The 50th Anniversary of "The Pill"

On the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill, research is indicating that what the Church has preached all along is correct: chemical birth control is bad for women and for society. Full Article from Our Sunday Visitor.

Anti-Catholicism Is the New Vegas for Washed Up Celebrities

An interesting editorial in the National Catholic Register about has been celebrities making a come back by bashing the Church.

Be A Passionist Nun!

We Are A Society of Barbarians

A horrifying story about an Italian child that survived an abortion and was left to die a slow agonizing death. The Ayatollah's are probably right: we are the Great Satan. If God doesn't destroy the United States and Western Europe, He's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gommorah.

Fatwa Calls For the Death of Saudi Sheik Who Said Men and Women Can Pray Together

Jihad Watch reports that the Saudi Sheik who is the head of the Religious Police in the Holy City of Mecca has drawn fire from conservative clerics for saying that Islam allows men and women to pray together. A Fatwa has been issued against him calling for his death.

Prebyterian Theologian Wants to Replace the Cross with a Lactating Breast

Here's where the mainline Protestant denominations have gotten to theologically. The Presbyterian Layman reports that Margaret R. Miles, emerita professor of Historical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley, California, will deliver a lecture in early May which advocates abolishing the cross as a Christian symbol and replacing it with a woman's lactating breast.

This would be funny if it wasn't true. Professor Miles' topic is "Revisioning Historical Theology." According to The Presbyterian Layman article:

"In God's love, mother's milk," a January 2008 article that appeared in The Christian Century, Miles argued that the use of the cross to symbolize God's love was a latecomer to church history. An earlier and presumably more persuasive symbol of God's love, she claims, was the virgin's breast.

Although theologians may have claimed that crucifixion scenes exhibited the extremity of God's love for humans, it was scenes of the child sucking at the breast that spoke to people on the basis of their earliest experience," she said. This symbol was replaced by the cross, argued Miles, when patriarchal Western Europeans "secularized the breast."

Miles suggested that the cross is inappropriate as a symbol of God's love because "it presents a violent act as salvific."

"The equation of love with heroic violence and suffering is typically a male-centered perspective," she argued, leading to her conclusion that "the value of the nursing breast as a symbol of God's provision might need to be reconsidered in our own time . . . In societies in which violence is rampant on the street and in the media, the nursing virgin can perhaps communicate God's love to people in a way that a violent image, the image of one more sacrificial victim, cannot."

Except that Jesus of Nazareth is not just "one more sacrificial victim." He is God Incarnate, the Lord of the Universe, the Incarnate Word, the Eternal Word, the Logos, the Lamb of God, the Anointed One, and God With Us. Because of our human sinfulness, Jesus, being God incarnate in the form of a man, suffered, died, and then really, actually rose from the dead paving the way for all of us to actually, really rise from the dead as well.

Here at LOVE IN THE RUINS we are happy with our tired old out-moded orthodox backward patriarchal belief system. A letter to the editor of the print edition to The Presbyterian Layman opined: "I have closed my eyes to envision the Cross atop my church being replaced by a "lactating breast." Nothing came to me."

The BAD CATHOLIC doesn't know what religion Professor Miles is preaching, but it ain't Christianity.

Why the Pope?

Johann Arnold and the then Cardinal Ratzinger

Johann Christoph Arnold is the leader of the Bruderhof community, a Protestant group in the Anabaptist tradition. Reverend Arnold has written a very profound and perceptive article about the current media attacks against the Holy Father. Full Article from The Plough.

British Foreign Office Wants Pope to Go Secular!

A Junior Officer in the British Foreign Office has written a briefing document saying that during his upcoming visit to Britian that Pope Benedict should visit an abortion clinic and perform a gay wedding. Full story from the Times Online.

The Penny Catechism Is Worth a Million Bucks

The BAD CATHOLIC bought and has been studying a copy of the Penny Catechism. (As a convert, I have a lot of childhood Catholic guilt to catch up on.) This is great stuff. A friend of mine who helps to teach the youth in our parish tells me that it is scary what our young folks don't know about the faith.

Over all, this catechism was well written in majestic English. This is almost poetry: "Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next."

The Penny Catechism, so called because the early copies only cost a penny, pulls no punches when it comes to sin. "Where will they go who die in mortal sin? They who die in mortal sin will go to Hell for all eternity." Period. No Exceptions. Do not pass Go, Do Not Collect $200.

