“Many were in tears”

Traditional Latin Mass in San Jose comes to an unexpected end

A High Latin Mass of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite at San Jose’s historic Five Wounds Portuguese National Church has been cancelled following a dispute among parishioners over Mass times.

The well-attended Sunday High Mass at 9:15 a.m. had been celebrated since September 2009 by Fr. Jean-Marie Moreau of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, an international society of priests founded in 1990 dedicated to preserving the traditional Latin Mass.

Over the year, attendance at Five Wounds’ traditional Latin Mass grew from around 90 to between 150 and 200 each Sunday. But on Sunday, Sept. 26, the last such Mass was celebrated. One observer told California Catholic Daily that the church was “filled to the rafters,” and that “by the recessional, many were in tears...”

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Prayer request

For J.'s father - that he'll recover fully from his heart surgery.

Busted! Reds reported after smoking victory cigars in clubhouse

By 'Duk

"Impressionable utes weren't the only ones watching when Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini (right) passed out victory cigars and then lit up after his team clinched the NL Central title at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday.

Also watching at home on television were at least five whistle-blowers who noted that the Reds were violating Ohio's indoor-smoking ban. They called Cincinnati's health department to report the team and now the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the club is under investigation. 

In case you're wondering, the answer is yes — I'm extremely sorry to report that there are people living among us who would actually do this..."

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'Go ahead. I dare you.'

By Diogenes

In August we heard that Father Larry McNally, of Ascension parish in Oak Park, Illinois, had apologized to the women of his parish for the nasty teachings of the Catholic Church. In September we learn that he’s taken another step. Father Larry has added his name to a petition signed by his parishioners, expressing solidarity with women who wish to be ordained as priests. But it wouldn’t have been his style simply to add his name to the list of signatories:

McNally said he put his name on the petition "in big red print" and felt compelled to deliver it in person to the cardinal at his Gold Coast mansion on Sept. 7, just before George was to embark on a trip to Rome.

When he arrived at the cardinal’s residence, Father Larry wasn’t actually wearing a bright orange sweatshirt with “Look at ME!” printed in 4” letters on both front and back. That wasn’t necessary. He had made his point. The Sun-Times (which, one suspects, got this story from Father McNally, not from Cardinal George) explains:

It was largely a symbolic move, since the cardinal has no power to allow women into the priesthood.

True. The cardinal does not have the authority to ordain women. Neither does the Pope. It can’t be done.
But that’s not what makes Father Larry’s visit to the cardinal a symbolic move, really. The “symbolism” here—the message being delivered to the cardinal—is the same as the message sent by a 3-year-old who stamps his foot and glowers at his mother after refusing to pick up his toys. “I’m being naughty. What are you going to do about it?”

Father Larry reports that the cardinal was cordial.

• 'Go ahead. I dare you.'

Ground Zero Mosque Design

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Entire Maryland Episcopal Parish Becoming Catholic

By Randy Sly
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Mount Calvary Episcopal Church will vote in October on full-communion with the Catholic Church. 

The Process which brought the whole parish to this historic moment began with a Vestry retreat in October 2007 where it was decided unanimously that Mount Calvary should explore the possibility of becoming part of the Roman Catholic Church. Since then the All Saints Sisters of the Poor were received into the Catholic Church and the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans coming into full communion was promulgated.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - In a letter to parishioners, the Reverend Jason Cantania, rector of Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, announced that the vestry of the parish had voted unanimously in favor of two resolutions. First, they have voted to leave The Episcopal Church (TEC) where they are a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, and, second, to become an Anglican Use parish in the Catholic Church through the new initiative from Rome - the Anglicorum Coetibus.

Under the terms of this apostolic constitution, the Church has provided opportunities for "personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering full communion with the Catholic Church." As an Anglican Use parish, they will be authorized to use an authorized version of the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer called the "Book of Divine Worship."

Mount Calvary Episcopal Church, founded in 1842, is located in the heart of the city of Baltimore. On their website they describe themselves as a parish that has "borne faithful witness to the essential truth of Catholic Christianity and the tradition of the Oxford Movement for over 150 years, and remains to this day a bulwark of orthodox Anglo-Catholic practice.

[Author note - The Oxford Movement was a movement in the early 1800's of "high church Anglicans" who were desiring to maintain faithfulness to essential Catholic teachings. One of the early principle proponents of the Oxford Movement was John Henry Newman, who, as a Catholic convert, received the red hat as a Cardinal. He was recently beatified by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to England.]

"From its foundation, Mt. Calvary has 'contended for the faith once delivered to all the saints,"'the Catholic and Apostolic faith grounded in Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Fathers and Councils of the undivided Church."

The church will come together for a special meeting on October 24th to vote on the vestry's resolutions.

Virtue Online published the letter from the Rector which was first published on another blog entitled The Bovina Bloviator

LETTER FROM THE RECTOR OF MOUNT CALVARY CHURCH TO PARISHIONERS

September 21, 2010

Dear Friends in Christ,

I write today to inform you of a special meeting of the Congregation of Mount Calvary Church which has been called by the Vestry for Sunday, October 24, following the 10:00 am Solemn Mass. The purpose of this meeting is to vote on two resolutions which have been unanimously approved by the Vestry. They are as follows:

Resolved: In accordance with Article 12 of the amendment to the Charter of Mount Calvary Church, Baltimore, adopted April 10, 1967, the Vestry of Mount Calvary Church hereby determines that The Episcopal Church (formerly known as the "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America") has clearly, substantially, and fundamentally changed its doctrine, discipline and worship, and that Mount Calvary Church should become separate from and independent of The Episcopal Church. The Vestry therefore calls for a special meeting of the Congregation of Mount Calvary Church to be held on Sunday, October 24, 2010, following the 10:00 AM Mass, to affirm and enact this resolution.

Resolved: That Mount Calvary Church, upon separation from The Episcopal Church, seek to become an Anglican Use parish of the Roman Catholic Church.

Most of you are fully aware of the history which has brought us to this point. That history extends all the way back to the 19th century, when Mount Calvary became well-known, throughout Maryland and throughout the Episcopal Church, for its adherence to Catholic faith and practice. Indeed, to some it was notorious for its "popish" ways, and in fact for many clergy and people over the years (including two of my predecessors as rector), Mount Calvary has been their last stop before "crossing the Tiber".

The immediate process which brings us to this historic moment began with a Vestry retreat in October 2007, where it was decided unanimously that Mount Calvary should explore the possibility of becoming part of the Roman Catholic Church. Since then, two crucial events have occurred. The first was the reception of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, our own parish sisters, into the Catholic Church in September 2009.

