Sic Semper Tyrannis 2008

"Turbulent Priests"

"Chicago's top Catholic leader condemned Pfleger's comments. Cardinal Francis George said in a statement that Pfleger had promised him not to publicly mention any candidate by name this summer and fall and that he would abide by the "discipline common to all Catholic priests."

George said Pfleger's words crossed a line. "Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged," he said. "Words can be differently interpreted, but Father Pfleger's remarks about Sen. Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack. I regret that deeply."

Pfleger's maverick style has set him apart from Chicago's Catholic clergy dating to his seminary days, when he protested the Vietnam War and befriended Black Panthers.

But it also helped the priest turn a dwindling South Side congregation at St. Sabina into a thriving, predominantly African American parish. More than 2,100 parishioners call the church their spiritual home. In his three decades of ministry, it has been Pfleger's first and only assignment.

He turned things around at St. Sabina by highlighting black church traditions, hanging African art on the walls and featuring a black Jesus with his hands outstretched above the altar."  LA Times

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To paraphrase TS Eliot, "Who will rid me of these turbulent priests?"  Obama has not said that, but it would be understandable if he did.

Wright and Phlegar are representative of the same phenomenon, religion as politics, religion as  revolutionary philosophy.   

The Catholic Church in the United States does not wish to be a church solely devoted to the needs of middle class people.  The ministry to the poor and deprived is an old tradition.  There used to be "national parishes" of Irish, Italian, French, etc., immigrants and their children where services were held in the vernacular of the people who inhabited the parish.  This tradition continues on a smaller scale.

A friend of mine is an auxiliary bishop in a major city.  His ministry is to the inner city poor there.  I wonder how he would deal with this priest.

Father Phlegar has now been reprimanded by his ecclesiastical superior and has evidently promised to behave appropriately.  The Catholic Church is not a democracy.  Its structure, traditions and governance are those of the late Roman Empire in the West.  Diocletian might find that amusing.  For the diocesan clergy, there is no doubt at all as to who is in charge in a bishop's territory.  It is he.  For Francis Cardinal George to say he "regrets deeply" something that one of his people has said or done is to declare to that priest and the world that this behavior must not be renewed or therapeutic action will be taken.

Nevertheless, the damage is done.  The image of Phlegar's racist rantings will circulate endlessly on the internet.  The MSM are now powerless to prevent the dissemination of information no matter how much they try.   Then there is the continuing effect of Wright's similar ravings.  There are also rumors of yet more video waiting to be released at well timed moments, video involving Mrs. Obama.

None of this indicates a happy future for the Democratic Party in the presidential race.  America is probably ready for a Black president if the candidate is someone who inspires the confidence of the generality of white people.  If the candidate does not inspire that confidence, then...

We could easily have a situation in 2009 in which the Democrats have large majorities in both houses of Congresses but John McCain with all his evident emotional difficulties is president.

If that happens then Obama's "friends" will have much to think about.  pl

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pfleger31-2008may31,0,6551455.story

War Against the American People - McClellan Speaks

"...in a chapter titled "Selling the War," he alleges that the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that Bush "managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option."

"Over that summer of 2002," he writes, "top Bush aides had outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming campaign to aggressively sell the war. . . . In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage."

McClellan, once a staunch defender of the war from the podium, comes to a stark conclusion, writing, "What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary." "  WAPO

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" "If I had served my God", the Cardinal said remorsefully, "as diligently as I did my king, He would not have given me over.." " (Wiki)

Change a couple of words and this probably will serve as an epitaph for Scott McClellan.  Perhaps if McClellan had had the welfare of his country closer to his heart than the idea of service to his emperor then fate might have been kinder to him.  Or perhaps not; duty is a hard thing.   "Duty is the most sublime word in the English language"   Apparently, McClellan has only recently developed a sense of duty that the epigramist would have understood.

