The Pope in AMERICA!

No, actually the Pope is in DC and New York. That's another long, strange story about me liking NY more than the US though...
Anyway, here's how my day went:
I was pretty tired around 1, but was scared to death by Fox's decision to do an emergency broadcast test. Seriously, that's the most annoying sound ever. I guess its supposed to make you fearful, but after the initial "aaah!!!" factor, it gets me more pissed off than anything else. That cold synthesized voice could say something like "Emergency broadcast: *message*". Of course, at normal speaking levels. The mind piercing screech isn't helping.
Anway, I'm wide awake and decide to keep watching the news. Maybe someone is going to say something so painfully stupid that it literally knocks me out. No, indtead I'm reminded of three things.
First, it's the deadline for you to "willingly" have your money stolen.
Second, John McCain is going to be on Hardball (I caught the last half of it and decided it was too painful to wwatch again. Since when is someone serving their own ambitions by getting into politics service to the country? I'm really getting scared of the 19 20's and 30's style rhetoric)
Third, the Pope is coming here.
Okay, I was never a fan of Sinclair Lewis' quote about fascism. I see it coming with protectionism and the green movement. I'm having second thoughts though. What little bit I could stomach, it was like the collective spirit of America ambused the Pope and suffocated him with the flag.
He's here to minister to the faithful. He's here to call for peace and harmony. He can care less about what Obama said. He's here as a religious leader, not an insane evangelical Christian Rightist. He's not going to endorse McCain, Obama, Clinton, Paul, or anyone running for president. He's here to endorse a spirit of renewal among American Catholics.
If there's one criticism I have of the Pope, it's that he came to America at the wrong time. At any other time, the media would't focus so muh on the politics. Of course, I doubt he knows that Americans are largely apathetic until the presidential elecction.
There were two highlights (besides seeing the Pope). First, there was a priest in awesome sunglasses. Second, the Vatican flag was a bit higher than the American flag.

SSPX on the Good Friday Prayer

So, the post about the women ref should be part I. Actually, I probably wrote about them before....can't remember. Like I always say, there's some good folks in the SSPX, but the society itself is rather...off in the name of "orthodoxy". I remember something about a group of people that are orthodox and have something to do with one of the cardinal directions. Oh golly gee, I can't remember what they're called!
They're not in schism, but at this rate, I'll give it 50-100 years.
Anyway, while drinking down some flat, but cold, Pepsi I read that the Society probably isn't going to use the new Good Friday prayer.
This isn't some kind of trap to get traditionalists in (wait, aren't they already in? Oh, right, in the NO Church. Oh wait...) and make them forget about their traditions.
The prayer isn't novelty. If it is, why don't I call the Fatima prayer a novelty? Or, I know, kneelers. They are protestant after all. If you're not suffering, you're not livin' man.
Anyway, let's pray that the SSPX accepts this prayer and some of the more rabid ones stop calling it novelty and all those other buzzwords.
Or maybe we should let them use those words and laugh when they are accused of being anti-semitic mysoginist evil doers and they complain how those are buzzwords used to smear them. Nah, that would be uncharitable...

More on the Pope and the Jews

Seems like SSPXers fall into a few camps. First, those who outright reject the changes to the prayer. Second, those who are waiting for Fellay to give a statement. Third, those who have accepted it.
I think the prayer is good and just worded differently.
The first camp us split into three groups: Those who reject it for tradition, those that reject it for ambiguity, and those that reject it because of the circumstances.
The latter group makes me confused. Reject it based on why it was written and not content? Not a good excuse. I don't like why, but still accept it as perfectly orthodox.
I see no ambiguity in the prayer. They're likely just looking for something that's not there and inerpreting it wrong. Kind of like looking for shapes in clouds. (False analogy! Piss off...)
Based on tradition? Well, argumentfrom tradition. We don't do something because it's tradition. We have tradition based on a solid point. For example, we shouldn't recieve the Eucharist on the tongue because it's tradition. Instead, we should because of the possibility of abuse. Tradition exist because there's a reason to have it. We sholdn't do it for Tradition, but for the reason. The reason for the prayer for the Jews? To convert them! The changes are okay because the reason is kept and it's just re-worded.
Then there's those waiting for the SSPX's Bishops to speak about it. I absolutely don't like that. The Pope is the leader of the Church. We would't wait for a Duke to tell us if the King's law is good or not! We have to follow the Pope in all things but sin. That's the one time we could be disobedient. Instead of following the Bishop and SSPX, follow the Pope. The prayer change isn't sinful at all.
Then again, those awaiting the SSPX's position are the ones that are most likely to call him a Modernist while still claiming he's the Pope (Fr. Morrison aside, of course)

