This morning I read an NBC story about the horrible floods in North Carolina and was struck by its failure to mention any relief source except FEMA. None. No Red Cross, Salvation Army, no local charities, etc. Subtext: only the government can help you. Somehow I suspect that framing was deliberate.
Of course many good charities are out helping. My point was that the NBC report seemed to exclude mentioning them as if only our Beneficent Federal Government was there in the disaster area.
Adding to your list of October 1 commemorations, don't forget those of us who live on the "East side" of the Church - today is the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos!
Today is also President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday. Jimmy Carter was and remains pro-life, opposed the Roe v. Wade decision, and did what he could to work around the Roe v. Wade decision to help the unborn, including signing the original Hyde Amendment in 1977. He really is a national treasure.
Carter may have been "personally opposed" to abortion, like Mario Cuomo, but on that issue his first loyalty was to the Democrat Party's anti-life positions all the way.
That is incorrect. We can thank President Carter, for instance, for the original Hyde Amendment, which he signed into law back in 1977, which forbids federal funding from going to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother. And back in those days, there were many pro-life Democrats and many pro-abortion Republicans: the issue wasn’t as determinative based on political party as it is today. And President Carter in 2012 actually called for the Democratic Party to change its stance on abortion, allowing it only in the case of rape, incest or risk of maternal death. He felt his hands were tied by the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, but he did what he could to alleviate the factors that drove women to seek abortions. And in 1976, while running for President, he took a position against abortion. Here is video proof of that: https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/flashback-jimmy-carter-called-abortions-wrong-and-a-failure-of-contraceptive-techniques-143526981824
I'm well aware of the Democrat Party's onetime "safe, legal, and rare" position on abortion, which was Carter's even before Joe Biden and Bill Clinton professed their own support for this rather minimal limitation on abortion. All three have long since abandoned it. That Carter signed on to Congress's then veto-proof Hyde Amendment hardly made him pro-life. Neither, as your link shows, did his push for more effective forms of contraception -- including abortifacients. And it was he who nominated the rabidly pro-abortion Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to their first federal appellate court judgeships, leading to their Supreme Court appointments and their votes for the expansion of Roe v. Wade in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Despite his occasional moral handwringing on the issue, the fact remains that Carter swam with his Party's anti-life tide.
Ronald Reagan appointed Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor to the Court and George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter to the Court. I don’t consider that evidence of their opposition to abortion being insincere. Political appointments are complicated things. Carter wasn’t for “safe, legal, and rare” abortion, he opposed legal abortion but he felt his hands were tied by the Roe v. Wade decision, so he attacked abortion by going after the situations that drive women to seek abortions, which Roe didn’t prevent him from doing. And, again, he signed the Hyde Amendment into law and there’s no evidence he opposed it.
Jimmy Carter is dead wrong on same-sex marriage, and he may have been an ineffective leader as President, and he certainly wasn’t perfect on abortion, but I think he deserves more credit from the right to life movement than he gets. And by all accounts, he seems like a decent human being and his Christian faith seems sincere and deeply held.
Also, JD, October is probably the best month weather-wise in MN. Our fall colors are gorgeous here in the Twin Cities. I hope you get to see them someday! Mississippi River Boulevard in Saint Paul, MN probably has the best fall colors in the Twin Cities area: lots of lovely maple trees! 🙂
Thank you for mentioning the horrific floods in East TN and Western NC. The damage is catastrophic. I live about 25 miles from the town called Erwin (where they had to rescue the patients and hospital staff via helicopter ) and just an hour and half from Asheville, NC.
The people are without power, water and food. Due to the water and mud getting around in the area is difficult.
However bad you think it is in NC and TN, it's worse. We won't know the full scope of things for weeks. There's a lot of little places deep in the mountains that now have no power, no cell reception, and washed out roads, meaning they are quite literally cut off from the outside world. Hurricanes and tropical storms usually hit coastal, low lying, flat areas. The simple physical fact of the mountains will make the rebuilding efforts so, so much more difficult.
I live in a hurricane prone area, and my heart is broken for the inland people devastated by this storm. It has caused what along the Gulf Coast would be considered Category 4 level damage or greater, except that it is being born by areas unprepared to deal with it. A truly tragic situation.
