New Years' Resolutions

Ah, the new year - the time when every magazine, journal, blog, news station, etc. does one of three things:

The list of the top (or bottom) "X" things (where "X" is usually 10) of the year. An example is Listing the Year end Lists.
The list of predictions for next year, such as Five Fearless Predictions for 2011.
The resolution(s) for next year, or meta-resolutions, like Make 2011 Better.


This post falls into the third category, sort of. I don't propose to tell you my new year's resolutions because I don't have any. I don't intend to tell you how to make your new year's resolutions work, because I think they are silly. I will share with you a good alternative to new years' resolutions. I call it Lent.

Let's face it, when you make a new year's resolution you are resolving to instantly change something in your life. Forever. No way that's going to work out well, because forever is too long. Plus, there's no real reason to make the change other than "it's a new year". Who really cares? It's just another day.

Lenten, resolutions, on the other hand are made for a good reason - to prepare ourselves for the mysteries of Easter, and be closer to God. That's a bigger motivator than "it's a new year". Plus, a Lenten resolution is temporary - you can change back after 40 days, so it's much easier to keep by telling yourself "only 'X' more days." The thing is that, after 40 days or so, it's much easier to continue the improvements.

So I don't make new years' resolutions, I make Lenten resolutions. Each year I try to do  little better in either my behavior or my prayer life. It doesn't always "take" in that I often do go back to my pre-Lent behavior, but there's always next year.

By the way, the same thing is true for Advent which has the added benefit of being the Church's new year, but somehow I find it much harder to make and keep an Advent resolution, even if the time span is shorter.

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We (won't) take Manhattan

If you recall my earlier post The Manhattan Project, Apple pulled the Manhattan Declaration app from its iTunes app store over Thanksgiving vacation. Appropriately, it is over Christmas vacation that they respond to the inquiries by the authors of the Manhattan Declaration. The response is not promising. From the page:

Apple is telling us that the apps' content is considered "likely to expose a group to harm" and "to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others." Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple's statement amounts to the charge that our faith is "potentially harmful to others."

It is difficult to see how this is anything other than a statement of animus by a major American corporation against the beliefs of millions of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox citizens. It is our sincere hope that Apple will draw back from this divisive and deeply offensive position. The corporation's leaders must be made to understand that they do the country no good service in capitulating to efforts to stigmatize, marginalize or defame people on one side or the other in important moral debates.

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Holy Innocents

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents; those infants murdered 2000 years ago for the crime of being born close to the time of Jesus' birth. Many of the events surrounding the Nativity are firmly established by history and archeology, but this event is not recorded, leading some to question whether or not it actually happened.

Certainly Herod was capable of doing such a deed. He had his own children murdered to protect his position, why would he hesitate at killing some Jewish children? Some historians say that the events were not recorded because the number children actually murdered was probably not as great as believed. Others cite Herod's friendship with the "media" of that day. Can we find any analogues in modern day events?

If you're stumped, I refer you over to the excellent Redneck Reflections blog.

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Apps for Catholics

Despite Apple's pulling of the Manhattan Declaration app from the iTunes app store, there are still some Catholic apps available. Every so often a friend gets a new iPhone or iPod and I wind up telling them what apps I have on my iPhone. So I thought I would immortalize it in these pages bits.

Some of these apps have a separate version for the iPad. The links I give are the iPhone/iPod app because that's what I have. I have rated each app with 1 to 4 crosses [+] based on my evaluation of it - your mileage may differ. If you know of or like other Catholic apps, please share in the comments - I'd love to find more apps.

Here goes (with some updates from friends):

Bibles

• Holy Bible RSV-CE [+++] Most of the bible apps out there (and all of the free ones are protestant bibles. This one is the real deal. Thanks to Owen at Drawn to Catholicism for pointing me at this one.
• Catholic Bible [+++] Based on the CPDV (Catholic Public Domain Version) translation of the bible. Not enough of a bible scholar to know if this is a good translation or not. The web site claims:

The Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible is a new translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible made using the Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims version as a guide. The CPDV is in the process of being translated; the estimated date of completion is early 2009. It is not merely an update of the Douay-Rheims. It has perhaps as many differences from the Douay-Rheims, as it has similarities to it. However, the CPDV is also not a translation that is independent of other English translations. The CPDV draws on the eloquence and insight of the Challoner Douay-Rheims, so that this new version can present to the English reader both freshness and familiarity.

• iPieta [+++] has a Catholic bible (Douay-Rheims and Vulgate), a calendar, and various prayers and devotions. 
• Official Divine Mercy [++++] By the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. Need I say more? Includes the message, history, biography of St. Faustina, chaplet, novena, stations, and much more. Even has audio prayer! Thanks to Paul Sofranko for bringing this to my attention.
• The Rosary App [++++] I like this rosary app best - with "dials" for the prayers instead of trying to emulate beads.

Prayers

• Universalis [++++] Calendar, saints, daily psalms, prayers and readings from the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, seven times a day. Usable without an internet connection. Thanks again to Owen at Drawn to Catholicism.
• Lauds, Vespers, Compline, and Divine Office [+++] These are all Divine Office apps, to pray the liturgy of the hours. The three individual ones (Lauds, Vespers, and Compline) are components of the Divine Office app split out into individual apps. These apps have some cool features. In addition to written and audio prayers it can show you a map of everyone in the world who is currently praying with you (or at least those who choose to share their location information). Check out The Catholic Foodie for a better review than I can give you here, including an interview with the developers of the app. One caveat - have a good internet connection when you want to use them.
• iBreviary/iBreviary Pro [+++] Another app for liturgy of the hours, but also includes mass readings and a missal. My only complaint is that it shows the info for the last time you used it  - you have to manually update it to the current day's information/
• Prayers [++++] is another Divine Office app, with common and devotional prayers, blessings, Catholic doctrine etc.
• [also see iPieta above]
• Holy Rosary [++] I'm not a big fan of rosary apps in general, but this is a decent one.
• SantoRosario [+++] Rosary and other prayers - I think this is one of the less "cheesy" rosary apps.
• iMissal [++++] Has a complete missal, prayers, and even a video mass, courtesy of Catholic TV.
• Stations of the Cross [+++] Excellent app by Ave Maria Press. Name describes it well, although it is not the traditional stations. For that see the next entry.
• The Traditional Way [++++] Another excellent Stations of the Cross app. This one has the traditional stations (hence the name).
• Evangelizo [+++] Prayers, Gospel readings, Saints of the day and more - appears to be a very "quick" app. 
• iMass [++] View the daily TLM (for you trad Catholics - not really my thing though).