The second was the announcement the following month of Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Apostolic Constitution calling for the creation of "personal ordinariates" (essentially non-geographical dioceses) for groups of Anglicans entering the Roman Catholic Church while retaining elements of their tradition. The result of these developments is that the Archdiocese of Baltimore now stands ready to welcome Mount Calvary as a body into full communion with the successor of St. Peter, and the process of establishing ordinariates in various countries, including the United States, has begun.

While I know that the vast majority of you are enthusiastic about making this transition, I realize that some may still have questions and concerns about the prospect of entering the Roman Catholic Church. In the weeks ahead, prior to the congregational meeting, I will invite a series of guests to speak about their experience of life in the Catholic Church and to answer questions. Some of these guests will be well-known to you; indeed they will include former parishioners and clergy of Mount Calvary. I think all of them will be helpful in allaying any fears there may be.

Let me conclude by saying how truly grateful I am to be leading Mount Calvary Church at this moment in time. When I became your rector over four years ago, I had not the faintest idea that this would be the journey we would take together. Nonetheless, there is not a doubt in my mind that this is the work of the Holy Spirit and truly the will of God, not simply for me, but for Mount Calvary.

This is not about rejecting our past and our heritage, but rather fulfilling it. We have before us the opportunity to carry with us the richness of the Anglican tradition into full communion with the wider Catholic Church. I therefore ask that each of you pray that God's will be done in this place which we all love so dearly as we approach this momentous decision.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev'd Jason Catania, SSC
Rector

-----
Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
- - -

Deacon Keith Fournier asks that you join with us and help in this vital mission by sending this article to your family, friends, and neighbors and adding our link (www.catholic.org) to your own website, blog or social network. Let us broadcast, we are PROUD TO BE CATHOLIC!

• Heading to Rome: Entire Maryland Episcopal Parish Becoming Catholic

h/t to Jenny

Michaelmas Apple Blackberry Pancake

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Relationships market after 50 years of the pill

By Cardinal George Pell 

FAR from bringing equality, contraception has redistributed power away from women, says George Pell. 


The Australian - THIS year is the 50th anniversary of the contraceptive pill, a development that has changed Western life enormously, in some ways most people do not understand.

While majority opinion regards the pill as a significant social benefit for giving women greater control of their fertility, the consensus is not overwhelming, especially among women.

A May CBS News poll of 591 adult Americans found that 59 per cent of men and 54 per cent of women believed the pill had made women's lives better.

In an article in the ecumenical journal First Things that month, North American economist Timothy Reichert approached the topic with "straight-forward microeconomic reasoning", concluding that contraception had triggered a redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men.

Applying the insights of the market, he points out that relative scarcity or abundance affects behaviour in important ways and that significant technological changes, such as the pill, have broad social effects. His basic thesis is that the pill has divided what was once a single mating market into two markets.

This first is a market for sexual relationships, which most young men and women frequent early in their adult life. The second is a market for marital or partnership relationships, where most participate later on.

Because the pill means that participation in the sex market need not result in pregnancy, the costs of having premarital and extra-marital sex have been lowered.

The old single mating market was populated by roughly the same number of men and women, but this is no longer the case in the two new markets.

Because most women want to have children, they enter the marriage market earlier than men, often by their early 30s. Men are under no such constraints.

Evolutionary biology dictates that there will always be more men than women in the sex market. Their natural roles are different. Women take nine months to make a baby, while it takes a man 10 minutes. St Augustine claimed that the sacrament of marriage was developed to constrain men to take an interest in their children.

Men leave the sex market at a higher average age than women to enter the marriage market.

This means that women have a higher bargaining power in the sex market while they remain there (because of the larger number of men there) but face much stiffer competition for marriageable men (because of the lower supply) than earlier generations.

In other words, men take more of "the gains from trade" that marriage produces today.

Reichert also claims that this market division produces several self-reinforcing consequences, including more infidelity.

From a Christian viewpoint it is incongruous and inappropriate to consider baby-free infidelity as an advantage for women or men.

But younger women are likelier to link up with older, successful men than older women with young men, as any number of married women can attest after rearing children, only to find their husband has left for a younger woman.

Another consequence is a greater likelihood of divorce. Because of their lower bargaining power, more women strike "bad deals" in marriage and later feel compelled to escape. This is easier today because the social stigma of divorce has declined and because of no-fault divorce laws.

More women also can afford to divorce and, in some cases, prenuptial agreements provide insurance against the worst.

Only the official teaching of the Catholic Church remains opposed to the pill and indeed all artificial contraception, but this is not even a majority position among Catholic churchgoers of child-bearing age.

Indeed, this particular Catholic teaching is often cited as diminishing the church's authority to teach on morality among Catholics themselves, as well as provoking disbelief and even astonishment among other Christians and non-believers.

Catholic teaching does not require women to do nothing but have children but it does ask couples to be open to kids and to be generous.

What this means in any particular situation is for each couple to decide.

Progressive Catholic opinion 40 or 50 years ago urged believers to follow their consciences and reject the church's opposition to artificial contraception. Today's advocates of the primacy of personal conscience urge Catholics to pick and choose among the church's teachings on marriage, sexuality and life issues, although they generally allow fewer liberties in social justice or ecology.

These changes, regarded as progressive or misguided depending on one's viewpoint, are not coincidental but follow from the revolutionary consequences of the pill on moral thinking and social behaviour; on the broadening endorsement of a moral individualism that ignores or rejects as inevitable the damage inflicted on the social fabric. This revolution was reinforced by the music of the 1960s, for example Mick Jagger's Rolling Stones, or the Beatles.

While early Catholic supporters of the pill claimed it would diminish the number of abortions, this has not eventuated. Whatever the causes, abortion rates have increased dramatically since the mid-60s in Australia and the US, although the number has peaked.

Real-life experience suggests that the "contraceptive mentality" pope Paul VI warned about in 1968 has had unforeseen consequences. To paraphrase Reichert, an unwanted baby threatens prosperity and lifestyle, making abortion seem necessary.

It is the women who bear most of the burden of trauma and grief from abortions.

Even women who believe deeply in the Christian notion of godly forgiveness, and those who do not believe in God at all, can battle for years with unassuaged guilt.

In support of his claims that women are bearing a disproportionate burden in the new paradigm, Reichert cites evidence that in the past 35 years across the industrialised world women's happiness has declined absolutely and relative to men.