Next year will be 20 years since Katrina, and you can still see the scars where I live. The mountain towns have a long road ahead. It’s horrible. Yet they will also find so much hope and so much goodness in the middle of the sorrow. We owe them our prayers and any material support we can give.
I agree 100%. I have a friend that lives in Western North Carolina in a heavily impacted area. His first name is Stephen. His home, thankfully, was not damaged, but he can‘t get to work because of a massive landslide caused by Helene, and he just for electricity back today. But he says whole neighborhoods in his town were wiped away by the floodwaters like they were hit by a giant tsunami.
I think I might be ok with Cardinal McElroy's decision about excluding homeschoolers from renting church spaces. Given that such a large percentage of vocations come from the homeschooled, maybe we don't want the kids in his schools!
"Nevertheless, he [Bishop McElroy] said, putting homeschool coops in parish church buildings could give the impression that “the Church is endorsing a parallel educational model.” On that front, he said, “the vibrancy of our Catholic schools takes precedence.”
I do appreciate the importance of "vibrancy" (i.e., the state of oscillating or pulsating rapidly--Merriam Webster Online Dictionary). I just never realized that it was taking precedence; perhaps it's a Southern California thing :-) .
"In the latest chapter of the Syro-Malabar liturgy dispute, Catholics in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam walked right into their archbishop’s house and restored to prominent display a bust of the archbishop who first promoted the versus populum praxis at the center of a years-long liturgy war. "
- Clearly, the next move is to place this bust on a shorter podium below the current one (turned inward, away from the people), and in this bust's place place a new LARGER bust of Archbishop Cyril Vasil. This should be streamed and done with the appropriate authority figures thumbing their nose (or an Indian equivalent) to the camera.
I think you photo shopped really well- now I want a zagnut. I'd like to donate to the victims of the hurricane. How are you getting the money/help to them?
Another part of the trick is I believe the date is the 10th: as a Thursday it has NFL, NHL and NBA games and a potential MLB playoff game. The 30th (a Wednesday this year) was an equinox last year.
This year's sports equinox is actually on Oct 28. Last year's was on the 30th. I haven't done research into why it happens almost every year now, but I'm guessing that it's a combo of the NFL playing more days now (Th, Sun and Mon) as well as baseball postseason going later and later, often into early November now.
Just an FYI guys, the link you posted in your Helene update to directly contribute to Catholic Charities Helene Relief fund may be suspicious. My duckduckgo browser gives an error that its authentication certificate is invalid and it may be insecure for credit card use. I searched for Catholic Charities Helene Relief fund (and bypassed the three ''sponsored' links) and was able to open a secure donation page on CRS's own website.
Its a shame that people could try to take advantage of the kindness of others who just want to help but there always seems to be people who do just that during natural disasters.
I dont see the error anymore trying it now JD. It appeared to be on the gofundme/giving.classy.org side and they may have caught it and updated the expired cert. Just trying to help.
Thanks for all you do and your ministry. We're praying for you all. Keep up all the great work and God Speed!
My guess is that if Catholic schools didn't cost so much, home schooling might not be so attractive. I asked a friend today what her parish school would cost. $7,000 for each of her two girls. They don't have that kind of money. Vatican II ex-nuns, please consider what you've done and at least repent.
> Vatican II ex-nuns, please consider what you've done and at least repent.
This sentence out of context reminds me of when the oldest members of the choir (a decade ago when I was in it) were trading stories about which and how many of the religious sisters at their particular grade schools in childhood had been habitually physically violent ("only" two for the member whose story I was listening in on. I was shocked; I knew 1 religious sister, growing up going to public schools, who was my third and nicest piano teacher and would not have hurt a fly.)
This morning I read an NBC story about the horrible floods in North Carolina and was struck by its failure to mention any relief source except FEMA. None. No Red Cross, Salvation Army, no local charities, etc. Subtext: only the government can help you. Somehow I suspect that framing was deliberate.
Samaritan's Purse, led by Franklin Graham, is also there, doing its consistently excellent and generous work.
Catholic Charities is also on the ground there helping people:
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/north-carolina-catholics-mobilize-with-relief-as-state-emerges-from-helene-s-floodwaters?amp
Of course many good charities are out helping. My point was that the NBC report seemed to exclude mentioning them as if only our Beneficent Federal Government was there in the disaster area.