News

• H2O News [++++] News, the Gospel and more from Rome.
  
• Radio Maria [+] Looks like a cool app, with alarm clock, Catholic internet radio and more. Unfortunately crashes on my phone. You may have better luck
  
• Ave Maria Radio [++++] Same app as Radio Maria, but different audio stream, and this one works.
  
• iCatholicFM [+++] Same app again, but with different Catholic radio audio stream.
  
• iPadre, SaintCast and other SQPN shows [++] These are OK, except they are paid apps and they aren't really more useful to me than just listening to the podcasts themselves.
  
• iPFL [+] Basically lets you seach the Priests for Life site for prayers and other litugical resources. Not super useful for lay folk.
  

Other

• Catholic Calendar (aka RC Calendar) by Universalis [+++] Great Calendar with feast days, information and more. You can set it for many different countries' feast days. 
• Answers for Catholics [++++] A great tool for evangelization or just answering questions you have about the faith. 
• iConfess [++++] A tool for making a proper examination of conscience and a "how to" for Confession. Whether you confess daily or haven't been in years there's something for you.
• Mass Times [++++] Finds mass times, distances, directions, phone numbers, web sties, etc. for Catholic churches near your current location (or a location you enter). Very useful, especially if you ever travel.
• St. Augustine [++++] Christian Doctrine, Confessions, City of God all available to read, with bookmarks you can add.
• All Popes [++++] Reference material on all the popes!
• The Catholic Game [++] Catholic trivia game. Gets boring after a while, but still fun and since it was free...
• Manhattan Declaration [++] Removed from the iTunes store for being "offensive". Basically takes you to the Manhattan Declaration web page.
• Heresy Detector [+] Goofy app that makes a needle point to random numbers from 0 to 10.
• iFaith [++] Connects you with web sites of various Dioceses. You can get news, homilies and more.
• Lourdes [+] Photos and prayers from Lourdes.
• Spirit FM 90.5 [+++] Catholic radio from Spirit radio from the Diocese of St. Petersburg, FL.
• iCatholicRadio - The Station of the Cross [+++] Catholic Radio from WLOF 101.7 FM Buffalo, NY. [H/T Paul]
• Fulton Sheen [+++] Audio of speeches given by Fulton Sheen. Free app, but some of the content requires upgrading.

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There's no place like home for the holidays

Two stories of coming home for the holidays. First in Canada, St. John the Evangelist to Join the Anglican Ordinariate. From the motion voted on by the parish:

"We accept, unreservedly and with humility and gratitude, the invitation of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the provisions of Anglicanorum Coetibus in a corporate manner."

...and from Orlando Florida, The congregation of the Cathedral of the Incarnation has voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed Resolution that the Cathedral of the Incarnation accept the terms of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and request admission, at the earliest possible moment, to the anticipated personal ordinariate to be erected in the United States of America.

With profound gratitude and filial respect to the Successor of St. Peter, the Congregation of the Cathedral of the Incarnation warmly receives the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.

Having prayerfully considered the aforementioned papal legislation, along with its associated Complementary Norms, and with due regard for the accompanying canonical commentary by Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J., Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, (all published under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on November 4, 2009) and recognizing in the Holy Father's most generous response to the pleas of various Anglican groups our common desire and holy commitment to achieve the reconciliation of our small flock with the Catholic Church in a corporate fashion and with due regard to our own precious Anglican Patrimony, this Congregation now resolves...

Welcome home, and Merry Christmas!

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What Good is a Chocolate Manhole Cover?

...or  gingerbread man the other 11 months of the year? I pondered this important question as I made gingerbread for our scout troop Christmas party yesterday.  Fortunately for us all Cakewrecks has the answer. Unfortunately the answer is hideous. Go on over and check it out.

Extra credit if you know where the title came from.

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NYC is Anti-choice

Let's pretend I'm thinking about buying a computer but I don't know if I want to buy one or not. That's my choice, but I need information. Now, say there's a group of computer-literate people who have a free computer clinic where I can go to get information to help me decide if I really want to buy one or wait. A few blocks down is a Best Buy^* store where I can go talk to the sales clerk about whether I should buy one. Who do you think is going to give me unbiased information and respect my choice (especially if my choice is not to buy a computer)?

I think it's obvious that however good Best Buy is, they at best have a conflict of interest. They would like to make a sale. The sales clerk wants to make a commission. The free computer clinic is staffed by volunteers who have no financial interest whatsoever in my decision.

Now, what would you say if the city of New York enacted a law that required the free computer clinic to post signs outside saying that they did not sell computers or have experts on staff. Suppose the city blocked or restricted the rights of the free computer clinic to post advertisements for their services, or even be listed in directories? Suppose this law only affected the free computer clinic, not the Best Buy or other stores that sold computers.

Would you say that law helped me to be able to make a good decision about buying a computer?

* I have nothing against Best Buy - I just chose the name as a well known business that sells computers for my example.

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Pro-Life Video Contest WInners

Action Life of Ottawa has published the winners in their Pro-life video contest. It must have been a tough decision because I think all three are equally good. I especially like the ending of the third place one (and no, it's not gory - the image you see is a preborn baby grabbing the hand of a doctor who is performing surgery on it). Congratulations to the winners! Enjoy all three!

First prize: Eric Jette, 17, St. Joseph's High School, Nepean


Second prize: Ellis Maveety, 14, St. Francis Xavier High School, Ottawa


Third prize: Culture of Life Club, Lakeshore Catholic High School, Port Colborne

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Street Cleaner's Nativity

OK, so I am blogging, but it's light stuff.

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Lighting the Tree

Busy this week and next, so I haven't been posting much (and probably won't until after Christmas day). In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas!

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No Future for Jews

"I see no future for Jews in the Netherlands" says former Dutch EU commissioner Frits Bolkenstein. According to Mr. Bolkenstein "recognizable" Jews are no longer safe in Netherlands due to Muslim anti-Semitism. He said he has no confidence in proposed measures to combat anti-Jewish sentiment and recommends they emigrate to the US or Israel.