The fightin' 14th

Here's the fellow running against Ron Paul:
http://www.chrispeden.org/
Keeping the idea of a "noble America" alive and...well...on life support. We can't cut funds to NASA! Those evil Chinese are going into space! We need to claim space for ourselves! We need to keep our honor by not surrendering to those Islamo-fascists! Fred Reed certainly knows what honor really is...
I believe he says Ron Paul believes 9/11 happened because of America whie he believes it's Islamo-fascist terrorists. No doubt terrorists did it, but they didn't do it because we're free or prosperous. Some may want to make us submit to their laws, but most of the radicalized Muslims really just want to be left alone. Don't we all? Well, except Americans. We don't mind being taken care of by the government.
Anyhoo, here's to Ron Paul's congressional campaign!
I'm waiting for "Catho-Fascism" and the Pope being called a Theocrat and Terrorist. Just think about it. He wants Catholic Culture to spread. He's against the US' interventionist wars (yes, he is Catholic Neocons) and might be in league with the terrorists! After all, he regularly talks to middle eastern countries! Even Iran!

Papa, you have the support of this Traditional Catholic!

Pope Benedict XVI has released the revised Prayer for the Jews. I've stalked around message boards and seen a mixed reaction on some and complete hatred on others.
I quite like it. Nothing has changed except the language. It's become softer, in a good sense. The way some are reacting you'd imagine it to be

Dear [insert god here],
Please let the Jews come into a Church, but if they don't, we'll let them be. Give Christians the strength to read the talmud and possibly convert.
Thanks!

No, it's basically the same in a more charitable language. It's not watered down. It's not a mush. It's the same prayer in a different tone. What the Pope ultimately did was change the words and not the content. It seems like they're trying to criticize anything the pope does that doesn't involve:
1. Lifting the Excommunication
2. Getting rid of the NO overnight
3. Have some sort of Godly power where he can hear every litergical abuse ever.
4. Everything in Latin. Everything. Inclusing the picnic (okay, I'm joking, but I'm sure there's a Sede or two that believe this)
5. Cannonizing Archbishop Lefebvre
Anyway, I quite like the prayer. I don't care about the circumstances.

Let us pray also for the Jews.
May our God and Lord enlighten their hearts, so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, savior of all men.
Let us pray.
Let us kneel.
Arise.
Almighty and everlasting God, who desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of truth, mercifully grant that, as the fullness of the Gentiles enters into Thy Church, all Israel may be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

I glanced over a post where the US Bishops praised the Pope and affirmed what the prayer said. Wasn't one of the complaints about the old prayer? There we go, same substance, different language, the Latin Mass is even more free!
Anyone reading this (yeah right): don't say that this makes non-SSPX Latin Masses phoney.

P.S.
I wrote this because of a post I saw where a protestant was praised for bashing the Pope.

His Most Eminent Beatitude Cardinal Patriarch Mar Emmanuel III Delly

The media is also mostly ignoring what the Pope said about Iraq.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2461181420071124
If more people knew what the H.H. had to say about the war, more opinions would change. Not many, but we can use even more.
May the media report more on this courageous Cardinal and all the Chaldeans.

Viva il Papa!