Thanks for clarifying!
Adding to your list of October 1 commemorations, don't forget those of us who live on the "East side" of the Church - today is the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos!
Today is also President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday. Jimmy Carter was and remains pro-life, opposed the Roe v. Wade decision, and did what he could to work around the Roe v. Wade decision to help the unborn, including signing the original Hyde Amendment in 1977. He really is a national treasure.
Carter may have been "personally opposed" to abortion, like Mario Cuomo, but on that issue his first loyalty was to the Democrat Party's anti-life positions all the way.
That is incorrect. We can thank President Carter, for instance, for the original Hyde Amendment, which he signed into law back in 1977, which forbids federal funding from going to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother. And back in those days, there were many pro-life Democrats and many pro-abortion Republicans: the issue wasn’t as determinative based on political party as it is today. And President Carter in 2012 actually called for the Democratic Party to change its stance on abortion, allowing it only in the case of rape, incest or risk of maternal death. He felt his hands were tied by the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, but he did what he could to alleviate the factors that drove women to seek abortions. And in 1976, while running for President, he took a position against abortion. Here is video proof of that: https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/flashback-jimmy-carter-called-abortions-wrong-and-a-failure-of-contraceptive-techniques-143526981824
I'm well aware of the Democrat Party's onetime "safe, legal, and rare" position on abortion, which was Carter's even before Joe Biden and Bill Clinton professed their own support for this rather minimal limitation on abortion. All three have long since abandoned it. That Carter signed on to Congress's then veto-proof Hyde Amendment hardly made him pro-life. Neither, as your link shows, did his push for more effective forms of contraception -- including abortifacients. And it was he who nominated the rabidly pro-abortion Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to their first federal appellate court judgeships, leading to their Supreme Court appointments and their votes for the expansion of Roe v. Wade in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Despite his occasional moral handwringing on the issue, the fact remains that Carter swam with his Party's anti-life tide.
Ronald Reagan appointed Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor to the Court and George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter to the Court. I don’t consider that evidence of their opposition to abortion being insincere. Political appointments are complicated things. Carter wasn’t for “safe, legal, and rare” abortion, he opposed legal abortion but he felt his hands were tied by the Roe v. Wade decision, so he attacked abortion by going after the situations that drive women to seek abortions, which Roe didn’t prevent him from doing. And, again, he signed the Hyde Amendment into law and there’s no evidence he opposed it.
Jimmy Carter is dead wrong on same-sex marriage, and he may have been an ineffective leader as President, and he certainly wasn’t perfect on abortion, but I think he deserves more credit from the right to life movement than he gets. And by all accounts, he seems like a decent human being and his Christian faith seems sincere and deeply held.
And one should note that 5 of the Supreme Court Justices who voted for Roe v. Wade were appointed by Republican presidents.
Yep and every single justice that voted to uphold Roe in the Casey decision was appointed by a Republican president.
Also, JD, October is probably the best month weather-wise in MN. Our fall colors are gorgeous here in the Twin Cities. I hope you get to see them someday! Mississippi River Boulevard in Saint Paul, MN probably has the best fall colors in the Twin Cities area: lots of lovely maple trees! 🙂
Thank you for mentioning the horrific floods in East TN and Western NC. The damage is catastrophic. I live about 25 miles from the town called Erwin (where they had to rescue the patients and hospital staff via helicopter ) and just an hour and half from Asheville, NC.
The people are without power, water and food. Due to the water and mud getting around in the area is difficult.
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus , pray for them.
However bad you think it is in NC and TN, it's worse. We won't know the full scope of things for weeks. There's a lot of little places deep in the mountains that now have no power, no cell reception, and washed out roads, meaning they are quite literally cut off from the outside world. Hurricanes and tropical storms usually hit coastal, low lying, flat areas. The simple physical fact of the mountains will make the rebuilding efforts so, so much more difficult.
I live in a hurricane prone area, and my heart is broken for the inland people devastated by this storm. It has caused what along the Gulf Coast would be considered Category 4 level damage or greater, except that it is being born by areas unprepared to deal with it. A truly tragic situation.
Yes it looks as horrific as the damage was in southern Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
Next year will be 20 years since Katrina, and you can still see the scars where I live. The mountain towns have a long road ahead. It’s horrible. Yet they will also find so much hope and so much goodness in the middle of the sorrow. We owe them our prayers and any material support we can give.