We have a new gender gap where men report a higher subjective wellbeing. This decline in women's happiness coincides broadly with the arrival of the sexual revolution, triggered by the invention of the pill.

The ancient Christian consensus, which lasted for 1900 years, linking sexual activity to the lovemaking of a husband and wife to create new life, was first broken by the Anglican Church's Lambeth Conference approval of contraception in 1930.

In this new contraceptive era, where no Western country produces enough children to maintain population levels, the Catholic stance is isolated, rejected and often despised.

But the use of the contraceptive pill not only changes the dynamics within a family between husband and wife, it is also changing our broader society in ways we understand imperfectly.

But 50 years is not a long time; it is still early in the story.

Cardinal George Pell is the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney.

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Mystic Monks pose no threat to Wyoming neighbors

Star-Tribune Editorial Board

We've heard many "not in my backyard" complaints before, but none quite as ridiculous as one from some northern Wyoming ranchers who are upset that a group of Roman Catholic hermit monks wants to build a monastery in their area.

There are a lot of potential neighbors who could justifiably raise the ire of the ranchers, who reportedly don't want to see their rural open spaces disturbed. A smelly factory, crack house or camp for serial killers are just a few on the long list of facilities that understandably wouldn't be welcome.

But a monastery for hermit monks? What could possibly be less threatening to anyone's quality of life?

Dave Grabbert, a ranch owner who wants to sell his property about 20 miles from Meeteetse to the Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel, posed a pertinent question: "What's puzzling to me is if people complain about these guys as neighbors, what kind of neighbors would they want?"

Some of Grabbert's fellow ranchers have hired an attorney and have protested the sale to the Park County Commission, which must grant final approval for the monastery. The commissioners are scheduled to discuss the permit to build the monastery at an Oct. 5 meeting.

Granted, it would be an odd-looking addition to the area. The monks' plans call for a 144,000-square-foot French Gothic-style monastery and coffee roasting barn (they make and market their own brand of coffee, Mystic Monk). The church would seat 150 people, and a single spire would be 150 feet tall, the equivalent of 15 stories...

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Chaplains reintroduced into Russian armed forces

From Strategy Page:

September 28, 2010: Recently Russian announced that, after an absence of nearly a century, chaplains were being reintroduced into the armed forces. This came after four years of negotiations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which would have to provide priests to be military chaplains. While the Orthodox church agreed, in the 1990s, to provide religious services to military personnel and their families, this did not include chaplains. That's because, despite the shortage of priests, it was possible to use lay people to provide some priestly functions (like counseling and organizing charitable activities). Chaplains, on the other hand, are typically assigned to military units, like other specialists (doctors and staff officers). There were not enough priests for that, because the communists had limited the number of men who could become priests during the Soviet period (1921-91). But the church worked out a compromise with the military, and chaplains will be phased in as priests become available.

Chaplains were eliminated in the early 1920s, when the Russian civil war ended, with the victory of the communists. The chaplains were then replaced with "political officers" (Zampolits), who served many of the same functions (looked after morale, and correct thinking). But the current move to bring back chaplains is part of an effort to stamp out the custom of older troops hazing and exploiting younger ones.

This hazing developed after World War II, when Russia deliberately avoided developing a professional NCO corps. They preferred to have officers take care of nearly all troop supervision. The NCOs that did exist were treated as slightly more reliable enlisted men, but given little real authority. Since officers did not live with the men, slack discipline in the barracks gave rise to the vicious hazing and exploitation of junior conscripts by the senior ones. This led to very low morale, and a lot of suicides, theft, sabotage and desertions. Long recognized as a problem, no solution ever worked. But getting rid of conscripts is believed to be a good first step. Volunteers will be in for more than two years, and Russia is developing professional NCOs to keep things under control in the barracks. However, it's been found that even among volunteers, the hazing tends to survive. While the new NCOs have had some success in suppressing the hazing, the generals don't want to take any chances. Thus the attempt to bring back chaplains.

There is, however, a problem. In the military, a third of the troops don't believe in religion at all, and nearly 20 percent of those who do are not Russian Orthodox. Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church actively opposes other religions trying to get established in Russia. The government has gotten involved, passing laws that, in effect, outlaw some "foreign" religions. There's also hostility towards Roman Catholics. There aren't many of them, but the Russian Orthodox Church is still sparring with the Roman Catholics over a thousand year old dispute that split the Christian church into Roman and Orthodox branches. So there is fear that the Orthodox Church will want control over the new Chaplains Corps, and give short shrift to chaplains of other religions. There is also fear that a Chaplains Corps dominated by Russian Orthodox clergy could lead to trouble for troops who belong to other religions that the Russian Orthodox do not believe should be in Russia (like Pentecostals, Mormons and so on.) Under the new agreement, all these potential problems are to be solved, somehow, in the future.

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Response of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to Fr. Matias Auge

From Rorate Caeli, a letter written by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to Fr. Matias Auge CMF:

"3. I do not wish to enter into all the details of your letter, even if I would have no difficulties meeting your various criticisms against my arguments. However, I wish to comment on that what concerns the unity of the Roman rite. This unity is not threatened by small communities using the indult, who are often treated as lepers, as people doing something indecent, even immoral. No, the unity of the Roman rite is threatened by the wild creativity, often encouraged by liturgists (in Germany, for instance, there is propaganda for the project Missale 2000, which presumes that the Missal of Paul VI has already been superseded). I repeat that which was said in my speech: the difference between the Missal of 1962 and the Mass faithfully celebrated according to the Missal of Paul VI is much smaller than the difference between the various, so-called ”creative” applications of the Missal of Paul VI. In this situation, the presence of the earlier Missal may become a bulwark against the numerous alterations of the liturgy and thus act as a support of the authentic reform. To oppose the Indult of 1984 (1988) in the name of the unity of the Roman rite, is – in my experience – an attitude far removed from reality. Besides, I am sorry that you did not perceive in my speech the invitation to the ”traditionalists” to be open to the Council and to reconcile themselves to it in the hope of overcoming one day the split between the two Missals..."

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Bakery refuses to make rainbow cupcakes for gay customer

An Indianapolis bakery is under fire from the gay and lesbian community over a choice not to serve a diversity group.

By Ray Cortopassi

Indianapolis — An Indianapolis bakery is under fire from the gay and lesbian community over a choice not to serve a diversity group.

A campus organization said it was denied service in what's become a flashpoint in the fight for equal rights.

This is what they were after: a mulitcolored cupcake to celebrate "National Coming Out Day" next month; a rainbow confection to honor the diversity on the campus of IUPUI. But the student who had the order placed at Just Cookies was told no.

