a century <let me now return to the third criteria— R. M. Nixon> <that really is the criteria— Bert Lance>. Many of our examples, like the two foregoing, are taken from speech. But singular criteria is not uncommon in edited prose, and its use both in speech and writing seems to be increasing. Only time will tell whether it will reach the unquestioned acceptability of agenda."

(It's too bad they didn't give an  example from Richard Nixon for "this data"; that would have held the abomination back for a few more decades!)

Fair warning to all, however.  That the past tense of the verb "lead" is "led" is fast disappearing from American consciousness, at least to judge from students' papers.

Does "Commonweal" have a usage-guide?  . 




Presidential Platform 2048

"More places to live. . . more places to eat. . . more lemonade stands. . . and more hoedowns."

My four-year-old niece's answer to the question what her platform will be when she runs for President of the United States.

Sounds pretty good to me . . .




Taking a Stand

Here is a link to an article from Inside Higher Ed about the actions of three psychology departments that have signed a statement that the APA did not go far enough in condemning the participation of psychologists in interrogating prisoners.  Two of the departments are at Quaker schools.

Are there any psychologists out there who might want to mobilize a similar effort at Catholic institutions?

The resolution at Earlham College can be found here.

 






Politics and Religion at Cato-Unbound

This month’s symposium at Cato-Unbound is on religion and politics.  The lead essay, by Mark Lilla, is entitled “Coping with Political Theology.”  This is the blurb about it:

“Drawing on themes of his new book The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West Columbia University’s Mark Lilla attempts to explain why America, the most religious nation in the modern West, can neither understand nor cope with “the religious passions dominating contemporary world politics.” Lilla lays out how the “Great Separation” in Western political thought, which set aside “political theology” as the basis for conceiving of the legitimacy of the political order, together with the exceptional American experience of religious toleration, has made it difficult for Americans to grasp how uneasily Western ideals of democracy and toleration fit within frameworks of thought that still put God at the center of politics.”

There are responses by Damon Linker, Philip Jenkins and one coming from Andrew Sullivan.

The symposium can be found here.






Guttmacher Abortion Study in the Lancet

Here's a link to a new Guttmacher-WHO study on worldwide abortion rates in the most recent issue of the Lancet.  (And here's the NY Times story on the same.)  According to the study (via the NY Times):

abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.      Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. ... In Eastern Europe, where contraceptive choices have broadened since the fall of Communism, the study found that abortion rates have decreased by 50 percent, although they are still relatively high compared with those in Western Europe. . . .In Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education programs focus only on abstinence, the estimated abortion rate was 54 per 1,000 women in 2003, more than twice the rate in the United States, 21 per 1,000 in that year. The lowest rate, 12 per 1,000, was in Western Europe, with legal abortion and widely available contraception.

More thoughts on this over at the Mirror of Justice.




Civic discourse: Catholic-Jewish Division

Father Dennis Desse, President of St. Thomas University, has changed his mind. Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be welcomed to speak at the university. Deese's humble and intelligent letter can be found here: http://www.stthomas.edu/bulletin/news/200741/Wednesday/Dease10_10_07.cfm

Archbishop Tutu's actual speech in Boston from 2002 that started the whole brouhaha can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,706911,00.html

An editorial in The Jewish Daily Forward, "The Tutu Heave-Ho," takes a sane and sober look at the brouhaha and offers that link to Tutu's remarks. Here is their editorial: http://www.forward.com/articles/11777/

 

UPDATE: Typo: The name is Dease, not Desse. Apologies


'NCR' to go biweekly.

Courtesy of the preposterously unfair postal-rate hike, which will cost NCR an additional $95,000 annually. They're going to publish twenty-four times a year, and increase the page count of each issue. I can't find any announcements online yet, but below is a scan of the letter they sent to subscribers. These postal rates cannot stand. (For more on the USPS, check out the most recent episode of NPR's Justice Talking, in which Commonweal features.)





Can a Catholic College Exist Today?

In light of our recent discussions on  Catholic identity and college campuses, I thought there might be some interest in this piece, reported on in the Chronicle of Higher Education, by Francesco Cesareo, the new president of Assumption College and a former colleague of mine.

Among other things, Cesareo says that “Catholic colleges cannot permit the existence of a pro-choice group or speaker on campus . . .”  Maybe it’s just me, but it’s hard to see how you actually have a college or university if pro-choice speakers are not allowed on campus.

The entire article, "Can a Catholic College Exist Today,?" can be found here.






Hitchens: National Book Award nominee.