In other news, an Israeli tourist wearing phylacteries while visiting New Zealand caused a minor panic on a New Zealand ferry on Sunday after the captain reported to police that a passenger was carrying a "suspicious article," NZTV reported. Some media in New Zealand even reported a hostage situation aboard the ferry, according to the report.

Reminds me of Joe Biden being ridiculed for wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday, and perhaps the cartoonist forced into hiding by threats of Islamic violence.

Sad to be living in a world where Jews and Christians are persecuted to the point where there is no expectation that the law will defend them.

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More Christmas Movies

In my cliffhanger post "A few of my favorite things" I began the ongoing task of describing some of my favorite Christmas-y movies. This post continues the list. Most of these movies are pretty popular, and I'm sure you've at least heard of them if you haven't actually seen them.

What they have in common is that all of them are movies that my wife and I have shared and enjoyed over past Christmases. I'm sure you'll enjoy them if you give them a try.


The Shop Around the Corner - This is the film tat inspired "You've Got Mail" and I think it's better. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan are coworkers in a little shop who just can't stand each other. They both fall in love with their anonymous pen pals, who turn out to be - you guessed it - each other. Jimmy Stewart's character has more character than Tom Hanks. See it and let me know if you agree.



Going My Way -Father O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is sent by his bishop to rescue Father Fitzgibbon's  failing parish without taking the reins away from the older, "cranky" priest (played by Barry Fitzgerald). Along the way the two priests become friends, and O'Malley helps a gang of kids go straight and reunites an estranged couple and their daughter.


Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas - This is a trilogy of short cartoons featuring Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie and the rest of the Disney gang. Huey, Dewey and Louie are stuck reliving Christmas ala "Groundhog Day" until the "get" it. Goofy goes to great lengths to dispel Max's cynicism regarding Santa Claus, and Mickey and Minnis do a take on "The Gift of the Magi".

A Holiday Affair - I couldn't find a video for this one. Robert Mitchum is a sales clerk who loses his job thanks to a woman who is really a spy from a competitor. So of course hey date and fall in love. OK, it sounds pretty silly but it's a sweet story.


The Bells of St. Mary's - Father O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is sent to "straighten out" Sister Mary (Ingrid Bergman) and close down her school. But Sister's stubbornness and faith in God's providence turn his heart, and eventually the heart of Horace P. Bogartus, a rich miser who can help them.

Stay tuned - more movies to come!

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If you think I'm a fool...

...it's just another jewel in my crown.

This is from a speech by Gianna Jessen at Queen’s Hall, Parliament House, Victoria, Australia. I normally don't repost things I assume my readers have probably seen on other blogs, but this video featured on Jill Stanek's site I found to be moving and wanted to share with you all.

So if you've already seen it, my apologies, but if you haven't check it out. Take 10 minutes you would have spent looking at lolcats or the like. It's worth it.

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The Manhattan Project

Over on the right hand side of this blog you should find a button labeled "The Manhattan Declaration" (also in the image in this post). Just what the heck is this and why am I posting this?

The Manhattan Declaration is a document that you can sign online. As of this post, almost 500,000 people have signed it. It is ecumenical, and affirms beliefs common to all Christians, including:

1. the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life;
2. marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and;
3. religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.

Earlier this year, the Manhattan Declaration wrote an iPhone app that let users access the site's blog from their iPhones. This is nothing radical. Lots of iPhone apps are underneath it all browsers designed to work specifically with one site or another. Apple vetted the app, and gave it a 4+ rating for containing no offe3nsive content.

This fall an "LBGT" group started a petition to have the app banned from the iTunes store, calling it "hateful" and "offensive". They collected 7,000 signatures. The Apple pulled the app from it's store over Thanksgiving (ironically). Of course, Apple is a business, not a branch of our government, so they are not bound legally to publish any particular app, but as a company they should be responsive to their customers. Do you think Apple would pull any content from iTunes if 7,000 people don't like it? I'm sure if it comes to that I could find 7,000 people who don't like a lot of what's there from pro gun apps, pro violence songs videos and apps, songs with explicit lyrics, immoral videos. I suspect Apple would not drop all of this for 7,000 names or 70,000 names.

To my knowledge, the only other apps that Apple categorically refuses to sell are pornographic. So in effect, Apple is saying that affirming Christian beliefs is as offensive as pornography. This I find offensive.

Please enjoy the video below, go to the site, send Steve Jobs an email, and sign the Declaration.

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A few of my favorite things

One of the traditions we have in our home around Christmas time is that my wife and I share a "new" holiday movie. By "new" I mean a good Christmas-y movie that we've never seen before, which generally means "old" rather than "new". Over the years it gets harder and harder to find ones we haven't seen before. I'd like to share with you some of the movies we've watched and perhaps you'll share with me one we haven't.

This is going to take more than one post, but I'll start with a few I would have thought every American who didn't live in a hole in the ground would have seen. However, in talking to some of my friends they haven't seen all of these, so here they are, in no particular order.


A Christmas Story - This is the story of a little boy named Raphie, who wants a BB gun for Christmas. It follows his machinations geared towards manipulating his parents into getting it for him. The plot starts on Thanksgiving when he tries to lobby Santa, and continues through Christmas day. Well written and well told, it's a very 1960s cynical yet heartwarming look at Christmas through the eyes of a child. Darren McGavin steals the show with his portrayal of Ralphie's dad. I loved this movie when I first saw it, and even though it is played pretty much non-stop throughout the Christmas season year after year, it still is enjoyable.


A Charlie Brown Christmas - OK, it's a cartoon feature, not a movie, but it still brings me back to my youth, picking out a Christmas tree with my family and decorating it in the living room. Charlie Brown is distressed by the commercialization of Christmas, and needs help finding the true meaning. With all the wonderful wit of Charles Schultz and music by Vince Guaraldi, I think this will be a favorite all my life.