"We're right on the cusp of being equal with anyone else, I don't know why they would do that," said student Shan Parker.

That student's partner and close friend are both troubled by the refusal. They believe it shows Indianapolis has a ways to go to embrace the gay and lesbian community...

"I explained we're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that," said co-owner David Stockton...

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Feast of St. Michael (Michaelmas)

FishEaters.com  -  There are seven Archangels in all, but only the three mentioned in Sacred Scripture are commemorated liturgically; St. Gabriel's Feast is on 24 March, and St. Raphael's Feast is on 24 October (the Guardian Angels are remembered on 2 October. The other archangels, whom we know from the Book of Enoch, are Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jeramiel.) Today, though, we honor St. Michael the Archangel, whose very name in Hebrew means, "Who is Like God." St. Michael is described in the Golden Legend, written in A.D. 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, thus:

For like as Daniel witnesseth, he shall arise and address in the time of Antichrist against him, and shall stand as a defender and keeper for them that be chosen. [Daniel 10:13, 12]

He also fought with the dragon and his angels, and casting them out of heaven, had a great victory. [Apocalypse 12:7-9]

He also had a great plea and altercation with the devil for the body of Moses, because he would not show it; for the children of Israel should have adored and worshipped it. [Jude 1]

He received the souls of saints and brought them into the paradise of exultation and joy.

He was prince of the synagogue of the Jews, but now he is established of our Lord, prince of the church of Jesu Christ.

And as it is said, he made the plagues of Egypt, he departed and divided the Red Sea, he led the people of Israel by the desert and set them in the land of promission, he is had among the company of holy angels as bannerer. And bearing the sign of our Lord, he shall slay by the commandment of God, right puissantly, Antichrist that shall be in the Mount of Olivet. And dead men shall arise at the voice of this same archangel. And he shall show at the day of judgment the Cross, the spear, the nails and the crown of thorns of Jesu Christ.

Expounding on St. Michael's final victory over the Antichrist, the Golden Legend continues:

The fourth victory is that the archangel Michael shall have of Antichrist when he shall slay him. Then Michael, the great prince, shall arise, as it is said Danielis xii.: “He shall arise for them that be chosen as a helper and a protector, and shall strongly stand against Antichrist.” And after, as the Gloss saith: “Antichrist shall feign him to be dead, and shall hide him three days,” and after, he shall appear saying that he is risen from death to life, and the devils shall bear him by art magic, and shall mount up into the air, and all the people shall marvel and worship him. And at the last he shall mount up on the Mount of Olivet, and when he shall be in a pavilion, in his siege [seat], entered into that place where our Lord ascended, Michael shall come and shall slay him. Of which victory is understood, after St. Gregory, that which is said in the Apocalypse. The battle is made in heaven.

This word of the treble battle in heaven is expounded of the battle that he had with Lucifer when he expulsed him out of heaven, and of the battle that he had with the devils that torment us.

St. Michael is our warrior against the Evil One, and is the one we call on in times of temptation, especially with our Prayer to St. Michael:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who wander throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

This great champion of Israel has made many important appearances throughout the years. In A.D. 590, during the reign of Pope Gregory, a great pestilence swept through Rome. During a procession and litanies led by the Holy Father there, St. Michael appeared over the Castel Sant'Angelo -- a building which was formerly Hadrian's tomb, but which was converted to papal use, connected to the Vatican by a long tunnel. A statue of St. Michael sits atop the building today (picture at top right).

Mont St. Michel was built to St. Michael's honor off the coast of Normandy, France. Our warrior Saint is said to have appeared there in 708 to St. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches (picture at bottom right).

He also, along with SS. Margaret and Catherine, appeared to St. Joan of Arc (d. 1431) when she was thirteen years old, encouraging her to assist Charles VII in defeating the English. She later told her judges, "I saw them with these very eyes, as well as I see you."

St. Michael is patron of knights, policemen, soldiers, paramedics, ambulance drivers, etc., and also danger at sea, for the sick, and of a holy death. He is usually depicted in art carrying a sword and/or shield, battling Satan.

Customs

At this time of year, the Aster (Aster nova-belgii) blooms, and it has become known as the Michaelmas Daisy (see picture at right). The Michaelmas Daisy comes in many colors, from white to pink to purple. An old verse goes:

The Michaelmas Daisies, among dede weeds,
Bloom for St Michael's valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood,
Till the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude.

(The Feast of SS. Simon and Jude is 28 October) An old custom surrounds Michaelmas Daisies; one plucks off the petals one by one thus: pull a petal while saying ""S/he loves me," then pull of the next while saying "S/he loves me not," and repeat until all petals are gone. The words one intones while pulling off the last petal lets one know if one's love is requited.

As to foods, geese were, at least at one time, plentiful during this time of year, so roast goose dinners are traditional (eating them on this day is said to protect against financial hardship, according to Irish and English folk belief). It was also the time (at least in Ireland) when the fishing season ended, the hunting season began, and apples were harvested, so eating apples today with that goose would be a nice touch.

Roast Goose with Apples (serves 8)

1 13-lb. goose, giblets and neck discarded (you'll need 1 lb per person)
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
8 golden delicious apples, peeled, each cut into 6 wedges
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6 TBSP sugar
1/4 cup calvados (apple brandy)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Rinse goose inside and out; pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle inside and out with salt and pepper. Using knife, cut small slits all over goose; place garlic slices into slits. Place goose on rack, breast side down, in large roasting pan. Roast goose 2 hours 45 minutes, basting occasionally with drippings and removing excess fat; reserve 6 tablespoons fat. Turn goose over. Roast until brown and thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 175°F, basting occasionally with drippings, about 45 minutes longer. Meanwhile, toss apples and lemon juice in large bowl. Pour 6 tablespoons goose fat into 15 x 10 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Using slotted spoon, transfer apples to baking dish; toss apples in goose fat. Add sugar, Calvados and cinnamon to apples; toss. Bake apples alongside goose until very tender and golden, about 1 hour. Serve goose with caramelized apples and a Bordeaux wine.

When you cut up your apples, cross-section a few and show your children how the 5 seeds inside the 5-pointed star found inside represent the Five Wounds of Christ. Another fun thing to do with apples is to make those little apple dolls that always resemble old people:

Apple Dolls

Peel an apple (Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples work well), cutting away any bruises (some people say to core the apple, others say not to. Experiment for yourself). Carve as life-like a face as possible into the apple (don't cut too deeply so as to avoid rotting). Don't forget the little things that make a face so human -- the little lines running from nose to mouth, the hollows of the eyes, the depressions caused by cheekbones, etc. Depending on the "skin" tone desired, soak the carved apple for about 45 minutes in a mixture of lemon juice (or cider vinegar) and water (the longer you soak, the lighter the "skin" tone will be).