For God Is Not Great, natch. Gene McCarraher, start your engines.


Delusional irrational hopelessly pathetic Irish football fan

This lasts just over one minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Y7yjxJVlc



Melinda Henneberger on Los Angeles

Commonweal's Melinda Henneberger on  fallout from the sex abuse scandal in Los Angeles.


The Daily Show: Our Brave, Fighting Words

making the ultimate sacrifice . . . .losing their definitions for the sake of the country.


Lines in the Sand

In a much-discussed Op-Ed  in the New York Times last week (yes, that paper, of all places), James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and a leading player in Evangelicalism, laid it on the line. He warned his political soulmates in the GOP that if they don't deliver a candidate whose first priority is "a recommitment to traditional moral values and beliefs" then Evangelicals may create a third party--effectively fragging the Republican nominee--or stay home. Either way, it would ensure the election of a Democrat. Dobson defined those non-negotiable priorities as "the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and other inviolable pro-family principles."  

Dobson's threat was striking, as much as anything for the fact that if he can't follow through, then he will have lost in a big way.

What also struck me was how some Evangelical leaders have come to use the power of the vote to influence politics in much the way that some Catholic leaders use their power to distribute communion. As Evangelicals don't really have excommunication (and witch-burnings are passe) perhaps that is their best recourse for influencing public policy. Evangelicals have proven to be the true swing vote, although that may be changing.

Conversely, now that the Catholic hierarchy has no voting bloc to deliver, are some bishops--perhaps a reflex driven by frustration--quicker to look to ecclesial sanctions to get their point across?

And will both tactics backfire?




The Death of Blogs

may or may not be iminent, but at least it's good for a blog post.


Proof of God's Existence

More proof that God exists, and that she's not a Yankee fan. This game had it all -- even Biblical plagues! (See Exodus 8:12-15)


Always Autumne

A reflection I always associate with the fall of the year:

"God made Sun and Moon to distinguish seasons, and day, and night, and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons: But God hath made no decree to distinguish the seasons of his mercies; In paradise, the fruits were ripe, the first minute, and in heaven it is alwaies Autumne, his mercies are ever in their maturity. We ask panem quotidianum, our daily bread, and God never sayes you should have come yesterday, he never sayes you must againe to morrow, but to day if you will heare his voice, to day he will heare you. If some King of the earth have so large an extent of Dominion, in North and South, as that he hath Winter and Summer together in his Dominions, so large an extent East and West, as that he hath day and night together in his Dominions, much more hath God mercy and judgement together: He brought light out of darknesse, not out of a lesser light; he can bring thy Summer out of Winter, though thou have no Spring; though in the wayes of fortune, or understanding, or conscience, thou have been benighted till now, wintred and frozen, clouded and eclypsed, damped and benummed, smothered and stupified till now, now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spiring, but as the Sun at noon to illustrate all shadowes, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penurees, all occasions invite his mercies, and all times are his seasons."

( John Donne, sermon on "God’s Mercies" preached at St. Paul’s on Christmas Day, 1624)




Execrable Poems

I learned from the "Guardian" (UK) that the long reigning champion in the search for the world's worst poem, William McGonagall, whose opus on the Tay Bridge Disaster ends with the risibly horrible lines "And the cry rang out all o'er the town/Good Heavens! The Tay bridge is blown/ down" is now being challenged by the nomination of another nineteenth century bard, the Brussels born Theophile Jules-Henri Marzials whose commemoration of another aquatic disaster involving runaway barges ends: "Drop/Dead/ Plop,flop.Plop." I could not help but think that a third nineteenth century poem on matters maritime, "The Wreck of the Deutschland" was turned down by the Jesuit editors of "The Month" because they could not make heads nor tails of it. If there is a moral to this story it might be something like this: take courage you poets. All that stuff editors turn down may turn out to be works of genius while the things that do get published may be the stuff of ridicule in the distant future. And a final admonition: do not feel compelled (indeed, resist the urge) , dear fellow bloggers, to share your own Parnassian inspired works with us.


More Tidbits from Taylor

..... and so the penitent pilgrim, bearing the 850 page burden, struggles upward toward the elusive goal. He/she stumbles onto Purgatorio's twentieth terrace (aptly titled "Conversions"), and here the revelation, so long desired, at last occurs.

Beatrice-like, the guiding genius of the entire pageant appears. "Benedictus qui venit," the choir intones. Behold: Ivan Illich!