McClellan's book will be believed by those who have known or suspected the truth of the massive and continuing propaganda campaigns waged by the Bushies and the Jacobin flatheads.  It will not be accepted by those who still believe that Saddam hid his nuclear program in a lake somewhere, or in Syria or maybe in Ruritania.  In the end his book will have little impact.  I hope it makes him a few dollars.  He will need them.  In Texas where the easily deceived seem legion, he will find it hard to go home again.

I recommend meditation in the Rothko Chapel in Houston as a kind of way station on his journey to the future.

The administration manipulated the "sources" of public opinion?  Really?  Can that be?  (irony alert)  The administration and its Ziocon allies systematically drove truth speakers out of the public square? Really?  Well, folks, the American people were stupid enough and gullible enough to have allowed that....  Are we to believe that the American people have become smarter and more discerning in the eternity of the last years?

The media?  Has the catastrophe of our foreign policy changed the media?  Let us see how much "play" McClellan's book receives.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052703679.html?hpid=topnews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Wolsey

http://www.rothkochapel.org/

The pope and the bishops

"Four years ago, the National Review Board of laity, established by the American church to investigate the scandal, declared that “there must be consequences” for the bishops, not just for the more than 700 pedophile priests hurriedly dismissed after the scandal broke in the secular press. Some board members called for dismissal for prelates who instead of protecting children protected the abusers, denying the crimes and moving the abusers on to another parish. There has been no diocesan resolve to lay bare the hierarchy’s guilt.

The review board also found the Vatican’s response ineffective, which underlines Benedict’s opportunity to confront his bishops. There is a lot on the papal agenda, from immigration to world poverty. But the American church remains deeply wounded. By the church’s accounting, more than 4,000 priests, or 4 percent, across two generations, were reported to have committed abuse. Five dioceses have gone bankrupt as payouts to victims total $2.4 billion and counting. "  NY Times

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It is surprising that the New York Times should have something this interesting to say about religion.   

I find it difficult to summon up much enthusiam for the pope's visit to the US in the context of the unfinished business of the clerical abuse of children.  It does not seem that "the Church" yet comprehends how badly renegade priests wounded the "Body of Christ" in this country.  In that context It is not edifying to witness the spectacle of an army of bishops processing in vestments so splendid that they can only be a reinforcement for the vanity of men who should be humbled.  This is a group of men who have failed in their duty, and the pope refers to them as his "brother bishops?"

As an example of their failure, the Catholic Church's system of parish schools has been a mighty force for good in the United States.  The poor and the ignorant have found food for the mind and the soul in those schools.  Now the Church is forced to close schools across the country because of a shortage of funds.  Money is a fungible commodity.  There is only so much of it available for the various functions of the Church.  Money paid out in settlements for the crimes of churchmen is not available to be used for other things, like parish schools.

The bishops collectively are responsible for a failure in this pastoral responsibility and in so many others.  The bishops of the Catholic Church are quite autonomous in their territorial "rights."  They are also a kind of self-perpetuating "club," rather like generals and admirals.  They will do nothing to discipline each other.  It is the pope's responsibility to do that.

Benedict the Sixteenth likes to think about liturgical details and the symbolism of the renewed use of old forms of vesting?  Maybe he ought to think about the opinion of all those people out there, the "people in the pews," or the people who used to be in the pews.  It is heart warming to hear Spanish used in his homily today, but the trend in the English speaking majority of Catholics in this country is to vote with their feet against the Catholic Church.

Maybe he ought to think about whether or not the hierarchy here is really going to do anything about that.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/opinion/17thu2.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Krauthammer's Solution for Israel

"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear attack upon Israel by Iran, or originating in Iran, as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran."   Charles Krauthammer's for American deterrance in protection of Israel.  (See his oped below.)

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"The president is out of options. He is going to hand over to his successor an Iran on the verge of going nuclear. This will deeply destabilize the Middle East, threaten the moderate Arabs with Iranian hegemony and leave Israel on hair-trigger alert. "  CK below.

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"This failure can, however, be mitigated. As there will apparently be no disarming of Iran by preemption or by sanctions, we shall have to rely on deterrence to prevent the mullahs, some of whom are apocalyptic and messianic, from using nuclear weapons.  CK below.