Hang the apple up in the dryest, darkest room of your home. Come back in 3 to 4 weeks to see what you have! It should have shrunk by about two thirds its original size, darkened some, and show the wizened features of an old woman or man. When thoroughly dry, decorate using very diluted food colorings for rouge; corn silk, cotton, or yarn for hair; cloves or food colorings for eyes; fabric triangles for scarves, etc. Secure onto a "body" made of a bottle, styrofoam cone, wooden dowel, etc., and make clothes as desired.

For the Irish, the next food du jour is St. Michael's Bannock, a scone-like bread, cooked in a frying pan.

St. Michael's Bannock

1 1/3 C. barley flour
1 1/3 C. oat meal
1 1/3 C. rye meal
1 C. flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 scant tsp baking soda
2 1/2-3 C. buttermilk
3 TBSP honey or brown sugar
2 eggs
1 C. cream
4 TBSP melted butter

Mix the barley flour, oat meal, and rye meal. Add flour and salt. Mix the soda and buttermilk (start with the 2 1/2 C) and then add to the dry mixture. Stir in honey. Turn out onto floured board and mix (as with all breads, don't over-mix), adding more buttermilk if too dry, or more flour if too sticky).

Divide dough in half, and roll each, on a floured board, into an 8" circle (about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick). While heating a lightly greased skillet, mix the eggs, cream, and melted butter. Spread onto one of the bannocks and place the bannock, egg-side down, in the skillet and cook til the egg-side is browned. Put the egg mixture on the top side, flip the bannock and cook 'til the second side is golden. Repeat this application of the egg wash and flipping and cooking until each side has been cooked three times. Do the same with the second bannock. Serve warm with butter and honey.

According to an old Irish folk tale, blackberries were supposed to have been harvested and used up by this date, too, since it is told to children that when Satan was kicked out of Heaven, he landed in a bramble patch -- and returns each year to curse and spit on the fruits of the plant he landed on, rendering them inedible thereafter. So a dessert with blackberries would be perfect.

Blackberry Crumble (serves 4)

2 cups washed blackberries (thawed if frozen)
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice, or juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Put blackberries in a 1-quart baking dish with half of the sugar. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cream butter, remaining sugar, flour, and salt together; sprinkle over berries. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold with cream, ice cream, or dessert sauce.

Finally, I have to tell you about a charming Bavarian Michaelmas tradition from Augsburg, as described by Dorothy Gladys Spicer's "The Festivals of Western Europe" (1958):

On September 29, Saint Michael's Day, the city of Augsburg holds an annual autumn fair to which hundreds of peasants from far and near come for trade and pleasure. Chief among the day's attractions is the hourly appearance of figures representing the Archangel and the Devil. The figures are built in the foundation of Perlach Turm, or Tower, called Tura in local dialect. This slender structure, which rises to a height of two-hundred-and-twenty-five-feet and stands next to the Peter's Kirche, north of the Rathaus, originally was a watch tower. In 1615 the watch tower was heightened and converted into a belfry.

Almost a hundred years earlier the group depicting the saint and the devil had been installed in the tower's understructure. Annually on his feast day the archangel's armor-clad figure, holding a pointed spear, appeared whenever the tower bell struck, and stabbed at the devil writhing at his feet.

During World War II the historic figures--the delight of generations of fair-goers--were destroyed. Since then a new group has been made and installed. Today, as for over four centuries, spectators continue to gather about the Tura and to watch breathlessly the symbolic drama of Michael, head of the Church Triumphant, dealing death blows to the dragon which brings evil and destruction to the world of men.

Note: "Michaelmas" is pronounced "MICKel-mus."

Today is also one of the 4 English "Quarter Days," days which fall around the Equinoxes or Solstices and mark the beginnings of new natural seasons (i.e., Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall) and which were used in medieval times to mark "quarters" for legal purposes, such as settling debts. The other days like this are: Lady Day (the Feast of the Annunciation) on March 25, the Feast of St. John on June 24, and Christmas on December 25. 

The preceding is from Fish Eaters

• Feast of St. Michael (Michaelmas)
• Happy Feast of St. Michael the Archangel…Happy Michaelmas!
• Michaelmas - Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, 29 September
• The Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel in Ireland
• On The Feast Of St. Michael...And Every Day...
• Saint Michael the Archangel Defend Us in Battle

A Faith Worth Dying For

September 28th, 2010 by Ron Quinlan

How many former Catholics or lukewarm Catholics do you know?  Most likely, you know too many.  How many do you know who are willing to suffer for the Faith?  Do you know any?  We live in a generation to whom the Catholic Faith isn’t all that important, but the reality is that we have a faith worth dying for.  Over the history of the Church it is likely that millions sacrificed their lives rather than give up their faith.

It started at the time of the Apostles.   Almost everyone remembers that all of them except John ran away on the night of Jesus’ arrest.  Yet somehow all of the eleven who ran later found the courage to be martyred?  Only John, who took Mary to the Cross, died of old age.  All of the rest suffered painful deaths.  Peter was even crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die the way Jesus died.  I ‘m sure many of you remember St. Stephen, the deacon who was stoned to death even before the Apostles.

Most people are aware of the thousands of Catholics who were killed by the Roman Empire in the Coliseum and other places.  They were willing to be fed to lions and bears and other wild animals rather than give up their faith. What is amazing is the number of witnesses to these executions who became converted.  The Christians even converted many of their guards to the Catholic Faith and in turn, many of these became martyrs.  How many of us would become Catholic if we knew that we would be executed and had witnessed others being executed?

Maybe people know of the martyrs who tried to convert the Germanic tribes during the Conquest of Rome.  We know of the ones mentioned at Mass, but do we realize that there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who died for the Catholic Faith?  We might think about the persecutions in communist Russia and China, even in communist Vietnam and Cambodia  — but what about the no- communist world?  Are we even aware of the thousands who died for their faith in countries we consider being Christian even Catholic?