What is Illich telling us? That we should dismantle our code-driven, disciplined, objectified world? Illich was a thoroughgoing radical, and I don't want to blunt his message. I can't claim to speak for him, but this is what i draw from his work. We can't live without codes, legal ones which are essential to the rule of law, moral ones which we have to inculcate in each new generation. But even if we can't fully escape the nomocratic-judicialized-objectified world, it is terribly important to see that that is not all there is, that it is in many ways dehumanizing, alienating; that it oftens generates dilemmas that it cannot see, and in driving forward, acts with great ruthlessness and cruelty. The various modes of political correctness, from Left and Right, illustrate this every day.

Codes, even the best codes, can become idolatrous traps, which tempt us to complicity in violence. Illich can remind us not to become totally invested in the code, even the best code of a peace-loving, egalitarian, liberalism. We should find the centre of our spiritual lives beyond the code, deeper than the code, in networks of living concern which are not to be sacrificed to the code, which must even from time to time subvert it. This message comes out of a certain theology, but it could be heard with profit by every body (p. 743).

Whether this be, for bloggers and other networkers, license or warning, is left to right judgment. But here the pageant ends, the lights dim, the music fades.

And before finally falling into easeful slumber, the weary pilgrim wonders: ""Ivan who?"





Paper or plastic? Neither?

Today’s Washington Post has a thoroughly discouraging piece about the plastic and paper bags in which we carry our purchases away from the supermarket. It would appear that there is nothing to choose between paper and plastic when it comes to helping the planet. The suggestions at the bottom of the article don’t appear to be alternatives that will appreciably slow the downward spiral.




Beato Francesco

Laudato si', mi Signore, per quelli che perdonano per lo tuo amore
et sostengono infirmitate et tribulatione.
beati quelli che sosterranno in pace
ca da te, Altissimo, sirano incoronati.

For Larry Cunningham and my niece's favorite painting:

http://www.wga.hu/html/b/bellini/giovanni/1480-89/098ecsta.html



Do you know what's in a Big Mac?

Of course you do.
"two-all-beef-paties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a sesame-seed- bun."
Do you know all the 10 Commandments?
Mmm.

HT: CNS

Survey: More Americans know Big Mac ingredients than Ten Commandments WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Quick. Name each of the Ten Commandments. OK. Now name the ingredients in a Big Mac hamburger sold at McDonald's. According to a new survey, the Big Mac wins the memory contest. In truth, the Big Mac has advantages. There are only seven ingredients to remember, and they have a catchy jingle behind them. McDonald's Corp. has poured enough money into commercials that the decades-old jingle remains familiar today. The survey of 1,000 Americans, by Kelton Research, was undertaken to help promote the new animated movie "The Ten Commandments," which will open Oct. 19. The vast majority of those surveyed could easily name the primary ingredients in a Big Mac: two all-beef patties (80 percent), lettuce (76 percent), sesame-seed bun (75 percent), special sauce (66 percent), pickles (62 percent) and cheese (60 percent). By comparison, "You shall not kill" was known to fewer than six in 10 respondents. Less than half (45 percent) could recall the commandment to "Honor your father and mother."


Shame


From today's NY Times.  Discuss:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.

Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil.

Congress and the Supreme Court have intervened repeatedly in the last two years to impose limits on interrogations, and the administration has responded as a policy matter by dropping the most extreme techniques. But the 2005 Justice Department opinions remain in effect, and their legal conclusions have been confirmed by several more recent memorandums, officials said. They show how the White House has succeeded in preserving the broadest possible legal latitude for harsh tactics.




"Et tu, Tutu?"

Here's a wacky one--at least to me. Perhaps you Minnesota readers are up on this story, but thanks to the Dallas Morning News blog I just read the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages story about the University of St. Thomas rescinding an invitation to Nobel laureate and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu because of remarks he has made criticizing Israel policies on the Palestinians.

Desmond Tutu as Anne Lamott? Hmmm...This does not sound like a reaction to some groundswell movement by the Jewish community.

From what I have read, my thoughts would coincide with those of Marv Davidov, an adjunct professor within the Justice and Peace Studies program at St. Thomas, who told the paper:

"This is pure bullshit," says Davidov. "As far as fighting for civil rights, I consider Tutu to be my brother. And I consider Cris Toffolo to be my sister. They're messing with my family here. If Columbia permits a Holocaust denier [Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] to speak at their university, why are St. Thomas officials refusing to let Tutu, an apostle of nonviolence, speak at ours?"

Only alt-weeklies can get away with such descriptive language, alas.




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