Religion

To qualify as a paleo-conservative in some circles it seems as though one must enlist in a militant crusade to preserve the “white race”, or at the very least, to maintain “racial distinctions” against whatever threatens to erode them. My response is that a program of maintaining racial distinctions when nature does not cooperate (i.e., when language and religion and geography and immobility are not significant barriers) requires turning the priorities of Catholicism upside down. Similarly, the idea that cultural restoration requires an explicitly race-based nationalism also does violence to Catholic social priorities.

ECR once again has the honor of presenting the commentary of Matt Anger, a traditionalist writer who has investigated the topic with considerably more rigor and seriousness than I have. Although Mr. Anger has the good sense to avoid the undisciplined habit of “blogging”, he has generously agreed to contribute to ECR as time permits.

Gerard J. Keane, whom I once had the great pleasure of meeting here in Sacramento, has written widely on the problems of evolution from a Catholic perspective. In this 2001 paper titled The Current State of the Origins Debate here, Mr. Keane summarizes the improbability of an old earth:

Evolutionism is a theory that badly needs refuting, but you’re not going to do it by telling me that the creation of man and the creation of the fruit fly were equally miraculous events …

OK, I promise not to do that.

… nor by asserting vague reservations about the speed of light and the properties of matter.

Found an article at http://www.anti-feminism.com/ (now deleted!) which counsels men to avoid marriage — or at least to avoid marrying a feminist, which the author deems nearly impossible when it comes to Western women:

“If you want to have children and value the security and love that marriage has the potential to offer then you will vastly lower the risks of marriage by seeking a non-Western woman … As I said before, looking for a wife is a game of numbers and opportunities; it’s just like fishing. Now, the river of the feminist-indoctrinated countries has a high percentage of fish that are poisonous to you, but the river of the traditional countries is largely stocked with healthy and delicious fish. Which river will you choose to fish in? I’m not a hater of Western women and I am not saying this because I believe Western women are evil to the core. The reason that ‘no’ must be considered an option for men thinking of marriage is that the lifestyles, culture and expectations of Western women are now such that its an uphill struggle to successfully marry one. Even if we totally destroyed feminism tomorrow, its effects would continue for years.”

Sometimes this business requires restraint — not one of my strong suits. Today we’re printing a liturgical booklet for a Catholic wedding anniversary (50th). There is, apparently, a Mass in there somewhere. Among the prayers:

“…almighty God and Maker, we worship you…”

“…Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Maker …”

“…in the Glory of God the Maker …”

“Gentle Woman … you were chosen by the Maker; you were chosen for the Son. You were chosen from all women and for woman, shining one.”

“Blessed are you among women, blest in turn all women too.”

The liturgy concludes with an “Apache Wedding Blessing” and a reflection by Helen Steiner Rice.

Different worlds, same Church.

Few things are more likely to arouse the contempt and derision of modern intellectuals — even Catholic intellectuals — than stating one’s belief in a young earth. Today’s image-savy Catholics apparently see the young-earth controversy as an opportunity to prove that they are not wooden fundamentalists or biblical literalists or anti-science or anti-intellectual or anything else considered by the world to be backwards and unsophisticated. It is the mentality of the herd.

For the last few weeks we’ve been reading a book aloud in the evenings titled “The Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” published by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This little book is so rich with Catholic lore that it makes a convert’s head spin. Tonight we learned that Joseph’s body is also believed to be in Heaven with Jesus and Mary:

Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden.

Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.

Easter, of course, was wonderful and always is. Just imagine the Tridentine Easter liturgy in a church like this one - of which we are unworthy members - and you’ll understand why. But I squandered Lent. If not for the flu, tendonitis, atrial fibrillation, and a host of business problems I would consider myself to have done no penance whatsoever. But, as Joshua over at Katolik Shinja expresses so well,

I finally realized that disappointment might be what the season’s all about: disappointment with one’s sinful self. Lent is for penitence. If I want to feel good about myself, I’ll turn to Oprah and Dr. Phil.

Now might be a good time to remember the speech of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095 here:

Isn’t it wonderful how Holy Mother Church provides so many avenues of grace to her children? The Holy Father has announced the following ways to obtain a plenary indulgence in this Year of the Eucharist:

“A Plenary Indulgence is granted to all faithful and to each individual faithful under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin), each and every time they participate attentively and piously in a sacred function or a devotional exercise undertaken in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, solemnly exposed and conserved in the tabernacle.

There’s nothing like waking up early on a snowy day to attend Mass with one’s family, then afterwards having a nice lunch together, and then, with the baby asleep in her swinging chair beside you, the snow fine and white outside and the sun still high, sitting down to a hot pot of tea and cream to read Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday for the first time.