The sections on Prayer and the Rule of Life are wonderful. They are simple, straight forward and full of spiritual insight and wisdom. Just because something is old, doesn't mean that we need to discard it.

Here's a great article about the Penny Catechism from the Irish Independent.

Archie Comics Comes Out of the Closet

As if further evidence of the Decline and impending Fall of Western Civilization is needed, Inside Catholic reports that Archie Comics will soon have an "openly Gay character." Inside Catholic comments, if this guy is "openly gay," does that mean that Jughead has been "in the closet" for all these years?

Clams With A Bang

The blog 360 degrees reports that some New York clam fishermen fished up some clams with a bang.

Protestant Missionaries In Orthodox Christian Countries

Great article by Fredrica Mathewes-Green about Evangelical Protestant missionaries in Orthodox Christian countries. Many of these missionaries do not believe that the Orthodox are "real Christians."

Just like they don't believe that Catholics are "real Christians" either. For instance, the Bad Catholic's cousin and his wife and children are Southern Baptist missionaries to South America whose primary job, so far as I can determine, is to lead cradle Catholics away from the faith.

Pope Benedict is the new George W. Bush

Great article from the Irish Independent. Full story here.

Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Martyr

Mark Rey was a German lawyer. Disgusted by the greed, corruption, and lack of interest in justice by his fellow lawyers, Mark Rey abandoned the law, became a Franciscan friar and a priest. Changing his name to Fidelis, he gave away all of his worldly wealth to poor people. He was commissioned by the Church to lead a mission to the Protestants of Switzerland to convert them back to the true faith. In 1622 he was attacked by a band of Calvinists and murdered.

Father, You filled Saint Fidelis with the fire of Your love and gave Him the privilege of dying that the faith might live. Let his prayers keep us firmly grounded in Your love, and help us to come to know the power of Christ's resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Billy Graham's Son Is Too Christian For Barack Obama's Army

Billy and Franklin Graham

The Army has dis-invited Evangelist Franklin Graham to a prayer breakfast at the Pentagon after complaints by Muslims. Apparently, anyone who really believes in their religion, if that religion is other than Islam, is a crazed fanatic who must be banned. Full story here.

Saint George, Martyr

From Wikipedia:

"Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier and priest in the Guard of Diocletion, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Eastern Catholic Churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on 23 April, and he is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints."

Prayer from The Liturgy of the Hours:

Lord, hear the prayers of those who praise Your mighty power. As Saint George was ready to follow Christ in suffering and death, so may he be ready to help us in our weakness. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

More about Saint George here and here.

Jewish Advice: Be Proud of Being Catholic

One Jewish writer tells us to be proud of being Catholic. Full article here.

Saint Anselm of Canterbury

From the Liturgy of the Hours:

Saint Anselm was born at Aosta in Piedmont in 1033. He entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of Bec in France. While he quickly progressed in the spiritual life, he taught theology to his fellow students. He went to England where he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. He fought vigorously for the freedom of the Church, and for this he was twice exiled. He has achieved fame for his writings, especially those on mystical theology. He died in 1109.

From the Proslogion by Saint Anselm:

The light in which you dwell, Lord, is beyond my understanding. It is so brillant that I cannot bear it, I cannot turn my mind's eye toward it for any lenght of time. I am dazzled by its brightness, amazed by its grandeur, overwhelmed by its immensity, bewildered by its abundance.

O supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed truth, how far you are from me, even though I am so near to you! How remote you are from my sight, even though I am present to yours! You are everywhere in your entirety, and yet I do not see you; in you I move and have my being, and yet I cannot approach you; you are within me and around me, and yet I do not perceive you.

O God, let me know you and love you so that I may find my joy in you; and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some progress every day, until at last that knowledge, love and joy come to me in all their plenitude. While I am here on earth let me learn to know you better, so that in heaven I may know you fully; let my love for you grow deeper here, so that there I may love you fully. On earth I shall have great joy in hope, and in heaven complete joy in the fulfillment of my hope.

PRAYER: Father, You called Saint Anselm to study and teach the sublime truths You have revealed. Let Your gift of faith come to the aid of our understanding and open our hearts to Your truth. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Root Doctor

Way back when I was an Assistant District Attorney, I have had a root doctor spell cast on me by the sister of an armed robber (no joke!). That's probably what's wrong with me. Good post about South Georgia vodoo here.

The Pope's U.S. Lawyer

Interesting article about the Holy See's U.S. lawyer, a sole practitioner and former history professor from Berkley, California. Full story from the Washington Post here.