Throw in a dozen Krispy Kremes and you got a deal

Firing the host who made the death threat was probably the right thing to do, but the Catholic League is right to call CBS on its double standard:

After comparing Mother Teresa to Charles Manson, Jillette again said she “got her [sexual] kicks watching people suffer and die.” He concluded by saying, “Paris Hilton. You’re so much better than that. Don’t take the gig. Keep making good wholesome porno films. Just do that. Do what you’re cut out for. Don’t lower yourself to playing Mother Teresa.”

Subsequent to Jillette’s remarks, John London, a radio talk-show host on KIFR/San Francisco (a CBS station that carries Jillette’s show), said that he would offer “$5,000 to the person that kills Jillette” for his attack on Mother Teresa. He added that if Jillette “suffers, I’ll make it $7,000.” London, and his producer, Dennis Cruz, were then fired by the CBS management in New York.

Reason # 512 to send your kid to Catholic school

"A grade three teacher in BC has developed a lesson plan ostensibly to teach schoolchildren 'tolerance,' encouraging the message that same-sex attraction is healthy and normal, as depicted in the homosexual cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain."

James Chamberlain, notorious for taking the Surrey School Board to the province's Supreme Court so he could incorporate same-sex story books like One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads, Blue Dads into his kindergarten curriculum, encourages teachers to first take their classes to see the film."

H/T to Kathy.

City Council assumes queer new mandate...

...to meddle in things not normally associated with municipal jurisdiction.

Ready for a laugh? I mean a real laugh? OK - have a look at San Francisco's municipal resolution condemning the Vatican, passed unaminously by council (which includes Catholics). I especially like the reference to the Inquisition. Can't be anti-Catholic without mentioning the Inquisition. Everyone knows that.

This, of course, is a total slam dunk. I wonder how San Francisco's ratepayers feel about the nice, big cheque they're going to write to the Catholic League? Might help fund many, many more of these.

Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. The Gates of Hell are indeed wide enough....

Her kid can play with my kid anytime

Sorry Anchoress, lock your kid in his room until he writes "I promise to accept the Sacrament of Holy Orders" 500 times. I mean, he's already a priest in the ways that matter, so he should make it official, don't you think? The following is from the mouth of a 16 year old boy, as related by his mother. Check it out:

“How exactly,” Buster asked me. “I’ve read that the Eucharist has been stolen for use in black masses - but what do they do with it, actually?” I don’t like talking about this stuff, but I related a little - that some have put the Consecrated Host upon an “altar” and stabbed it, or sliced it, so as to “stab” Christ. “They believe, as we do, that the Eucharist is the actual, physical Presence, the Body and Blood of Christ,” I explained. “That’s why Wonder Bread and Grape Juice won’t do. They want the Consecrated Host - they know what it is. Sometimes the desecrations can be tearing it up and stomping on it, or doing disgusting things to it. And sometimes the Host is even abused sexually. Just as sexual abuse or rape is about power and control and domination, someone who sexually abuses a Host, sees it as controling and dominating Christ.”

“But, it’s a Gift,” Buster said, “So they only cheat and hurt themselves.”

I was a little confused. “What do you mean, which is the Gift, the Holy Eucharist, or sexuality?” “Both,” he said. “They’re both gifts, but I’m talking about the Gift of the Body of Christ. Christ gave himself to us - freely - of his own free will. A Gift freely given. If someone takes the Gift and spits on it or whatever - they’re only destroying what was given to them, they are destroying what is “theirs.” They don’t in any way destroy the Giver of the Gift, or lessen the Giver…OR the Gift. So they have no power over it, they can’t dominate it. All they can do is destroy themselves within themselves.”

Read the whole thing here. And Buster's mom just got blogrolled here, which oughta add like three hits a month to her sitemeter, or something.

Bloody amazing. When I think of the waste I made of my 16th year I just want to hug her kid....

Another Franciscan Warrior!

You know what? I’m really getting to like these Franciscans. First, I hear about the one who led an army that saved Europe from being conquered by he Mohammedans (too bad they played the long game, and won Europe anyway using differential birth rates and failed immigration polices as the weapons of choice, but I digress). Next, I read about St. Francis himself, rejecting what we now call 20th century ecumenism in favour of – wait for it – actually converting Muslims to Christianity. And now, we have the example of Friar Michael Seed who seems to have a knack for converting membership of the British political oligarchy to the faith.

Father Michael has reportedly been saying private Masses at 10 Downing Street for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose closeness to the Church has been one of those poorly kept secrets for years:

Tony Blair has been attending private Roman Catholic Mass with Father Michael Seed, prompting speculation that he plans to become a Catholic when he leaves
office.

Father Michael, who is well known for converting establishment figures to Catholicism, was reported in The Sunday Times to have held services for the Blair family at Downing Street and at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence.

Read the whole thing here. Hat tip to Amy. And say a prayer to St. Francis that these examples will spread throughout the Order of Friars Minor.

Link Policy

I thought a quick explanation of my link policy over here at Upper Canada Catholic was in order, since for some reason I have received about a half dozen requests in the last month to get added to my Blogroll on the right-hand sidebar.

So here it is:

My Blogroll consists of blogs I read pretty regularly, and that I feel comfortable putting out there as an open invitation for others to read as well. Sometimes blogs get nixed because I'm told they've shut down or otherwise gone on hiatus (City of God, Island Catholic, etc.).

I do not have a reciprocal linking policy. Over half of my Blogroll does not link back to me, which is totally OK! Likewise, if I don't reciprocate a link you've made to me it's not personal. I may still read you occasionally, but not regular enough to add you to the Blogroll I click through daily myself. Yet.

So now you know. As you were....

Terri Schiavo: A Catholic Contrarian Confesses

In the past year I have read a lot about Terri Shiavo in the Catholic blogosphere, and am acutely aware of the Church’s position about the removal of her feeding tube and subsequent death, and those of many great blogging minds. Now I wish to come clean:

I agreed with the removal of her feeding tube.

I remain greatly troubled by the fact that so many people in whom I hold great esteem remain steadfastly committed to their position that what occurred was nothing short of premeditated murder, and possibly torture. When so many great and decent people hold such strong views contrary to my own, my first, second and third inclination is to think that they are right and I am wrong. I ask myself “What am I missing here?” A year on, and the answer remains “I still don’t know. I don’t think I’m missing anything.”

Her autopsy found that most of Ms.Shiavo’s brain had turned to mush, and doctors described her particular vegetative state as unrecoverable (confirmed by autopsy), and “cruel” in that it allowed her to appear responsive to stimulus (light, touch) in a way that mimicked normal, human responses – thus allowing loved ones to more easily deceive themselves as to her prognosis.

Now her husband may or may not have been a class one prick, or even a killer or adulterer – I have no idea, and I’m not sure it mattered as far as Ms. Shiavo’s unrecoverable vegetative state was concerned. I am quite certain that I would never want to be nursed ad infinitum as a hooked-up cadaver, and frankly it seems hard to see the medical facts in her case as anything other than just that. As I wrote recently, medical science can now sustain life through extraordinary means almost indefinitely (and the “almost” is about to disappear), and this has very real repercussions for our society.

One outcome of this affair was that I signed a living will making it very clear that my plug is to be pulled, and my family is to move on; life is for the living, and it is already too short.

Terri Schiavo’s tombstone says she departed this Earth back in 1990 at the time of her original cardiac arrest. Honestly folks, that sounds about right to me. I think that despite mustering all of my cognitive abilities I was unable to come round to other’s way of thinking really sucks. Honestly, I do. If you think you can convince me otherwise, I promise to open my mind.

But don’t get your hopes up.