Miracle on 34th Street - No, not the crappy remake (which I would not advise seeing), but the 1947 original, with Natalie Wood as little Susan Walker. In this movie, Kris Kringle (aka Santa Claus) is disgusted by the commercialization of Christmas and decides to try his hand as a department store Santa. Things get escalated to the point where the city locks him up as insane. Up-and-coming attorney Fred Gailey has to prove he's not insane. This is a powerful tale of good vs. evil, innocents vs. arrogance. An old family favorite! Who wouldn't enjoy seeing Judge Harper and Mr Sawyer outflanked by the naivety and honesty of Kris Kringle?


It's a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra's 1946 tale of family and friendship, and God's love for us all still has the power to bring a tear to my eye. Jimmy Stewart is George Bailey, a man who has had all his dreams broken repeatedly by fate. He's about to lose what little he has left, and decides to take his life. But God has other plans for George. He sends a kind-hearted guardian angle, Clarence, to teach George that life is worth living.



How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) - Yes, another cartoon, but a classic, produced by Chuck Jones (of Bugs Bunny fame). The Grinch hates Christmas, and only decides to steal all the material good associated with it. But when it happens anyway he realizes Christmas is not about "stuff". Boris Karloff is narrator and Grinch, making a perfectly evil sounding character. Trivia fans - that famous grinch-y song was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, who made his name saying "They're GRRRRRREAT!" as Tony the Tiger, and whose head is one of the singing busts on Disney's famous Haunted Mansion ride.

Hopefully you have all seen these movies. If not, get down to the nearest video rental store and get a copy this Christmas season. Next up, some less known Christmas favorites!

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Remember

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What to buy

Looking for last minute gifts for people? Know a person who "has everything"? Tired of giving the kids' teachers the same old stuff every year? Here are some great ideas for holiday gifts.

Food for the Poor has gifts starting from a fruit tree for a poor family ($10) all the way up to building a school. You get a printable card that you can give to the recipient showing what you have purchased in their name for a poor community. Most of the gifts are quite affordable, and Food for the Poor has an excellent track records for actually getting your donation to the people who need it. They have a big presence in Haiti, so this is a great way to help those people who have been through disaster after disaster this year.
 
Chalice is a Canadian charity that helps the less fortunate. While Food for the Poor serves the Caribbean and Latin America, Chalice serves the entire world. With gifts starting at $5 you can find something for everyone, or use these as low-calorie stocking stuffers. Gifts include things like soap, toothpaste, a stove, and many other things. Your gift is given to those who need it and your friend or loved one gets a paper or e-card describing it. You can also sponsor a child for $33/month.

Mercy Corps Gifts has 40 unique gifts, starting from $15, to help those in need. From growing pineapples to building a well, you get a printable PDF donation card to give/send to someone and a hungry child eats, a village gets clean water, a woman learns to read...

Catholic Relief Services is one of my favorite charities, because of it's great responsiveness when there is a disaster and it's stellar track record of actually getting donations to the people they serve. Through their gift program you can buy shares in a project, such as helping kids get out of gangs in Honduras, helping the victims of the cyclone in Bangladesh, providing prosthetic limbs for Sri Lankan war victims.

Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade supports the same work, but provides concrete gifts, rather than a certificate. You can buy Coffee, Chocolate or handicrafts. I can attest to the fact that their coffee and chocolate are simply the best I've ever had (well, their chocolate is the best and their coffee is as good as my next gift suggestion).

Mystic Monk Coffee is absolutely delicious. If you can, try the (limited edition) Jingle Bell Java. Yes, the web site is very slow, but the coffee is very yummy! In case you didn't know, religious orders do not get paid by the Vatican, but are independent organizations that must support themselves through their work. The "Mystic Monks" are a group of Carmelites in Wyoming who are building a new monastery and could use your help to do it.

Speaking of monks, Laser Monks provides all your ink and toner needs for printing those holiday cards and letters. Great prices, while supporting charitable works. And if you're looking for something other than ink, they also sell gift baskets and even "Benevolent Biscuits" for your dog!

The Dominican Nuns of Summit New Jersey have wonderful soaps, lotions, and other wonderful things to offer. Check them out.

If you can't decide on a particular order to support, Monastery Greetings provides a wide variety of gifts from different orders. A great "one stop" place to shop to support a wide range of good works.

I could go on and on with places to get gifts that also support charity, missions, religious, etc., but frankly it would be more than you want to read and I want to write. The above are a sampling of places I've actually used and can recommend. Fell free to let me know of others you like.

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Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Remember Seinfeld? That was his mantra when discussing homosexuality. There was a whole episode, "The Outing" that featured the line over and over. Today I came across this article in the Washington Times on a new pill which can help lower the risk of a gay man contracting HIV from an HIV-positive partner. The numbers are interesting. the article states

Research subjects who took a pill called Truvada every day — plus used other AIDS-prevention strategies — lowered their risk of getting HIV by about 73 percent.
Men who failed to take the pill every day had only a 21 percent lower risk of getting HIV
It also was only effective with men who are confirmed as HIV-negative and who practiced additional prevention strategies such as consistently using condoms, getting treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases and reducing the number of sex partners.

Only 21% lowered risk? Compared to what? One would assume lower than not using the pill. But why then do they say that the effectiveness requires consistently using condoms, etc. Just what is the reduction in risk afforded by condoms?

I recall reading somewhere that condoms reduced the risk of contracting AIDS by 60%, but I didn't have a source. So I went googling. I visited literally dozens of sites that claims that condoms were "highly effective" but didn't give numbers and didn't quote a source that gave numbers. I finally found Worksop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention from the National Institutes of Health. The results are not promising.

In general, the Panel found the published epidemiology literature to be inadequate to definitively answer the question posed to the workshop participants. Most studies reviewed did not employ a prospective design, which is the optimal method to assess the effectiveness of condoms in preventing infection.

The "highly effective" numbers seem to come from a laboratory study of condoms, which was then assumed to apply to actual use. The first assumption was that since the FDA specifies that no more than 1/400 condoms fail a water leak test that 399/400 condoms will not leak in actual use. Then they assessed virus passage through a "perfect" condom using a liquid with a high concentration of virus. assuming that the chosen liquid behaved like semen and that a high concentration behaved like a low concentration of viral particles (which is a known false assumption - I can't find the paper, but at higher concentrations, multiple particles jam small holes and so they are less likely to pass through than at low concentrations).