What about England?  We share a common heritage but  hundreds of Catholics were martyred there.  When Henry VIII started the Church of England any priest or bishop who refused to join was beheaded.  We all know the story of St. Thomas More but there were many, many more.  When Elizabeth was queen Catholic priests were hunted down, drawn and quartered at times.  Any who assisted them in hiding were also executed.  Amazingly, many Catholic men crossed over to France to study at the seminary at Reims then returned to England and went into hiding.  They returned knowing it was more a matter of when, not if, they would be caught and executed.  The lucky ones lasted three years. Blessed Thomas Hemerford was ordained in 1583 and was drawn and quartered on February 12, 1584.  Edward Waterford was ordained in 1592, arrived in England in June, then captured and executed January 7, 1593.  Both probably served for less than a year as priests.  Amazingly Robert Ludlam served for six years before he was captured and executed with Father Nicholas Garlick and Richard Simpson. We have to ask what makes a man willing to make such a sacrifice.

Over one hundred and twenty English folk including women like Margaret Clitherow were either canonized or beatified for their martyrdom but there were surely more.  You could be executed for hiding a priest like Thomas Warcop or being present when he was arrested. Edward Fulthrop was executed for converting to Catholicism.   There were more killings when the Puritans took over England in the 1640’s during the English Civil War.  Some were known for simply killing any Catholic they found.

Ireland was under the rule of the English for over four hundred years.  That means the Irish were persecuted for that  same time period.  Many Catholic practices were outlawed.  That’s why the Catholic faith was taught in hedge schools.  It’s why there is a rosary called the Irish Penal Rosary, one decade long and easy to hide in your hand.

A great Catholic nation, France, persecuted the Church during the French Revolution.  Any priest who refused to swear an antipapal oath was guillotined. Father Rene’ Ambroise was guillotined with thirteen other priests on January 21, 1794.  Sisters were executed for attending one of their masses.  Sr. Rosalie du Verdier was executed three days after Father.  Even lay people were executed.  Antoine Fournier, a father with two sons, was executed that same month.  There were one hundred and ninety one priests beatified, including Fathers Jacques Lombardie, Jean-Georges Rehm.Gervais-Protais Brunel, Louis- Francois Lebrun, Andre Fardeau,  and Claude Beguignot.  At least forty two sisters were killed for their faith.

Spain, another great Catholic nation went through two periods of persecution.   The first was during the period of occupation by the Moors.  The second occurred during their civil war when the Loyalist government executed almost five hundred including Modesto Garcia Marti. Ramon Peiro Victori, Aurelio Ample Alcaide, Angel Prat Hostench and Prudence Canyelles I Ginesta for the Catholic Faith.  The Socialist government tried to wipe out the Church.  Often these priests were caught because they chose to stay to minister to Catholics rather than flee to safety.  Closer to home, Mexico persecuted Catholics during the 1920’s and martyred at least twenty five.  Some were killed by a firing squad.  Others, like Father Pedro Maldonado Lucero, were beaten to death.

In Asia over eight thousand Koreans were executed.  Most of these were not clergy but lay people like Augustine Pak Chong-won and his wife Barbara, Madeline Yi Yonghui, and Martha Kim Song-Im who were beheaded around 1840. Thousands of Japanese were martyred by governments trying to remove Christianity from their country.  Despite the persecutions, missionaries in the 1800’s discovered Catholics living in Nagasaki, Japan. They kept the faith alive for over two hundred years despite the threat of death if caught.  In Vietnam over one hundred and thirty thousand including Peter Khanh, Peter Quy Cong Doan and Phillip Minh Van Phanwere killed for their faith and this was before communism.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have died for this faith.  Millions more risked their lives to practice it.  Father Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit who served in Russia and was imprisoned in a Siberian work camp, wrote a book, He Leadeth Me about his experiences.  In it he talks about the sacrifices men would make to receive communion.  They would have to sneak away at lunch to say Mass but only a few could get away without the guards being suspicious.  The others would have to wait until they finished the day and receive communion then.  This was at the time you fasted from midnight on so they went all day without eating in order to receive the Eucharist.
When you look at the history of the Church and realize what people sacrificed and risked to practice their faith you have to think how easy we have it.  Most of us can openly go to church any Sunday we want.  We complain if the weather is bad or the mass schedule conflicts with a sports event.  It’s a great sacrifice if the air conditioning isn’t working.  An hour is too long for most people to fast or to be in church. On any given Sunday less than half of the Catholics in the US will go to Mass.  Sadly, we’re better than many so-called Catholic nations.

Yet we practice a faith that millions were willing to die for.  We have to ask ourselves, what is it that we don’t get?  There is something seriously wrong here.  We have it easier than previous Catholics.  We are past the stage in our history when American Catholics were persecuted.  There are only a few areas in our country where we face prejudice and ironically, my experience in the South has been that Catholics who do face prejudice seem to be more committed to the faith.  The Mass and the Sacraments are in English.  What more could we want?

It is time for Catholics to take the time to find out what they are missing, why so many would die rather than switch faiths.  In countries like Communist Poland they endured persecution and discrimination but refused to give up their faith.  In China true Catholics worship underground risking imprisonment and torture to practice their faith today.  We’re not talking about priests and bishops but ordinary lay people like you and me.

What is it that they know that American Catholics are missing?  What did they discover that makes them willing to die for their faith while so many American Catholics can’t be bothered to even attend Mass on Sundays?

The Catholic Faith is more than going through the motions, putting in your time, looking good to others, or following rules.  It is more than a nice set of traditions at Christmas and Easter.  It is more than a cafeteria menu that we pick and choose from.

Discover for yourself that it is about a relationship with God, a God who loves us passionately enough to become a man and die the most horrible death in history.  Discover in the Sacraments a way to love God and be loved by Him.  Go beyond the minimum required of Catholics and open your hearts to Jesus in the Eucharist. You will discover what the martyrs all discovered: a love so deep that you will be  willing to give up all rather than turn your back on it. You will discover a God of infinite mercy and love who wants so much more for us than we want for ourselves or think possible.  You will discover a faith worth dying for.

Ron Quinlan is a former teacher in the Archdiocese of Newark, now living in South Carolina.

• Link

Catholic 'Tea Party'

Fr. Thomas Dubay, Rest in Peace

• Prayer Need: Fr. Thomas Dubay, RIP

h/t to Fr. Cory Sticha

Angelus

AP Photo

Getty Images

AP Photo

Getty Images

Extraction

Original photo: Holy Martyrs of Japan - Japan by Tina aka Snupnjake

Bam: Chaput boycotts the NYT

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey at GetReligion.org:

Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput addressed the Religion Newswriters Association conference in Denver yesterday where he both inspired and challenged. Religion reporters, he said, are not normal. “They are amphibians who live in two worlds and can honor both.”