I done did added emphasis

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/11/16/do1605.xml
By Damian Thompson
Pope gets radical and woos the Anglicans
Damian Thompson
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT
16/11/2007
Two and a half years after the name "Josephum" came booming down from the balcony of St Peter's, making liberal Catholics weep with rage, Pope Benedict XVI is revealing his programme of reform. And it is breathtakingly ambitious.
The 80-year-old Pontiff is planning a purification of the Roman liturgy in which decades of trendy innovations will be swept away. This recovery of the sacred is intended to draw Catholics closer to the Orthodox and ultimately to heal the 1,000 year Great Schism. But it is also designed to attract vast numbers of conservative Anglicans, who will be offered the protection of the Holy Father if they covert en masse.
The liberal cardinals don't like the sound of it at all.
Ever since the shock of Benedict's election, they have been waiting for him to show his hand. Now that he has, the resistance has begun in earnest - and the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, is in the thick of it.
"Pope Benedict is isolated," I was told when I visited Rome last week. "So many people, even in the Vatican, oppose him, and he feels the strain immensely." Yet he is ploughing ahead. He reminds me of another conservative revolutionary, Margaret Thatcher, who waited a couple of years before taking on the Cabinet "wets" sabotaging her reforms.
Benedict's pontificate moved into a new phase on July 7, with the publication of his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum.
With a stroke of his pen, the Pope restored the traditional Latin Mass - in effect banned for 40 years - to parity with the modern liturgy. Shortly afterwards, he replaced Archbishop Piero Marini, the papal Master of Ceremonies who turned many of John Paul II's Masses into politically correct carnivals.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor was most displeased. Last week, he hit back with a "commentary" on Summorum Pontificum.
According to Murphy-O'Connor, the ruling leaves the power of local bishops untouched. In fact, it removes the bishops' power to block the ancient liturgy. In other words, the cardinal - who tried to stop Benedict issuing the ruling - is misrepresenting its contents.
Alas, he is not alone: dozens of bishops in Britain, Europe and America have tried the same trick.
Murphy-O'Connor's "commentary" was modelled on equally dire "guidelines" written by Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds with the apparent purpose of discouraging the faithful from exercising their new rights.
A few years ago the ploy might have worked. But news travels fast in the traditionalist blogosphere, and these tactics have been brought to the attention of papal advisers.
This month, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, a senior Vatican official close to Benedict, declared that "bishops and even cardinals" who misrepresented Summorum Pontificum were "in rebellion against the Pope".
Ranjith is tipped to become the next Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, in charge of regulating worldwide liturgy. That makes sense: if Benedict is moving into a higher gear, then he needs street fighters in high office.
He may also have to reform an entire department, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which spends most of its time promoting the sort of ecumenical waffle that Benedict abhors.
This is a sensitive moment. Last month, the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a network of 400,000 breakaway Anglo-Catholics based mainly in America and the Commonwealth, wrote to Rome asking for "full, corporate, sacramental union".
Their letter was drafted with the help of the Vatican. Benedict is overseeing the negotiations. Unlike John Paul II, he admires the Anglo-Catholic tradition. He is thinking of making special pastoral arrangements for Anglican converts walking away from the car wreck of the Anglican Communion.
This would mean that they could worship together, free from bullying by local bishops who dislike the newcomers' conservatism and would rather "dialogue" with Anglicans than receive them into the Church.
The liberation of the Latin liturgy, the rapprochement with Eastern Orthodoxy, the absorption of former Anglicans - all these ambitions reflect Benedict's conviction that the Catholic Church must rediscover the liturgical treasure of Christian history to perform its most important task: worshipping God.
This conviction is shared by growing numbers of young Catholics, but not by the church politicians who have dominated the hierarchies of Europe for too long.
By failing to welcome the latest papal initiatives - or even to display any interest in them, beyond the narrow question of how their power is affected - the bishops of England and Wales have confirmed Benedict's low opinion of them.
Now he should replace them. If the Catholic reformation is to start anywhere, it might as well be here.

Yep, let's give the pope a break. I just figured out why the pope didn't go fully traditional. Imagine the schism! Yeah, it could be argued that they already are, but imagine the sorrow of knowing that it could have been possible to keep a lot more people in the Church!
Plus, one objection is that the changes of Vatican II happened too fast. Reverting will take a while, and it'll seem more organic.
Let's stop being super radicals demanding immediate change...it'll come. Just give it time. May God give Benedict XVI a long and healthy life (here's to 20 more years!)

Joseph e Chico

I just saw this link on the Fisheaters Message Board.

Chico the cat tells pope's life story By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 4, 1:32 PM ET
ROME - The story of Pope Benedict XVI's life — from his birth in Germany to his election as pontiff — is told through the eyes of a tabby cat called Chico in a new children's book.
In "Joseph and Chico: A Cat Recounts the Life of Pope Benedict XVI," the orange tabby cat tells readers the pope is "my dearest friend, a wonderful man with whom I've spent many happy moments."
He recounts Benedict's childhood and his passion for reading and playing the piano. The books depicts the future pope's early steps in the Catholic Church, from when he entered a seminary in 1939 to his ordination as a priest in 1951.
The book will hit Italian bookstores on Monday.
The feline narrator is inspired by a real orange tabby cat in Pentling — the German town where the pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, lived for a period before moving to Rome in 1981 — that belonged to the family next door.
"I can assure you that what you will find in this book ... is all true and interesting," Benedict's secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, says in the preface of the book.
The 44-page book also touches on the Nazi era, when a teenaged Ratzinger enrolled in the Hitler Youth. "In that period, Joseph was forced to do something that absolutely went against his will: enroll in the Army and leave for war," it says.
The pope eventually deserted without seeing combat and was taken prisoner by U.S. forces before being released several weeks later.
The biography ends with Pope John Paul II's funeral and Benedict's election to the pontificate on in April 2005. "Now Joseph Ratzinger is not only my friend, but the great friend and leader of all Catholics," Chico says.
Benedict is known to like cats. Before he became pope, he looked after stray cats in his old neighborhood near the Vatican.
The book, written in Italian by Jeanne Perego and illustrated by Donata Dal Molin Casagrande, will go on sale Monday, publishing house Edizioni Messaggero Padova said. The publisher will negotiate international rights at the Frankfurt Book Fair next week.