That information was used to form a hypothetical risk model. The results appear to be nonsense. There are too many obvious things wrong with this model to go into here (I have to wonder who approved the "research"), but suffice it to say that if this model were true, then condoms would be nearly 99.399196% effective at preventing pregnancy (yes, that's the level of accuracy claimed by the model), and they are not. Real world studies show that about 16-20% of couples who use condoms regularly experience pregnancy within their first year of use (the paper uses the number 14%).

When a model doesn't predict real world data, the model is wrong.

There were several studies done on actual people for HIV, however. They considered only passing HIV between men and women during vaginal intercourse, not transmission among gay males, but one would hope the results were similar, or at least it's less of a stretch than the hypothetical model. The results look more realistic.

Overall, Davis and Weller estimated that condoms provided an 85% reduction in HIV/AIDS transmission risk when infection rates were compared in always versus never users.

This means that condoms are as effective against HIV as they are against pregnancy, which is still not very effective, considering the number of unintended pregnancies for condom users. A 1-in-6 chance of contracting a deadly disease for which there is no cure doesn't seem "highly effective" to me.

So condoms are not the answer they are claimed to be. Let's hope this new pill is not only effective as effective as claimed, and that it doesn't lead to more resistant strains of HIV if it is used as prophylaxis.

However, that's not what I intended to blog about. The thing that struck me most about the article was the rate of infection.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) represent "nearly half of all people living with HIV in the U.S., and the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM is more than 44 times that of other men," the CDC said.

We are living in a country that's considering regulating eating habits because overweight people have a 40% higher chance of contracting cardiovascular disease. Why don't we consider lifestyle choices that result in a 4300% higher chance of contracting HIV? We just repeat the mantra "not that there's anything wrong with that" and ignore the suffering of these people.

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New Life

I just couldn't not blog about NASA's announcement today.

NASA has discovered a new life form, a bacteria called GFAJ-1 that is unlike anything currently living in planet Earth. It's capable of using arsenic to build its DNA, RNA, proteins, and cell membranes. This changes everything.

I agree that this is a big deal. We have up to now assumed that DNA had to be made up of the same elements all the time. These bacteria use arsenic (yes, that arsenic, the poison) in place of phosphorous in their DNA. The article goes on...

NASA's geobiologist Pamela Conrad thinks that the discovery is huge and "phenomenal," comparing it to the Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise crew finds Horta, a silicon-based alien life form that can't be detected with tricorders because it wasn't carbon-based. It's like saying that we may be looking for new life in the wrong places with the wrong methods. Indeed, NASA tweeted that this discovery "will change how we search for life elsewhere in the Universe."

Here's where I get lost. The Horta, as we all know, replaced carbon with silicon. Now, carbon is a big deal. Just about every molecule in living organisms relies on carbon in some way, to the extent that the term organic chemistry is used to describe chemistry of carbon compounds. Replacing phosphorous is not in my mind as big a deal, because while phosphorous is essential to life, the amount of it in a living organism is relatively small and the organism using it would still be recognizable (as opposed to the Horta, which didn't even register on the tricorder as living). Not that this isn't still a big deal, but whereas I would think the Horta would have a completely different life process, I could see this arsenic-based DNA behaving very similarly to the rest of Earth's life.

But why arsenic, of all things? In 1868 Dmittri Mendeleev began writing a chemistry textbook. One of his ideas was to arrange the known elements (60 at the time) in order of increasing weight. This had been done before, but Mendeleev noticed that when they were written in tabular form, some elements in the same columns had similar properties. This had been noticed before also, but what Mendeleev did, and which required a leap of faith, was to force similar elements into the "correct" columns based on their properties, leaving empty places in the table. Mendeleev claimed that the holes in the table were as yet undiscovered elements, and by looking at the patterns in the table he was able to predict the properties of these unknown elements.

For instance, there was a gap under aluminum in Mendeleev's table, which he called "eka-aluminum" (eka is a Sanskrit word meaning "one more than"). From the patterns in the table he predicted that eka-aluminum would be discovered to have certain properties. He predicted it's atomic weight would be around 68, its density would be around 5.9 and it would be a metal with a low melting point. In 1875, eka-aluminum was in fact discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran who named it gallium (and there's a fascinating story in the naming of gallium as well). Gallium's atomic weight is 69.9, density 5.93, and it's melting point at 30.1° C (which means it can melt in your hand)!

At any rate, the answer to "why arsenic" is because arsenic is right below phosphorous in the periodic table (you could call it "eka-phosphorous"). In that sense it is chemically very similar to phosphorous, and can form similar bonds with similar other elements to make similar molecules that have similar properties.

As for naming gallium, at the time, the discoverer of an element got to name the element. Gallium's discoverer, who was French, claimed to have named it for France, since the Latin name for France is Gaul. However, his name was Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, and Lecoq means "the cock", which in Latin is Gallus. So perhaps he was naming the element for himself, rather than his country. We'll never know.

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Habemus Episcopus!

As you may or may not know, I reside in the Diocese of Trenton, NJ.

On Dec. 1, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. Smith as head of the Diocese of Trenton. Bishop David M. O'Connell, C.M., has succeeded to the diocesan see, becoming the 10th Bishop of Trenton. A Mass marking the transition in pastoral governance will be celebrated Dec. 8 at 12:10 p.m. on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton.

In his first statement as Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, Bishop O'Connell writes:

As your new shepherd, I ask you to join me in striving to live out the motto that I have chosen as bishop: “ministrare non ministrari, to serve and not to be served (Mark 10:45).” May that be the spirit of our collaborative ministry to teach and lead and continually invite all the faithful entrusted to our care to holiness!

Please read the whole statement (it's not long) and join me in welcoming our new shepherd.

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Black Genocide

Please watch the above trailer for Maafa 21. The word Maafa comes from the Swahili word for "great disaster" and refers to the "African Holocaust" or the enslavement and suffering of blacks taken from Africa over the last 500 years. The point of the movie is that the black holocaust continues into the 21st century. Don't believe it?

Both Atlanta GA and Milwaukee WI have been selected for billboards depicting how the abortion industry has been targeting blacks (and now Hispanics too). Since the beginnings of the abortion movement, it's founders have written and spoken about how the goal of their crusade was to eliminate blacks in America. Margaret Sanger founded the organization we now call Planned Parenthood to promote "The Negro Project" to eliminate those "human weeds" in 1939.