“Acknowledge your mistakes and don’t make them a habit,” Chaput said. “Understand believers and their institutions as they understand themselves. If you do that and do it with integrity, fairness and humility, you’ll have the gratitude of the people you cover and you’ll embody the best ideals of your profession.”

During the question and answer period, Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times asked him why he didn’t return her phone call when Archbishop Jose Gomez was chosen as Los Angeles archbishop. Chaput said that Times reporter David Kirkpatrick misquoted him during John Kerry’s presidential campaign, and he said that he has recordings to prove it. “It’s The New York Times’ editorial policy that I’m interpreting,” Chaput said. “I made a judgment based on experience.”

Goodstein said she did not know Chaput was boycotting the Times. He challenged Goodstein’s more recent coverage of the Catholic Church. “You treated Pope Benedict badly in the latest series about him,” he said.

Cathy Grossman of USA Today challenged him, asking if a boycott over one reporter was fair. “We don’t boycott everyone, just the New York Times,” he said.

In contrast, he praised Associated Press reporter Eric Gorski’s coverage of the Catholic Church, even during the Catholic Church abuse stories. Chaput also gave a generous shout out to GetReligion, acknowledging our attempts to analyze, critique and praise religion coverage in the mainstream media...

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The Family Rosary

Fr. Tim Finigan:

"After evening Mass today I was invited round to a family home in the parish for a delicious plate of roast lamb, and fun conversation with a group of youngsters who are, one-by-one growing up and leaving the nest for university.

The evening ended with the family Rosary led by Dad in a sitting room lit only by a candle (last year's paschal candle, in fact - big families always find uses for things that would otherwise be thrown away...)"

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• The Family Rosary

The maps that show the racial breakdown of America’s biggest cities

By David Gardner

"These are the maps that show the racial breakdown of America’s biggest  cities.

Using information from the latest U.S. census results, the maps show the extent to which America has blended together the races in the nation’s 40 largest cities.

With one dot equalling 25 people, digital cartographer Eric Fischer then colour-coded them based on race, with whites represented by pink, blacks by blue, Hispanic by orange and Asians by green.

The resulting maps may not represent what many might expect Barack Obama’s integrated rainbow nation to look like, as many cities have clear racial dividing lines."



Detroit: Red represents White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic, Gray is Other, and each dot represents 25 people

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The Church Suffering

h/t Sanctus Belle

Andy Griffith - Twilight Zone

Taliban Catholics?

"We didn’t get an application from a Lefebvrite. We did get a few from what you would call the “Taliban Catholics,” who of course have become very vociferous on the blogosphere in the last few years. They’re very critical of the bishops for compromising too much with modernity and not promoting Catholic truth as they see it..."

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• AIYEEYEEE! TALIBAN CATHOLICS! AIYEEYEEE!

Jesus Loves You; Caesar and Mammon, Not So Much

By Mark P. Shea

(Inside Catholic) Here are some recent scenes from American Christianity waiting on the rich and powerful in the hope of catching some table scraps. You got your Christian representatives of the Thing that Used to Be Liberalism in bed with millionaires bent on "tailoring the message" to the needs of pro-abortion zealots:

Correcting his initial comments denying the charge, Rev. Jim Wallis of the left-leaning Christian group Sojourners has acknowledged that his organization received grants from the Open Society Institute (OSI). Funded by the financial speculator George Soros, the OSI is a backer of many political causes including legal abortion and homosexual ctivism.

Marvin Olasky, a writer with the evangelical publication WORLD Magazine, had reported that Sojourners, an inter-denominational Christian organization which backs left-leaning political issues, received several hundred thousand dollars from Soros' OSI.

In an interview with Timothy Dalrymple of the Patheos website, Wallis denied that claim. He compared Olasky to radio and television show host Glenn Beck who in Wallis' view "lies for a living."

"No, we don't receive our money from Soros. . . . Our books are totally open, always have been. Our money comes from Christians who support us and who read Sojourners. That's where it comes from."

Tax documents show that Sojourners received a $200,000 OSI grant in October, 2004.

D'oh! Caught with your pants down, Rev. Wallis? That's okay. Nobody was too surprised that Soros would bankroll you. The standard message of the Left since 1973 has been, "Pay no attention to those dead babies. What about the minimum wage?"

Speaking of the Soros payroll, you got your Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good disappearing without a trace, now that their only real mission -- snookering suckers into thinking that supporting a guy who favors sticking scissors in a baby's brain is some glorious expression of Catholic social teaching -- is accomplished. Being a wholly owned subsidiary of Soros, they were, in fact, as real a Catholic social teaching apostolate as a Potemkin Village is a real city. Prattling on about how a guy who has no qualms with leaving a baby who survives an abortion to gasp out her last breaths, neglected and ignored on an operating table, while her murderer collects a fat fee from Planned Parenthood is just the sort of thing that truly true Catholics should be all about! But now that the job of fooling suckers is finished, the money has dried up, and our heroes at CACG, once as dedicated to social justice as Mother Teresa (according to them), are now presumably busy trawling inside the Beltway for new opportunities to doll up Christianity in a low-cut red number, spiked high heels, and fishnet stockings for the next Democrat candidate cruising for a good time.

But wait! That's not all! You also got your baffling spectacle of Christians jumping in feet first to a rally on behalf of American Civil Religion and praying to whatever or whoever or whichever deity or deities might be out there, led by an apostate Catholic talk-show host gone Mormon -- who believes the Constitution is divinely inspired, that any church that preaches social justice is secretly a Marxist or Communist front, that a planet called Kolob is the one closest to the throne of God, and that God the Father used to be a man.
Quite a number of Christian commentators are trying to figure out what on earth the purpose of the Restoring Honor Rally was supposed to be. But I think this is sort of like asking what the reasoning behind a mood swing is supposed to be. Reason was not on display to a great degree. What was on display was a great gush of politicized worship of a patriotic American god or gods (To Whom It May Concern? The Force? Insert Name Here?) who loves this country above all others and needs us to help him/her/them/it to make America work again.

This/These god(s) appear(s) very malleable, and it's hard to say what he/she/them/it look(s) like for sure; but from what I can tell from Beck's strange amalgam of divinized political theology, here he/she/them/it is, portrayed by a Mormon painter who very much shares Beck's views. In this particular incarnation, the American god resembles Jesus (absent the other two gods, the Father and the Spirit, and without the (visible) helping hand of his kid brother Satan) and is surrounded by the Holy Company of Founding Fathers, saints, martyrs, special ops forces, astronauts, and congressmen as he separates the sheep and goats according to whether they obeyed the Word of the Sacred and Inspired Constitution. What could be more Catholic? What more biblical?

