Catholic Standard Weekly Update

Well folks, it is that time again for our weekly review of the Catholic Standard.

The front and back pages of the Standard focus on the Cardinal Hickey Academy and how they celebrate the real presence of Christ. Really good stuff.

The inside cover has a story on the rallies protesting the Arizona Immigration Law. The story, which is picked up from Catholic News Service, never mentions the term "illegal" (as to breaking of the law) nor did it mention the violence at the protests in San Antonio, Phoenix, etc. Nope, everything was peaceful and beautiful.

We follow-up with another story on the generosity of the people of the Archdiocese to the Archbishop's Appeal, Haiti, etc.

Congratulations to the Ten teachers who received the Golden Apple Awards, for their excellence and committment to Catholic Education. We should especially be greatful to the Donahue Family Foundation, who sponsor these awards.

We have a huge story about Dr. James Ronan Jr. who offers his services for free to the poor.

The Blue Mass was offered on May 4th to pray for the safety of all law enforcement personnel. They do a great job and in many instances, get little respect, esp. from leftist politicians.

We have an article on Archbishop Sheen reminding us of the Year of the Priest.

However, I do want to draw your attention to the article on page 10: At Conference on faith and environment, participans learn about protection God's creation. It's a great article. Makes you really wonder what the heck is going through the minds of the folks down in Hyattsville.

Again, let me say this about stewardship of the environment. I agree that we should not waste things and be careful of what we use, but the problem I have is that it almost becomes a devotion (like to Our Lady of Fatima or Lourdes) with some of our Catholics. In some instances, it becomes the center of life. We talked about the celebration of Earth Day by one religious order.

Professor William Dinges, of CUA, speaks as though he was right out of the late 1960's. All we need is "In the Year 2525" by Zager and Evans playing the background.

However, we do have a true believer in Ingrid Jones, from St. Rose of Lima in Gaitherburg, who wants to raise environmental awareness. Her and "a group of parishioners on an environmental committee want to organize a film festival to bring issues such as corporate greed and global warming to the forefront."

First, I guess Ms. Jones has not gotten the message that global warming is a hoax. The scientific evidence is made up and manipulated. She probably bought into the who Al Gore thing, purchasing a couple of his DVDs, etc. (BTW, where is ALGORE these days?? Seems pretty quiet to me. Maybe he is hiding out in that HUGE mansion of his. I wonder how many homeless families could take up residence there.)

Second, I love the "corporate greed" cliche. Every liberal Catholic loves to say it, but doesn't seem to mind watching a TV program sponsored by an oil company or attend a fundraiser which is underwritten by a financial firm. Look, the Most Merciful Barack Obama, leader of the Regime took in almost $80,ooo from BP for his campaigns. But, that is okay.

Third, since she is such a dedicated environmentalist (like ALGORE) she probably walked, rode a bike or took public transportation to this conference. If she didn't, then she drove apx. 140 miles round trip. Assuming she was getting 25 miles to the gallon, she used apx. six gallons of gas, not including the oil, wear and tear on the tires, etc.

When our Catholic Education system is under assault from officials at the Federal, state and local levels, we are spending our resources on this?

Now, remember, your parish pays to have the Standard (whether they like it or not), so pick up a copy and drop a little in the plate for it.

Lenten Carbon Fast -- Should We Reconsider?

Over the last few days, many Catholic bloggers have picked up on the Lenten Carbon Fast Calendar published by the Archdiocese of Washington. In fact, our colleagues over at Restore DC Catholicism had their posting linked on Fr. Z's Blog (congrats!).

But on my way to Church this morning, it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, we are all looking at this thing wrong.

Maybe we should embrace it.

I mean, how many families due to sports, teens waking up late, split the Mass going -- two or three vehicles going to Mass, when there only needs to be one. How many of us live only a 20 minute walk from the parish, but still take our cars, so that we can then head out to sports or do food shopping.

Therefore I offer this open letter to the Archbishop and the Archdiocese.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I would love to hear from you on this.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Archbishop Wuerl and the Environmental Outreach Committee:

Recently, you have taken quite a number of hits on the Lenten Carbon Fast published by the Archdiocese Environmental Outreach Committee. After some deliberation, I would like to join you in this effort and would like to make a number of recommendations of my own. These are but a few of the ones that have come to mind.