Gamble, heir of Proctor and Gamble, wrote a memorandum in November, 1939 entitled: "Suggestions for the Negro Project." In the letter he suggested black leaders “be placed in positions where it would appear they were in charge."

This is a letter to Clarence Gamble, from Margaret Sanger, in which she wrote,

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities.  The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal.  We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

Jill Stanek writes "Who's Targeting Whom?" about Gerard Nadal's recent head-butting with the NYC city council on laws restricting pregnancy centers in New York city. [FYI according to the 2000 census, New York City is 25% black]

Between 1999-2008 there were 922,272 abortions in New York City. Of these:
50,382 (5.5%) were Asian
101, 856 (11%) were White
296,330 (32.1%) were Hispanic
430,515 (46.7%) were Black

79% of all abortions in New York City in that 10-yr period – 726,845 babies – were Black and Hispanic.
Again, I asked, who is targeting whom?
I continued, telling them that according to New York State’s Vital Statistics (2008):

Whites have 512 induced abortions per 1,000 live births.
Hispanics have 686.9 abortions per 1,000 live births.
Blacks have 1,259.7 abortions per 1,000 live births.

I added:

• The number of aborted blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control, outnumbers the next leading 7 causes of death among blacks combined.

• Blacks are down to 12.3% of the U.S. population in 2010, from 14.8% in 2000.

• According to Dr. La Verne Tolbert, former NYC Planned Parenthood board member, Planned Parenthood targets black babies, and there have been 20 million aborted Black babies in the U.S. since 1973.

Again, I asked, who is targeting whom?

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Catholic Intellectual Property Rights

With the recent flap about the Feds seizing domains I've been thinking about intellectual property rights (IPR). As one acquaintance put it "when the Feds make a law that turns 90% of the world into criminals there is something wrong with the law." Now, I doubt that 90% of the population shares files illegally, but I do agree the law in this matter is ridiculous.

I discussed this before, in the post "Your Digital Rights". While there is a legitimate case for a content producer to be paid for his labor, I believe goods (including intellectual goods) should be priced in a way that respects the consumer, not gouges him. How many people would bother to illegally copy a movie if you could buy it for a dollar, and retain the right to watch it? Or perhaps rent it for $0.50? IP law is stifling innovation and economy rather than promoting it.

So I started to consider what the Church might have to say. I don't really have time to give this all the research it deserves, but I didn't want to let the topic go by. In "Ethics in Internet" the Pontifical Council for Social Communications writes:

It is imperative “that the gap between the beneficiaries of the new means of information and expression and those who do not have access to them...not become another intractable source of inequity and discrimination”. Ways need to be found to make the Internet accessible to less advantaged groups, either directly or at least by linking it with lower-cost traditional media. Cyberspace ought to be a resource of comprehensive information and services available without charge to all, and in a wide range of languages. Public institutions have a particular responsibility to establish and maintain sites of this kind.

As the new global economy takes shape, the Church is concerned “that the winner in this process will be humanity as a whole” and not just “a wealthy elite that controls science, technology and the planet's resources”; this is to say that the Church desires “a globalization which will be at the service of the whole person and of all people”.

At the 48th series of meetings of WIPO the Vatican issued the following declaration (apologies for the poor automated translation):

The ration d'être  of the system of intellectual property protection is the promotion of literary, scientific or artistic work and, in general, the creative for the "common good". Therefore, the protection provides a statutory right of the author or inventor's recognition of ownership of his work and to a certain degree of economic return. At the same time, it serves the material and cultural progress of society as a whole. According to Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Everyone has the right to protection of moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author." Ultimately, the protection of intellectual property recognizes the dignity of man and his work, which becomes an expression of the growth of individual personality and the common good and contributes to it.

Pope Benedict XVI writes, in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate:

On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care.

Some may say that with all the problems of the economy we shouldn't make IPR a central issue. Yet it can be argued that at least some of our economic woes (if not many) are due to inequities arising from the application of improper or unjust intellectual property rights.

For more information check out Elèutheros, a Catholic Approach to Computer Science. Their manifesto declares:

On the basis of official Church documents like Encyclicals [Free Software's surprising sympathy with Catholic doctrine] and CEI directorates [Software Libero, Comunicazione e Missione], we are convinced that there are strong ideal affinities between Christianity, the philosophy of Free Software [The Free Software Definition] and the adoption of Open Formats and Protocols [The Frequently Asked Questions of the Eleutheros Project]. We believe it is evident that the usage of such instruments is much more in line with Catholic Doctrine than fully closed, non Free solutions.

Elèutheros is an association of Catholics whose mission is to serve the Catholic Church through promotion and development of an always increasing harmony between the doctrinal principles mentioned above and the concrete choices made in the Information Technology field at all levels in the ecclesiastical world: from Parishes to Dioceses, from School to Congregations, up to Bishop Conferences and the Vatican itself.

Pretty cool!

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Hate Speech

We got a rare (for my parish) "moralizing" homily this week, about the atheist billboard in northern NJ calling Christmas a myth. Although the billboard encourages celebrating "reason", the atheists who put it up are ignoring reason. Christ's existence is a historical fact, documented by historians of the time, such as Josephus. Unless the atheists want to believe that Jesus came down to Earth as an adult, by supernatural means (and I don't think they do), then he had to have been born. So I fail to see the "reason" in this call to deny Christ's birth.

If we are free to ignore historians and believe what we want, as the atheists are advocating, why not deny the holocaust? Oh but wait - that would be hate speech. I wonder what will happen when they deny that Mohammed was born?

Then again, perhaps we are getting close to just that sort of historical relativism, when 2/3 of Canadians believe that religion is a force for evil (granted they were Canadians who had come to see Christopher Hitchens).

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Making a list, checking it twice...