Beck, like a lot of Mormons, has a genius for spinning out secular messianic American narratives that rely on Christian patterns of creation, fall, and redemption and which tap into great reserves of Christian piety still fermenting American culture. Yet these largely emotional relics of a post-Christian civilization feed not on Christianity, but on moralistic therapeutic (and patriotic) deism. Such a desiccated religiosity bears about as much resemblance to actual Christianity as a smiley face does to the Mona Lisa, but it's still enough to generate a charge that both baffled and stymied the MSM, which expected the rally to be political in a conventional way...

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• Jesus Loves You; Caesar and Mammon, Not So Much

Catholics for Equality leader calls for activist unity against bishops

San Francisco, Calif., Sep 24, 2010 / 09:04 am (CNA).- One board member of the dissenting homosexual advocacy group Catholics for Equality says it is “imperative” for activists to unite against “the anti-gay bishops,” whose opposition to same-sex marriage he calls “appalling.”

Eugene McMullan of San Francisco, a doctoral candidate in history at Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley, talked to the LGBT newspaper the Bay Area Reporter about Catholics for Equality’s strategy of organizing brunches after Mass to try to convince Catholics to back homosexual political causes.

“We love brunch," he commented. "And what could be more subversive, since we don't have equal access, while at the same time most of us at the parish level are pro-LGBT and utterly unsympathetic to the erring bishops. And we already have a brunch captain signed up for the parish of the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, no less, in Oakland Bishop Cordileone's own backyard."

Proponents of same-sex “marriage” have blamed Bishop Salvatore Cordileone for supporting the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the successful 2008 California ballot initiative which again defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

"It is imperative that we come together against the anti-gay bishops," McMullan told the Bay Area Reporter. "We have to do it for ourselves, as a matter of principle, and to save the church we love. The anti-gay, anti-marriage activism of our 'shepherds' is appalling and brings discredit to the Body of Christ...”

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In Bing Crosby’s Wine Cellar, Vintage Baseball

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

The New York Times

How a near pristine black-and-white reel of the entire television broadcast of the deciding game of the 1960 World Series — long believed to be lost forever — came to rest in the dry and cool wine cellar of Bing Crosby’s home near San Francisco is not a mystery to those who knew him.

Crosby loved baseball, but as a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates he was too nervous to watch the Series against the Yankees, so he and his wife went to Paris, where they listened by radio.

“He said, ‘I can’t stay in the country,’ ” his widow, Kathryn Crosby, said. “ ‘I’ll jinx everybody.’ ”

He knew he would want to watch the game later — if his Pirates won — so he hired a company to record Game 7 by kinescope, an early relative of the DVR, filming off a television monitor. The five-reel set, found in December in Crosby’s home, is the only known complete copy of the game, in which Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a game-ending home run to beat the Yankees, 10-9. It is considered one of the greatest games ever played.

Crosby, the singer and movie, radio and TV star, had more foresight than the television networks and stations, which erased or discarded nearly all of the Major League Baseball games they carried until the 1970s.

A canny preservationist of his own legacy, Crosby, who died in 1977, kept a half-century’s worth of records, tapes and films in the wine cellar turned vault in his Hillsborough, Calif., home.

“Bing Crosby was way ahead of his time,” said Nick Trotta, senior library and licensing manager for Major League Baseball Productions, the sport’s archivist..

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Time Moves Faster Upstairs, Confirming Einstein's Relativity

By Devin Powell

It's 2 a.m., and the noise from your upstairs neighbor is keeping you awake again. Take solace in the fact that by living above you he may be shortening his life, even if only by a tiny fraction of a second.

Nearly a century ago, Albert Einstein suggested that time should move faster the farther away you are from the surface of the Earth. Now scientists have tested this theory at the small distances we travel up and down every day. Using the world's most precise clocks, they confirmed that our wristwatches tick at a slightly different speed when we ride an elevator, climb a flight of stairs, or even sit upright in bed.

According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, big objects with lots of gravity -- planets or stars -- bend the fabric of time and space, like bowling balls on a trampoline. The closer you get to these objects, the stronger the pull of gravity and the slower time moves. An astronaut watching a clock fall into a black hole, for example, would see its hands gradually slow down as the pull of gravity increases. The second hand would move tick once every hour, then once every decade, and finally appear to stop altogether...

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Mamie Cadden, Backstreet Abortionist

"She was an Irish nurse/midwife who specialized in performing abortions in a country where killing unborn children is still illegal. She died in 1959, but the specter of her murderous legacy still haunts the pallid corridors of abortuaries everywhere..."

h/t to Patrick Madrid

2 new dinosaur species discovered in southern Utah

By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY – Scientists said Wednesday they've discovered fossils in the southern Utah desert of two new dinosaur species closely related to the Triceratops, including one with 15 horns on its large head.

The discovery of the new plant-eating species — including Kosmoceratops richardsoni, considered the most ornate-headed dinosaur known to man — was reported Wednesday in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE, produced by the Public Library of Science.

The other dinosaur, which has five horns and is the larger of the two, was dubbed Utahceratops gettyi.

"It's not every day that you find two rhino-sized dinosaurs that are different from all the other dinosaurs found in North America," said Mark Loewen, a Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist and an author of the paper published in PLoS ONE.

"You would think that we know everything there is to know about the dinosaurs of western North America, but every year we're finding new things, especially here in Utah," he said...

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William Ayers denied emeritus status after plea from Chris Kennedy

In a very unusual move, University of Illinois trustees today denied giving emeritus status to controversial retired professor William Ayers.


The vote, at a U. of I. board meeting in Urbana, was unanimous and came after a passionate speech by board chair Christopher Kennedy, who invoked the 1968 assassination of his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in saying that he was voting his "conscience."

The other trustees, without comment, also voted against the appointment.

Ayers, the Vietnam War-era radical, had been an education faculty member at UIC since 1987. He retired effective Aug. 31 and then sought the emeritus faculty status, a largely honorific title that includes some benefits such as library privileges.

A co-founder of the Weather Underground anti-war group, Ayers was frequently in the media spotlight and, as such, was one of the university's best known faculty members.

While trustees regularly vote on emeritus appointments, they rarely comment about them.

But in an emotional statement, Kennedy discussed his reasons for voting against Ayers' request.

"I am guided by my conscience and one which has been formed by a series of experiences, many of which have been shared with the people of our country and mark each of us in a profound way," Kennedy said.

He said he could not confer the title "to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father.."

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