I hope that you find these useful and I look forward to their implementation, which will help us save the planet.

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter and if you need any further ideas, I will forward them to you.

Regards.

AWashingtonDCCatholic

+++++

Suggestion One: Encourage Catholics who are not planning on receiving Communion to stay at home and watch the Mass. Why use all of that gas, oil, etc. They can easily watch the Mass on the Howard University channel or EWTN. Even if 5% of all those who attend Mass do not receive Communion, that amounts to a fair number of vehicles off the road. And, it will increase the viewership of your taped Mass. Always a good thing.

Suggestion Two: Hear confessions via Skype or a web conferencing tool. We want to encourage people to come to confessions, esp. during The Light is ON for You campaign. Instead of having a person drive to his/her parish or to a parish at which they are not known (usually alone in the car), why not do it using the latest technology.

Equip a couple of priests with a laptop (with a camera and mic) - not that expensive and some of them may already have one. While waiting for the next person for confession, they can make themselves available. People can call in and if the priest is available, he can accept the call and make himself busy to those who may come to the church. Since we seem to encourage people to do face to face confessions, the only difference is that you are not physically present but the priest can see and hear you. Saves on gas, etc.

In fact, you don't even have to open up the Church for this. The priest can do this from his room or office. Saves on heating, lighting, and other maintenance. A real carbon footprint reduction if you ask me.

Suggestion Three. Cut down on the number of Masses offered each Sunday at least once a month. Parishes that offer four Masses, should offer three. Parishes that offer three should offer only two. So, it gets a little crowded. So it is not as convenient. People may go to another parish because it is at a more convenient time. Does it really matter, as long as they are going?

Suggestion Four. For this one, the Archbishop will have to give dispensation but heck, if we give a dispensation for eating meat when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday in Lent, we can certainly do it for this. What is more important than saving the planet?

Once a month, starting this Lent, the every Parish should close their doors on Sunday and request that everyone watch the Mass either on EWTN or the Shut-in Mass.

Now, you will take a hit on the Sunday collection (unless you do electronic giving) but can you imagine the carbon footprint reduction that this would bring?

Can you imagine how this will bolt the Catholic Church to the front of the environmental movement?

I bet that you and the Archdiocese will be on the cover of every environmental magazine, invited to speak on every talk show, and lauded by the entire world. Heck, we may even see a Nobel Prize Nomination!

Catholics, Global Warming and the New Devotion

I have been pretty busy the last couple of days, but a couple of thoughts have been running though my mind the last couple of months...

Global Warming, I mean, Climate Change (we have to get out Orwellian phrases correct, you understand) has become the new devotion or cause of the social justice crowd. We see some religious orders making that a part of their regular ministry. We see parishes have whole committees on it with regular meetings on the issues. (Although I see them really more as cost savings committees - changing light bulbs and such.) Even this Archdiocese has had a day at the McCarrick Center on the Church and the Environment.

However, over the last few weeks, we have seen that the "climate change" experts have been "fixing" the numbers. Kinda like a mobster who "fixes" a boxing match. Now, many of us believed that ALGORE was full of hot air from the start but with the release of emails on this, everyone can see that this has been "rigged."

Considering that the meeting in Copenhagen this week will feature 1200 Limos, 140 private jets and spew more than 40,000 tons of carbon just there alone, should make people really wonder about those who claim to be interested in saving the planet.

Now, as one who likes to go into the great outdoors, I believe that it is important to conserve when appropriate, and to make certain not to destroy but this is really out of hand.

Sheryl Crowe talks about using on piece of toilet paper. I wonder how many she uses and how often she travels in a private limo or SUV?

Does Leonardo Dicaprio have to jet around the world for appearances at his latest movie? Why can't he just video conference in?

So, I wonder what should happen to these Church Committees? Will the various religious groups begin to see the light that they have been hoodwinked? Or will they stick to their beliefs, similar to those that believe that the moon landing was a hoax and that the Holocaust never existed.

Just some random thoughts. What do you think?