If you're coming to town this Christmas (or whenever), you'd better be nice to the TSA, because president Obama's taking names. According to an article in Canada Free Press (of course the American media wouldn't carry this). [italics are from the article, bold emphasis mine]

I was contacted by a source within the DHS who is troubled by the terminology and content of an internal memo reportedly issued yesterday at the hand of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Indeed, both the terminology and content contained in the document are troubling. The dissemination of the document itself is restricted by virtue of its classification, which prohibits any manner of public release. While the document cannot be posted or published, the more salient points are revealed here

The terminology contained within the reported memo is indeed troubling. It labels any person who “interferes” with TSA airport security screening procedure protocol and operations by actively objecting to the established screening process, “including but not limited to the anticipated national opt-out day” as a “domestic extremist.” The label is then broadened to include “any person, group or alternative media source” that actively objects to, causes others to object to, supports and/or elicits support for anyone who engages in such travel disruptions at U.S. airports in response to the enhanced security procedures.

For individuals who engaged in such activity at screening points, it instructs TSA operations to obtain the identities of those individuals and other applicable information and submit the same electronically to the Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division, the Extremism and Radicalization branch of the Office of Intelligence & Analysis (IA) division of the Department of Homeland Security.

So, for expressing an opinion about TSA policy in this blog post, I can be reported to the extremism and radicalism branch of Homeland Security to be tracked and analyzed. A wonderful use of my tax dollars. Of course I am already on president Obama's "extremist" list for being pro-life and for publicly opposing some of Obama's policies. And since Obama has given himself the right to assassinate Americans whom he accuses of being terrorists, with no trial or other process, perhaps I should be afraid.

But shouldn't we submit to a TSA scan to keep us safe? According to physics professor Peter Rez of Arizona State University in an MSNBC story (I guess he and MSNBC are on the extremist list with me), the probability of dying of cancer as a result of  TSA scan is about the same as that of dying in a terrorist attack on a plane. His research results are outlined here and available in full here. In other words, the scanners are as physically dangerous to the American public as the terrorists.

So we have a failed government policy instituting unconstitutional searches of American citizens, and the response of our president is to target Americans who point this out. I've in general been a skeptic of the "police state" alarmists, but this is troubling.

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Turkeys and Pilgrims and Pie, oh my!

I confess I've never liked Thanksgiving much. My childhood memories are for the most part neutral to very bad, with long drives in traffic and family tragedies thrown in for good measure.

As an adult my love for the holiday has not increased. For one thing, it is billed as a celebration of religious freedom, when in fact, the puritans were about the most religiously intolerant group around at the time. My impressions of puritanism are more about scarlet letters and witch trials than of friendship and tolerance.

But last year I came across something interesting that I'd like to share with you. The first thanksgiving in the land that was to become the Unites States didn't happen in Plymouht, Massachusetts in 1621. There were at least two "First Thanksgivings" that preceded it. In 1598 a Thanksgiving celebration was held in Texas.

The American History books we studied as youth pretend that Colonial American History is exclusively what happened in the 13 New England colonies. This ignores an enormous part of reality - our Catholic History. Little attention is paid to the epic northward advance by Spanish pioneers into the southern tier of States reaching from Florida across Texas and New Mexico to California, today called the Spanish Borderlands.

On January 26, 1598, a Spanish expedition set out from Mexico with the aim of founding a new kingdom. Three months later, after a long, dangerous trek forging a new trail northward, the now famous El Camino Real [The Royal Road], it crossed the Rio Grande and set up camp south of present day El Paso, Texas. On April 30, a Mass of thanksgiving was said, and the valiant leader of the expedition. Don Juan de Oñate, took formal possession of the new land, called New Mexico, in the name of the Heavenly Lord, God Almighty, and the earthly lord King Philip II.

Then, after the Mass, the Franciscan priests blessed the food on tables abundant with fish, ducks and geese, and the 600-strong expedition of soldiers and colonists feasted. The celebration ended with a play enacting scenes of the native Indians hearing the first words of the Catholic Faith and receiving the Sacrament of Baptism.

I think that this celebration in El Paso has far more right to be called the first American Thanksgiving than the one celebrated by the Puritans in New England. Actually, the lands in both colonies – New England and New Mexico - were not American at that time. For a short while, New England could claim that theirs was our first thanksgiving feast, but the moment Texas entered the Union as a part of the American federation, this priority of the Puritan celebration can be contested.

But there is an even earlier contender. On September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida a Thanksgiving celebration was held and also included a Catholic mass.

This is where Spanish Adm. Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore on Sept. 8, 1565. This is where he, 500 soldiers, 200 sailors, 100 civilian families and artisans, and the Timucuan Indians who occupied the village of Seloy gathered at a makeshift altar and said the first Christian Mass. And afterward, this is where they held the first Thanksgiving feast.

The Timucuans brought oysters and giant clams. The Spaniards carried from their ships garbanzo beans, olive oil, bread, pork and wine.

Eric Johnson, director of the Mission of Nombre de Dios and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche -- the site at which Menendez landed -- doesn't expect Americans to change their Thanksgiving traditions that are shaped around the Pilgrims' feast. But he, like other Florida historians, would like folks to recognize that the stories they learned in grade school -- the stories presented in textbooks today -- are wrong.

It all happened in this bucolic 300-acre Catholic mission and shrine that offers a quiet respite amid the frenetic tourist activity of St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the United States. A replica of the Rustic Altar sits next to the shore in the general area where archaeologists believe the Mass took place.

Michael Gannon, former director of the mission and University of Florida distinguished service emeritus professor of history, presented the celebration in his meticulously researched book, "The Cross in the Sand," in 1965 and has argued that this feast should be recognized as the first Thanksgiving.

So perhaps Thanksgiving should be considered a Catholic holiday rather than the secular gorge-fest it has become. Another bit of trivia. Squanto, the Indian who helped the settlers at Plymouth survive, was a baptized Catholic. who knew? Certainly your history teacher won't tell you.

Also see "The Catholic Origins of Thanksgiving" at the Canterbury Tales blog and "America's Real First Thanksgiving" by Robyn Gioia.

So Bah! Humbug! - er I mean have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

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Same sex marriage - why not?

I recently heard a story from a friend about a NJ man who was wearing a "wedding" ring on his right hand. When asked why, he said that only when the state recognized his marriage would he feel entitled to wear it on his left hand. Now, in case you don't know, the state of New Jersey accords all of the rights of spouses to same sex partners, just not the title. So what is he waiting for? He can't claim "discrimination" when he has all of the rights and benefits. It's not enough for him to be equal under the law. He insists that I must be discriminated against for holding a traditional view of marriage.