I agree 100%. I have a friend that lives in Western North Carolina in a heavily impacted area. His first name is Stephen. His home, thankfully, was not damaged, but he can‘t get to work because of a massive landslide caused by Helene, and he just for electricity back today. But he says whole neighborhoods in his town were wiped away by the floodwaters like they were hit by a giant tsunami.
I think I might be ok with Cardinal McElroy's decision about excluding homeschoolers from renting church spaces. Given that such a large percentage of vocations come from the homeschooled, maybe we don't want the kids in his schools!
Ahh I would totally have made plans to hear your lecture tomorrow but unfortunately cannot on short notice. Pesky homeschooling.
"Nevertheless, he [Bishop McElroy] said, putting homeschool coops in parish church buildings could give the impression that “the Church is endorsing a parallel educational model.” On that front, he said, “the vibrancy of our Catholic schools takes precedence.”
I do appreciate the importance of "vibrancy" (i.e., the state of oscillating or pulsating rapidly--Merriam Webster Online Dictionary). I just never realized that it was taking precedence; perhaps it's a Southern California thing :-) .
"Is this synodality?" Had me rolling
"In the latest chapter of the Syro-Malabar liturgy dispute, Catholics in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam walked right into their archbishop’s house and restored to prominent display a bust of the archbishop who first promoted the versus populum praxis at the center of a years-long liturgy war. "
- Clearly, the next move is to place this bust on a shorter podium below the current one (turned inward, away from the people), and in this bust's place place a new LARGER bust of Archbishop Cyril Vasil. This should be streamed and done with the appropriate authority figures thumbing their nose (or an Indian equivalent) to the camera.
I think you photo shopped really well- now I want a zagnut. I'd like to donate to the victims of the hurricane. How are you getting the money/help to them?
....why "equinox"? Wouldn't "grand slam" make more sense (albeit favoring one of the big four sports over the others)?
A touch-point grand hat trick.
Close, but you need to work quadruple-double in there to cover basketball.
Another part of the trick is I believe the date is the 10th: as a Thursday it has NFL, NHL and NBA games and a potential MLB playoff game. The 30th (a Wednesday this year) was an equinox last year.
This year's sports equinox is actually on Oct 28. Last year's was on the 30th. I haven't done research into why it happens almost every year now, but I'm guessing that it's a combo of the NFL playing more days now (Th, Sun and Mon) as well as baseball postseason going later and later, often into early November now.
Oh no. Google told me it was Nov 30, 2024.
Speaking of Raccoon’s and Baseball, may I bring your attention to the following: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_City_Trash_Pandas
Minor league team names are a treasure.
I laughed out loud even before I saw your handle.
Just an FYI guys, the link you posted in your Helene update to directly contribute to Catholic Charities Helene Relief fund may be suspicious. My duckduckgo browser gives an error that its authentication certificate is invalid and it may be insecure for credit card use. I searched for Catholic Charities Helene Relief fund (and bypassed the three ''sponsored' links) and was able to open a secure donation page on CRS's own website.
Its a shame that people could try to take advantage of the kindness of others who just want to help but there always seems to be people who do just that during natural disasters.
Thanks Joseph.
the link we supplied is directly off the Catholic Charities of Charlotte website.
I dont see the error anymore trying it now JD. It appeared to be on the gofundme/giving.classy.org side and they may have caught it and updated the expired cert. Just trying to help.
Thanks for all you do and your ministry. We're praying for you all. Keep up all the great work and God Speed!
My guess is that if Catholic schools didn't cost so much, home schooling might not be so attractive. I asked a friend today what her parish school would cost. $7,000 for each of her two girls. They don't have that kind of money. Vatican II ex-nuns, please consider what you've done and at least repent.
> Vatican II ex-nuns, please consider what you've done and at least repent.
This sentence out of context reminds me of when the oldest members of the choir (a decade ago when I was in it) were trading stories about which and how many of the religious sisters at their particular grade schools in childhood had been habitually physically violent ("only" two for the member whose story I was listening in on. I was shocked; I knew 1 religious sister, growing up going to public schools, who was my third and nicest piano teacher and would not have hurt a fly.)