(Some of) the best tweets of 2020

 ... according to Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn.  Zorn's list of the 40 best can be read here (I hope no paywalls stand between you and the column).  Below the break is a short sample of the ones that appealed to me.

The Real Reason Trump Vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act

 There is a very interesting article on the Fortune magazine site, by Morris Pearl: Congress just passed the most important anti-corruption reform in decades, but hardly anyone knows about it..

Do we think Trump actually cares about Section 230, or the base names?  With him, always follow the money. From the article:

A USCCB committee document on problematic hymn lyrics

The Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently released a document which criticizes doctrinal problems it has found in the lyrics of some songs and hymns used in Catholic worship around the country.

Merry Christmas

 As I write this at about 10 minutes to 5 pm on Christmas Eve, the presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked and I've been to mass once. 

Mall report

 I reneged on a vow I had made to my family on Thanksgiving Day: I set foot in a shopping mall today. 

May it be done to me according to your word

 This is my homily for today, the 4th Sunday in Advent.  Today's readings are here.

The Twilight Zone

 An interesting article popped up on NCR today.  Apparently they have started posting some new content on Saturdays. The article, This Christmas, Let's Return to the Twilight Zone, by Tom Deignan, has a different take on holiday movies and specials. It is common this time of year to discuss which are our favorite holiday classics, "...seeking a heaping dose of comfort and joy: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965), "A Christmas Story" (1983), and "Elf" (2003)."

"O Antiphons" Links

 

Tonight begins the O antiphons for the Magnificat at Vespers.  Below are some links if you want to enjoy them.

The Chant of Le Barroux  This is the monastic office precisely as it was done before Vatican II  by a conservative monastery that received a lot of encourage from Benedict XVI to keep the old monastic office.  During the Magnificat they ring the church bells.  When you come to the website press the Arrow which points sideways rather than down. That will open another dialogue box and if you check text it will give you the Latin side by side with an English translation.

Saint Meinrad Youtube  gives you recordings of  Mass and Vespers for each day. They celebrate Vespers at 5pm central time each day. If you want to view Vespers live use the Saint Meinrad Live Link 

Recordings of the Antiphons from Saint Meinrad are at this website Gregorian Chant Schola of Saint Meinrad

Canterbury Cathedral's Celebration of Vespers is at this site.

The pandemic has been very good for the Divine Office. There is much more on the web now that before. 

Two ancillary benefits of wearing a mask

 1.  It keeps your face warm when it's really cold outside. I discovered this earlier this week when I took a vehicle into the shop for repairs.  Naturally, the mechanics don't want clients hanging around in the office in the midst of a pandemic, so I had to wait outside for my wife to pick me up.  It was freezing.  But my face was warm.  As we used to say in the 1970s: Bonus!

2.  Nobody cares anymore if I've shaved or not.  Admittedly, I don't know if anyone cared about it before the pandemic.  But I cared (or used to).  I don't care that much anymore.  Prior to the pandemic, and back in the days when I had an office at which to appear every morning, shaving was a morning ritual for me: the first (well, second) thing I did after rolling out of bed every morning.  Now I'm down to shaving every other day.  I'm one of those "full-beard" guys, and I look scruffy if I go a day without shaving, but these days, the only ones who see me without a mask are my family members.

Dishonor roll

Yahoo News has helpfully provided a list of the Republican members of the United States House of Representatives who endorsed the Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of validly cast ballots in other states in order to snatch the presidency away from Joe Biden, contrary to the spirit (and, judging by Team Trump's dismal court record, also the law) of the United States.   

Francis on online vs. reality

 I've been slowly working my way through Francis's recent encyclical Fratelli tutti.  It's a rewarding exercise; I haven't read everything Francis has written, but I generally try to read his major writings, and it's always interesting and spiritually enlightening (and, not infrequently, challenging!).   I am not far into it yet (it's another very long document), but the pessimistic tone so far has surprised me: the optimism of the Vatican II era seems to have given way to a darker mood.  

Here is a passage I read this morning.  I find the analysis pretty interesting in its own right.  I also expect it should be of interest to our little online community here - which, if I may say so, is not as bad as some of what the encyclical describes.  And finally, it should be of intense interest to those of us who are trying to understand how a large section of the country has become so unmoored from reality that they can't accept that valid election results are valid.

What's in a Title?

 I first read on Facebook about the kerfluffle about Jill Biden using her professional title. She is an EdD, doctor of education.. Phyllis Zagano has a good article in NCR on the subject. The person who originally brought it up was the writer of an op ed in the Wall Street Journal, Joseph Epstein.

Post-election insanity - Another update

This post now has grown sufficiently long that I've added a break.  Updates and the original post are below the break.

MSW @ NCR on Chaput: Updated

Before I posted the article by Chaput that appeared in First Things, I checked at the National Catholic Reporter expecting to see an article by Michael Sean Winters ripping Chaput's article to shreds. Well I should have waited a little longer  since MSW had to do his homework on both sides of the Atlantic.

American Viganò: Archbishop Chaput divides episcopacy even in retirement 

Please read the whole article since it appears MSW has done his research and it does not come out favorable to Chaput.

My evaluation of sour grapes and racial insensitivity is a slap on the wrist in comparison to his:

Bad theology? Check.

Misunderstanding of American politics? Check.

Weaponization of pastoral issues? Check.

A prelate who did not rise to the ranks his friends thought his due? Check.

Sound familiar? Chaput has become an American Viganò, and, like the disgraced former nuncio, he is dividing the episcopacy even in retirement. That is the scandal here.