Just as pro-aborts will tell me "if you don't like abortion don't have one", same sex "marriage" proponents tell me if I don't like it I don't have to marry someone of the same sex (see the image above). The implication is that this is a private matter between them and their partner and should not concern me. But it does concern me. It concerns us all.

One of the difficulties in expressing this concern to the general public is that as soon as an appeal to morals and values is made, people (even quite religious people) bring up the non-establishment clause, as if that has some bearing, and say we have no right to dictate our religion on others. But the issue is not a religious one. That's one thing I like about the video below. Nowhere does the word "God" appear. The case against same sex "marriage" is quite clear based purely on science and legal principles. I know it's a long video, but it is not time wasted.

If you think same sex marriage doesn't affect you and you have an hour, please watch this video. If you think it doesn't affect you and you don't have an hour, make one. It took me several weeks to find time to watch it, and I have to say it was worthwhile and enlightening.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse addresses the often heated and emotionally charged topic of "Same Sex Marriage" with a reasoned analysis. Employing principles of law, biology, and sociology, Dr. Morse - a former Yale professor - rationally demonstrates the unseen harm this contemporary invention will impose upon society.

Same Sex Marriage: Why Not? from Carson Weber on Vimeo.

H/T Carson Weber via Aggie Catholics.

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Is the Pope a Leftie?

There were two stories about Pope Benedict XVI in the "news" this week that had my more liberal friends crowing over. Hey, the Pope finally got "with it" and admitted that we are right about condoms to fight AIDS and socialize medicine!

The bigger story, of course, was Pope approves of condom use. As usual, all the mainstream media attempts to spin this don't consider the context or the actual words spoken. Jeff Miller has a better examination of what really was said. My $0.02 analogy of his position is if an arsonist decides to only torch unoccupied buildings, he is behaving more responsibly than one who torches anything. The pope is not condoning torching of buildings, occupied or not, he is merely confirming that even in performing immoral acts there are degrees of immorality. He is not condoning the use of condoms, but saying that for people who are already in an immoral situation, every aspect that increases potential harm to others compounds the situation.

The other story is Pope says health care is a right. Some people are taking this as a papal endorsement of Obamacare, and a change the Church's teaching on the subject.

There are three things wrong with these arguments. First off, assuming that every word out of the Pope's mouth is related to an American point of view. There are 68 million Catholics in America, which makes us a minority here. Compare that to the 1.2 billion Catholics our Holy Father shepherds and it is silly to think that everything is about American politics.

Secondly, nothing in the letter was out of line with established Church teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says

2288 Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.

Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance.

Finally, if you read the actual text of the letter in question, the actual thrust of the letter is an appeal to put moral considerations first in providing health care, which is pretty much the antithesis of Obamacare. [translation by google, so excuse the occasional odd wording]

Justice must be among the health agenda of governments and international institutions. Unfortunately, alongside positive and encouraging results, there are opinions and ways of thinking that the wound: I am referring to issues such as those related to the so-called "health reproductive, with the use of artificial breeding techniques involving embryo destruction, or euthanasia legalized. The love of justice, the protection of life from conception to natural death, respect for the dignity of every human being should be sustained and witnessed, even against the tide: the core ethical values are the common heritage of universal morality and the basis of democratic society.

So calm down people. If there's anything to be learned from these stories, it's that you should not trust secular news sources to get such stories right.

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Unity, Diversity, Charity

OK, most of the Catholic blogosphere is pondering Archbishop Dolan's election (I think h is a good man) or Domini Verbum (which I haven't finished reading yet). So I thought I'd write about...Mark Shea.

Disclaimer: I don't agree with many of the things Mark says, and I think he is naive about his world view on some issues. Mark trends to demonize "the right" and forgive "the left" (although since I consider myself neither it is of no consequence to me). However, he is spot-on on many issues and is probably sharper than me on some issues. If we ever meet, perhaps we'll have a spirited discussion. I had considered commenting on his blog, but there's so much noise and heat there I thought I'd think about it, hence this post.

Mark is a convert and Catholic blogger and has recently come under fire for his stance on torture and war, as described in "Obedience, Orthodoxy and Torture". No, he's not too lax on torture. Apparently he's too strict on torture.

It always amazes me when someone denounces something and people jump in and say "because you do not denounce 'X' you may not denounce 'Y'". In a blinding flash of tu quoque "reasoning" Mark is a communist and water boarding is A-OK.

And so,  ad hominem and tu quoque responses aside, there seem to be two main points of contention. The first is that the hings Mark condemns, like waterboarding, are not, in fact torture. The second is that torture, although it is generally bad, can be justified in some sort of double effect scenario.

To put it quite simply, both of these arguments are answered quite effectively in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

2297 Kidnapping and hostage taking bring on a reign of terror; by means of threats they subject their victims to intolerable pressures. They are morally wrong. Terrorism threatens, wounds, and kills indiscriminately; it is gravely against justice and charity. Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.
2298 In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.

I have emboldened the definition of torture and the prescribed stance on it above. Could anybody say with a straight face that they follow what the Catechism teaches, but that water boarding does not fit the definition, or that the use of torture can be justified by legitimate government? Could the refutation be any more obvious?

Yet people who are otherwise much wiser, better Catholics than I sometimes turn a blind eye. Even Jimmy Akin disappoints (me) on this issue

In the same way, there may be things that would count as torture under the popular understanding and yet be justified, leading an ordinary person to want to say "Sometimes torture is okay." But the Church will not want to say that and so--if my thesis is correct--it will instead define torture such that those things which are potentially justifiable do not count as torture.

I don't think it is necessary to weasel word a definition of torture to allow some forms of what would popularly be considered torture, and I find it repugnant that Jimmy would think the Church would seek to narrow the definition of torture to allow some forms of it. Then again, I'm don't have a degree in theology. In my book, the definition of torture is simple. If you would betray your country, your family, your beliefs to make something stop, that thing is probably torture.

I would like to propose a litmus test for issues like this, based on Cardinal Arinze's beautiful response when asked about whether pro-abortion politicians should receive Holy Communion.



To paraphrase him, you don't need to ask a cardinal whether water boarding is immoral. Go to the little children receiving Communion for the first time and say to them "I will put them under the water until they cannot hold their breath. I will do this again and again until they give me what I want." Then ask them if that is right or not.

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