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"Every future president -- and every serious presidential candidate -- would have to publicly state whether or not the Holocaust Declaration remains the policy of the United States."  CK below.

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"..there can be no more pressing cause than preventing the nuclear annihilation of an allied democracy, the last refuge and hope of an ancient people openly threatened with the final Final Solution."  CK below.

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One hardly knows what to write.  I would like someone to explain if Doctor Krauthammer's "modest proposal" has the support of the Jewish community (He expresses it that way), as well as his Jacobin brethren of every form of consciousness.

This should be debated.  It may have merit if the virtual protectorate over Israel that he advocates would balance responsibility and authority.  In other words would a specific and effectively irrevocable American assumption of responsibility for Israel's survival in a nuclear world be matched with the ability to control actions which might lead to an Israeli/Iranian confrontation?  Any keen observer of the United States should have known that the US nuclear umbrella has been extended to cover Israel for a long, long time on a de facto basis.  That was adequate because ambiguity is the soul of deterrence.  Evidently that was not good enough for the doctor, and apparently not for others as well? 

The Ayatollahs are not "rational actors?"  This is a doubtful idea.  Opinions?  There seems to be someoone in Iran who controls military motorboats and who is not acting as a "rational actor."  That demonstration of folly should be met with appropriate force.

"the last refuge and hope of an ancient people "  Say what?   Where was he writing from?  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041003271.html

A New Brother in Christ

"In his sermon, Benedict wove a connection between the resurrection of Christ and the sacrament of baptism, the initiation rite of Christianity.

"...from the abyss of death he was able to rise to life. Now he raises us from death to true life. This is exactly what happens in baptism," the pope said.

"The pope traditionally baptizes newborns on January 1 and adult converts to Catholicism on Easter eve.

One of the seven adults he baptized on Saturday night was Magdi Allam, 55, an Egyptian-born journalist who, as deputy director of the leading newspaper Corriere della Sera, is one of Italy's best-known intellectuals.

Allam, a fierce critic of Islamic extremism and a strong supporter of Israel, is protected by a police escort because of threats he has received.

WELL-KEPT SECRET

His conversion to Christianity was a well-kept secret, disclosed by the Vatican in a statement less than an hour before the Easter eve service started.

"For the Catholic Church, each person who asks to receive baptism after a deep personal search, a fully free choice and adequate preparation, has a right to receive it," it said.

Allam defended the pope in 2006 when the pontiff made a speech in Regensburg, Germany, that many Muslims perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.

The Vatican statement announcing Allam was joining Catholicism said all newcomers were "equally important before God's love and welcome in the community of the Church."

Allam, who has been living in Italy for 35 years, has said he was never a very devout Muslim. Still, his conversion to Christianity came as a surprise.

"What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion," Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, told Reuters."  Yahoo News

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Never hear of him before.  It's a normal thing for people to be welcomed into the Church on Holy Saturday.  That happens every year.

One would hope that this man's exercise of conscience would be respected, but,

I suppose that he will be declared "murtad" (an apostate) and that "fatwas" will be issued by some fool or collection of fools that call for his death.  If that is true, then it is simply another indication that Islamdom needs to think about its relevance to modern life or indeed to any life.

Benedict would like to talk to the Muslims about issues between us.  This does not mean that he intends to do so from a position in which he is a supplicant.

If this is taken as evidence that the pope is leading a "crusade" against Islam, then that will be a sad thing.  pl

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080322/ts_nm/pope_easter_dc

John Hagee, McCain and Catholic voters

You have to wonder what John McCain thinks he is "playing at."  He accepted a public endorsement from a man who wrote that the Catholic Church Is an "apostate church," this, evidently on the basis of the learning acquired at various bible "cow colleges." Since the endorsement McCain has done nothing real in the way of repudiating this man.

There are still a lot of Papists in this country and even those who no longer are observant are likely to resent this calumny and McCain's willing association with it.

Now, there are not many Catholics as openly critical as I of the hierarchy for their self obsession and tolerance of child molesters but enough is too much in this case.

