Vatican Jerks Back on the Reins for Neocatechumenal Way

I haven't see this NCReporter note, by John Allen echoed anywhere else:

A new letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship demands that the Neocatechumenal Way, a program for catechetical formation launched in 1960s Spain by Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez, adjust its liturgical practice to the general norms of the church.

That's a good sign.

I've dispatched some reindeer, but some of them we're a little to into the eggnog earlier and might have been slowed down a bit.

The Catholic Company is selling a Divine Mercy Chaplet, which seems unneccesary, since most instructions for the Chaplet say explicitly "on ordinary rosary beads".

My Mass notes from yesterday are here.

The Rev. Jenkins Makes A Move
Queer Film Festival is examined - News:

The February festival, which features films by gay and lesbian artists intended to stimulate dialogue, has in recent weeks been the subject of talks between members of the FTT Department and a committee on academic freedom created by University President Father John Jenkins, University spokesman Matt Storin said Monday.

I've installed Opera and it looks pretty good so far. Perhaps a bit faster than Firefox. The only problem so far seems to be with some of the Blogger menus!

Off-Topic:

A day or two later, I'm looking through the new Esquire and I see some letters to the editor referring to an illustration that accompanied an article in the previous issue on 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' the George Clooney movie about Edward R. Murrow and that Sen. McCarthy.

The Cornell Society for a Good Time: The New Secretary of the CDW::
Some more speculation fleshed out.

Who knows eh?

(and a caution on the Cornell website which is pretty radical leaning)

The World's Greatest Theologian

This is hillarious.

chiesa: "Between Venus and Mars, the Church of Rome Chooses Both"

Sandro Magister takes on Vatican foreign policy. Chris Sullivan call your office :)

Gothamist: The Economics of Splitting a Cab:

5. The Talmudic method: 'To solve the problem, you need to consider all three possible pairs of two riders from the group of three, imagine them haggling over the savings, and come up with an overall solution -- modeled after the Talmud's teaching on the divided estate -- that works for all three negotiations. The math was formalized in a Nobel Prize-winning paper by Robert Aumann and Michael Maschler 20 years

Wow...the math must be amazing...

You are Sam the Eagle.
You are patriotic and devoted. And extremely anal.

HOBBIES:
Patriotism, Being appalled at what everyone else is
doing.
FAVORITE MUSIC:
The National Anthem of America

FAVORITE MOVIE:
"An American In....America"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,
Eagles are from America"

QUOTE:
"Please stop that now! It's un-American!"


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Greetings to Our Australian Friends!

Who seem to be interested in my connection (lack there of actually) to Opus Dei.

They're probably interested because I wrote this and a version here.

I actually like the website.

On mediabistro: TVNewser They Quote David Bianculli:

"BBC World News is the best model out there for serious coverage in a tight TV format. The focus, for ABC and its network competitors, should be squarely on the over-the-air evening newscast. That's the flagship, the fountain from which all reputations and fortunes spring. Blogs are fun diversions, but the news - and the newscast - is what matters. Now more than ever."

But it always seemed to me that the flagship of the BBC World Service was the radio not the TV.

A Freedom Bell

Jay Nordlinger writes:

Anyway, while reading the program notes, I marked something to share with you Impromptus-ites. (By the way, if you wish to read my New York Sun review of this particular concert, please go here.) This is what I read: The new bells of the Frauenkirche

peal forth with a message that must touch the hearts of all who hear them. Yet for the members of the New York Philharmonic, the largest bell, Jesaia (Isaiah), sings an especially poignant song. Dubbed the Peace Bell, it bears an image of the World Trade Center towers collapsing on September 11, 2001, accompanied by the words from the Book of Isaiah (II, 4): "Sie werden ihre Schwerter zu Pflugscharen machen" ("They will beat their swords into plowshares").

Fine, fine, great, great. But there is some sword-wielding still to do, I'm afraid, on account of September 11 and all that motivated it and all that would trigger additional such atrocities.

Count me as one New Yorker (adoptive) who would be slightly more interested in a Self-Defense or Freedom Bell.

The obvious inscription for the Freedom bell would be:

Macht aus euren Pflugscharen Schwerter und aus euren Sicheln Spieße! der Schwache spreche: Ich bin stark! (Joel 3:10, Luther Bibel 1545)

That is:

Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, "I am strong!" (Joel 3:10, NIV)