A somewhat related article from NPR:

Federal Executions Pit The Trump Administration Against The Catholic Church

Mona Charen Article

 Here is a good  article, Trumpism Triumphant - The Bulwark, by Mona Charen.  Charen is a conservative columnist who has long been warning about the delusions of those who jumped on the Trump train.  The whole thing is worth reading.  Here are some excerpts:

On Relationships Between Religion and Civil Authority

 HT to Jim McCrea for linking this article in the New York Times.  If you are paywalled out of NYT, Jim's email thread copies the article.  Though the topic of the article is abortion law in Poland, I don't want to focus on abortion itself, which has been discussed and re-discussed.  I wish instead to focus on relationships between civil authority and religion. This article explores some of that territory:

Happy Feast Day

 

Happy feast of the Immaculate Conception. I did a search for images for the feast, and they were mostly Mary as an adult, in the clouds, with angels. Or with her and the child Jesus. I wanted a picture with Mary and her mother, since the feast is about them.

Public transportation on the brink

Urban transportation systems are cash-starved because of the pandemic.  Many are reacting by cutting back on service.  That hurts those who rely most on these services.

Vaccine Priorities: Elderly vs Essential Works

Hopefully this NYT article is not behind a paywall but part of their free Covid-19 coverage. However the quotes give the problems,.

The Elderly vs. Essential Workers:

Who Should Get the Coronavirus Vaccine First?

The C.D.C. will soon decide which group to recommend next, and the debate over the trade-offs is growing heated. Ultimately, states will determine whom to include.

It’s a question increasingly guided by concerns over the inequities laid bare by the pandemic, from disproportionately high rates of infection and death among poor people and people of color to disparate access to testing, child care and technology for online schooling.

Ultimately, the choice comes down to whether preventing death or curbing the spread of the virus and returning to some semblance of normalcy is the highest priority. “If your goal is to maximize the preservation of human life, then you would bias the vaccine toward older Americans,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said recently. “If your goal is to reduce the rate of infection, then you would prioritize essential workers. So it depends what impact you’re trying to achieve.”

The trade-off between the two is muddied by the fact that the definition of “essential workers” used by the C.D.C. comprises nearly 70 percent of the American work force, sweeping in not just grocery store clerks and emergency responders, but tugboat operators, exterminators and nuclear energy workers. Some labor economists and public health officials consider the category overbroad and say it should be narrowed to only those who interact in person with the public.

Certainly I agree that disproportionately high rates of infection and death among poor people and people of color needs to be addressed. However the disproportionately high rates of severe illness and death among the elderly and those with special conditions also needs to be addressed. 

I suspect targeting the vaccine on essential workers no matter how defined (whether 50% or 70% of the population) will still leave out many of the most vulnerable poor, people of color, elderly and those with special medical conditions. 

What has increasing become apparent is that many Americans, including many of our leaders, are prioritizing the economy over the protection of health and human life. That is why unlike other countries we are not shutting down our economy much. The States want to protect their taxes and the bishops want to protect their collections. 

Increasing I am seeing self isolation as an elderly person with limited contacts among other elderly people who also practice self isolation as the way of the future.  I don't plan to return to in person church or shopping until there are at least two months of zero cases in my county, my metropolitan area and my state. We old people need to get organized to protect and help one another.  

 

Chaput: Racist and Sore Loser?

Archbishop Emeritus Chaput who never made it to Cardinal seems to be willing to take on our first African American Cardinal on the issue of denying communion to Biden by accusing him of creating scandal. 

MR. BIDEN AND THE MATTER OF SCANDAL

I guess Cardinal Gregory who had to wait a long time for his cardinal's hat was a bit too uppity in preempting the bishops committee assigned to evaluate how the bishops ought to deal with Biden. But then again Gregory led the bishops as their president in creating the Dallas charter.  (Rocco has often said that Gregory just shakes his head as to how his fellow bishops don't seem to get things).

Our culture warrior, politicized bishops are the great scandal, in many ways equal or worst than that of the sexual abuse scandal. 

ADDENDUM.  While Chaput likes to appeal to Ratzinger on this issue, he neglected to say that Benedict XVI said that no one except the Pope has the right to criticize a cardinal. That issue arose when the present Cardinal of Vienna criticized the Vatican Secretary of State for having swept under the rug the sexual abuse of seminarians by his predecessor. The Cardinal was summoned to Rome by Benedict and forced to apologize to the Secretary of State. Benedict made it clear that only he could publicly criticize a cardinal. Of course Chaput carefully did not name Cardinal Gregory.

President Trump drops a video

The President of the United States has released a 46 minute video, claiming all of the same things he's been claiming for the last four weeks everywhere except in actual court submissions.  It makes me feel physically ill to report this here, but as he continues to besmirch our democratic processes, we're obligated to continue to disinfect them with sunlight.  Beyond that observation, I can't think of anything to say about this untruthful, futile, shameful, disgraceful post-election campaign which hasn't been said many times already. 

Well, I do have one thought: in the video, he continues to defame Dominion Systems.  I understand that presidents are, for practical purposes, immune from lawsuits.  As soon as President-elect Biden is sworn in, I'd think that Dominion could sue him for slander.

I made it through 15 minutes of the video and then gave up.  I am truly sorry for anyone who has a professional obligation to watch this all the way through.

 January 20th can't come fast enough.

Resurrections and Second Chances

I think every town has a few of Those Houses, the ones with the reputations. Our town has the Murder House, and the Murder Suicide House. And the Spooky House, a decaying Victorian mansion that looks like the Addams Family could live there. And the house where the crazy guy lives, who stands on his porch and yells at everybody. And the subject of this post, the Recluse House.