I have seen simple priests walk impassively through beaten zones in the Holy Land where tank guns, TOW missiles and small arms expressed the fury of nationalist madness.  They were there to do their duty to deliver monetary aid to Christians and Muslims alike and they feared not.  People had been literally "shot out" of their homes and Christian charity demanded a response.  The response was given.

Has John Hagee ever done anything to express his "ministry" other than to solicit money on television?  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hagee

Turkey, Hadith and the Gate of Ijtihad

"According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy. He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam. "This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation," he says. "Not exactly the same, but if you think, it's changing the theological foundations of [the] religion. " Fadi Hakura believes that until now secularist Turkey has been intent on creating a new politics for Islam. Now, he says, "they are trying to fashion a new Islam." Significantly, the "Ankara School" of theologians working on the new Hadith have been using Western critical techniques and philosophy. They have also taken an even bolder step - rejecting a long-established rule of Muslim scholars that later (and often more conservative) texts override earlier ones. "You have to see them as a whole," says Fadi Hakura. "You can't say, for example, that the verses of violence override the verses of peace. This is used a lot in the Middle East, this kind of ideology. "I cannot impress enough how fundamental [this change] is." "  BBC News

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Our German friend, Bernhard ,brought this to my attention.  I had not heard of this development before. This is of the greatest importance to the future of the Muslims.

The Islamicate civilization has long suffered from a rigidity that defies logical evolution in the sacred law.

This reformist activity can be seen as a restoration of the essence of a great religion, just as the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation can be seen as restorations.

For the Turkish government itself to be doing this, at a time when that government is strongly influenced by religious political party strength is, in itself, a kind of miracle.

If I were a Muslim I would take that as a sign of God's will.  pl

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm

"Muqtada and the Mahdi" Part Two by Amatzia Baram

Download muqtadah_and_the_mahdi.doc

But, was the Mahdi consulted?

"On Friday, Iraqi and U.S. officials viewed the extension of the cease-fire as emblematic of Sadr's political evolution. With the passage of a law last week that calls for provincial elections, they said, Sadr believes his movement could win against Iraq's current Shiite rulers, widely viewed by Iraqis as corrupt and inefficient. Last year, Sadr's loyalists withdrew from the government to distance themselves from it.

"They can compete either through the ballot box or through militias," said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The Sadrists think they could make significant advances at the ballot box as part of a backlash at the perceived failures of the government. . . . They think they made a mistake in boycotting elections in 2005."

Even some Sunni politicians, who were suspicious of Sadr's motives, appear to be embracing his efforts to steer his movement away from violence. Alaa Maaki, a Sunni legislator with the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the Sadrists are engaging more politically and now meet regularly with representatives of his party."  Washpost

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Interesting fellow Sadr.  He is widely thought to be devoid of the kind of scholarly talent that would allow him to become a real Shia Alim, but his "street smarts" are hard to dispute.  He is a kind of Juan Peron or Emiliano Zapata figure to the Shia poor of Iraq.  They think of themselves as an oppressed underclass, the descamisados in the conceit I just made of Latin Robinhoodery.  He fits that nicely for them.  His father was a well thought of Ayatollah, and Muqtada is riding that reputation.  His father got on well with Sunnis.  He gave Sunni (and Shia) tribal sheikhs a lot of credit for wisdom in their administration of tribal law ('urf, 'aada and taqlid).  They remember.

Muqtada has some interesting quirks.  He consults often with the Mahdi himself.  No.  I am not joking.  That would be disrespectful.  His "army" (movement) is the Mahdi's Army.  The Shia Mahdi waits in the wings for an appropriate time to come forth and accept the command of that army.  The Shia Mahdi is the 12th Shia Imam who has been "hidden" (by his own choice) for a long, long time.  At some point he is going (according to 12er belief) to appear with Jesus to lead the struggle against vice, sin and unbelief.  When that fight is won, then the last days will be upon us and Judgment Day will arrive for all including those who have been suffering the torments of the grave. 

There is a body of correspondence between and among units of the Mahdi Army and Muqtada al-Sadr's office concerning Muqtada's consultations with the Mahdi on matters of policy.  There are frequent references to decisions taken by Muqtada on the basis of guidance given him by "the boss."  One might think that what is meant is "inspiration" by the spirit of the Mahdi, but that does not seem to be the case.  the language implies real meetings in the flesh at some secret location.

A good example involved Hashish.  Some Mahdist commanders asked if it were permissible for their men to use Hashish when fatigued, depressed, etc, from the strains of duty.  Muqtada's office replied that after consultation with the Mahdi... 

Interesting fellow,  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022200495_2.html?sid=ST2008022200780

The Huron Carol

“Twas in the moon of wintertime, when all the birds had fled,
That God the Lord of all the earth sent angel choirs instead
Before their light the stars grew dim
and wandering hunters heard the hymn

Within a lodge of broken bark, the tender babe was found.
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round;
But as the hunter braves drew nigh,
the angel song rang loud and high

The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair,
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt
with gifts of fox and beaver pelt

O, children of the forest free, the angel song is true.
The holy child of earth and heav’n is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy,
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy
Jean de Brebeuf, S.J. Martyr
The Huron Carol
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"The war went on in the central highlands. At Christmas time I decided to hold a detachment Christmas party. I mentioned this to the battalion commander of 3/525, LTC Paul Langford during a visit by Langford to Song Be. As we discussed this, a five gallon water jug of home made “hootch” bubbled happily in a corner of my office under the beneficent warmth of an electric light. Pineapple juice, brewer’s yeast and a daily “feeding” of sugar were creating something within that obviously was alive. The application of sugar invariably produced a tempest in the bottle. The men began to think of it as a pet. Langford ignored the bottle. “Are you going to leave someone to man each station?” he asked. “That’s all right then,” he said when assured. “Let’s not tell Group. They already think you and I are nuts.” I bought cases of Mumm’s Cordon Rouge and other goodies in Saigon, and on the appointed day mysterious personages began to arrive from all over the Border on Air America’s scheduled service. All in all, there were about twenty party goers. The province senior advisor, LTC Ray Suarez and the local CIA boss attended. There was much singing of Christmas carols, as well as a ham, a turkey and such cooked by the kitchen in Special Forces "B" camp in town. They sang the "Huron Carol" to humor me.

“For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given...”

Isaiah, 9:1-3, 5-6

At midnight, celebration was interrupted by the sound of machine gun fire in the distance. The revelers trooped outside to see if they were going to have to fight on Christmas Eve. There were hard words concerning the ancestry of the enemy. Across the wire, across the outpost line, across the valley of no-man’s land were the crests occupied habitually by the “opposition.” From these heights there rose a stream of green, Soviet made “tracer.” The celebrants contemplated this for a minute, and then Suarez suggested a reply. An M-60 machine gun emerged from the house, and while one man fired red tracer into the air, another held the bipod above his head and another fed the gun its belted ammunition. The streams of bullets crossed in the black, star-studded sky. The VC gun fell silent, as did the American. There was a hush as warriors waited for some sign that the hope of common humanity yet lived. The VC fire resumed. Now there were three guns shooting green stars into the blackness. The MI men’s gun chattered merrily, spilling a river of shell casings into the street. Red and green filled the night. "

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Every Christmas I post this little excerpt from an autobiographical sketch I wrote once. I will try not to next year. It will be interesting to see if I can do that. This incident is reminiscent of the legendary football game in no man's land in 1914. The men here were of the Third Combat Battalion, 525th Military Intelligence Group and MACV CORDS Advisory Team 94. The place was Song Be, Phuoc Long Province. It was 1968.

The party-goers are long gone. Some never saw another Christmas. Some were killed a couple of months later when the men across the way nearly took the town. We killed several hundred of them repelling their valiant effort. They must have been of the 211th, 212th and 158th VC battalions under VC Military Region 10. By that time these units were mostly North Vietnamese in their manning. pl