VATICAN GUIDE FOR HANDLING REPORTS OF CHILD ABUSE

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith posted an online guide for handling allegations of child abuse.

IT'S BAD

From NOLA.com:

Seven people were shot in New Orleans on Monday, two of them fatally, on the heels of a violent weekend that saw 18 people shot in the New Orleans area, eight in a single high-profile incident on Canal Street as the second night of the French Quarter Festival wrapped up Saturday.

Police responded to a call of shots fired Monday around 1:20 p.m. at Law and Desire streets, where they found Terence Butler, 36, dead. Two other men were taken to the hospital, where one of them, Derrick Jones, 32, died, said John Gagliano, chief investigator for the coroner's office. A third person was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Minutes later, police responded to a separate shooting three blocks away at Clouet Street and Lausat Place and found a man who had been shot several times. He too was transported to a hospital in critical condition, said New Orleans police spokesmen Garry Flot and Jannsen Valencia.

If my count is correct, three people are dead and 15 were wounded, some critically, from gunshots during the weekend and on Monday. What's going on? There's a vacuum at the top. Ray Nagin seems to be MIA. He's pretty much departed from his job as mayor before the next mayor is sworn in, except for his attempts to commit the new mayor to as many contracts as possible before he leaves office. The New Orleans Police Department is demoralized, and Chief Warren Riley seems unable to implement a strategy to stem the violence.

May 3, the date of Mitch Landrieu's swearing into the office of mayor of New Orleans, can't come fast enough for me. I know he's no savior, but he'll be a better mayor than Nagin if he only half tries. He faces the daunting challenge of reducing violence in the city.

Ormonde at Through the Dust keeps count of the murders in New Orleans. He'll have more names to add to the list for his next post in his series, "Murder capital of the US of A".

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN - 2

 

A bridal wreath bush in bloom. It's planted beside the garden shed, which I cropped out of the picture.

 

Another variety of azalea. We have white azaleas, too, but I don't have a picture.

 

My favorite of all the pictures. The rosebush is a transplant from New Roads, where it grows and flourishes with little care. The bush does the same here. Grandpère stopped planting roses, because most rose plants require frequent treatment for black spot because of the humidity. However, we have two varieties here in Thibodaux, both of which came from New Roads, the pink above and a white rosebush, which grow and bloom well here without spraying. I'm guessing the roses are old varieties and not hybrids and are thus hardier and more resistant to disease than hybrids.

 

And last, but not least, the red geraniums in pots near the back door. They're beautiful now but will be less so in the height of the summer heat.

TINA FEY AS SARAH PALIN

H/T to Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish.

Thanks to Wade for the link.

BISHOP ALAN - THE COOLEST BISHOP IN ALL ENGLAND?

Possibly. Read his commentary on his night out at 606 titled Soul Food in Chelsea.

Feeding the soul is not just for Lent. The highlight of this post-Easter break has been a visit with an old friend and Stephanie to the 606, one of my loved and inceasingly loved sources of soul food.
....

This is not ego food, but soul food — graceful, passionate stuff.

STORY OF THE DAY - HAWAIIAN SHIRTS

I have seen him in Hawaiian shirts, she
said, so there is nothing hidden between
us


From StoryPeople.

A. N. WILSON - A VOICE FROM THE PAST

From the Telegraph in June of 2003, when Jeffery John had been chosen as bishop-elect of Reading in England, but before he was pressed to step down by his good friend, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, comes this charming and quite moving piece by the writer, A. N. Wilson.

The Bishop Elect of Reading, the Revd Jeffrey John, has attracted a lot of notice, particularly in this newspaper. The reason is that he has been brave enough to admit that he is a homosexual. He lives with his friend, but tells us that he will in future be celibate.

I was asked recently whether I had been at the Oxford theological college St Stephen's House at the same time as he was.

As it happens, I think I'm a bit older than Dr John. In the mists of time, I remember meeting him, and I think he was chaplain of Magdalen College, Oxford. He asked me to give a talk to the undergraduates, and I seem to recollect a fairly earnest evening discussing religion and literature. He is certainly not the wild gay revolutionary depicted in the media.
....

At Staggers (as St Stephen's was known), they gave most of the students "names in religion". This meant that the young men called one another by girls' names. Young homosexuals of my acquaintance aren't camp in this way any more. That whole Colony Room, Francis Bacon tradition of calling one another a silly bitch has rather gone out, to be replaced by earnestness of one kind or another.

The quoted text does not at all do justice to Wilson's entire column, which is titled, "Tawdry Audrey, Bobo, Maud, Pearl . . . all better men than I".

If you recall, in my post on Bishop Barry Morgan's Easter sermon, the bishop quotes Wilson. Wilson grew up in the faith, grew out of the faith, and later returned to the faith.

Thanks to Lapin for the link to Wilson's piece.

Cathy sent me the link to the lovely story of Wilson's return to the faith in the New Statesman in April of 2009.

Here's a snippet from Wilson's story, which includes a reference to Bonhoeffer:

I haven't mentioned morality, but one thing that finally put the tin hat on any aspirations to be an unbeliever was writing a book about the Wagner family and Nazi Germany, and realising how utterly incoherent were Hitler's neo-Darwinian ravings, and how potent was the opposition, much of it from Christians; paid for, not with clear intellectual victory, but in blood. Read Pastor Bonhoeffer's book Ethics, and ask yourself what sort of mad world is created by those who think that ethics are a purely human construct. Think of Bonhoeffer's serenity before he was hanged, even though he was in love and had everything to look forward to.

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN

 

Above is the most popular variety of azaleas. The bushes bloom only once a year. I missed the flowers at the height of their beauty by a few days.

 

The azalea bush pictured above blooms several times a year. It's quite unusual to have the two varieties in bloom at the same time.

 

Above is our wee mock orange. The little shrub has had a hard time of it, suffering much tribulation during it's rather long life, including being pulled up from the roots by a neighborhood toddler and replanted and cut off at the ground by the riding lawn mower. Still, we take pleasure in its resurrection and its plucky persistence in producing lovely flowers this spring.

 

Above are the potted petunias, which are just beginning their lives in our garden.

More to come. I was quite surprised at the number of different blooms in our yard when I began to take pictures.

ANOTHER VIEW FROM THE INSIDE

From Maureen Dowd at the New York Times:

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I had tea and sweets with a group of educated and sophisticated young professional women.

I asked why they were not more upset about living in a country where women’s rights were strangled, an inbred and autocratic state more like an archaic men’s club than a modern nation. They told me, somewhat defensively, that the kingdom was moving at its own pace, glacial as that seemed to outsiders.

How could such spirited women, smart and successful on every other level, acquiesce in their own subordination?

I was puzzling over that one when it hit me: As a Catholic woman, I was doing the same thing.

I, too, belonged to an inbred and wealthy men’s club cloistered behind walls and disdaining modernity.

I, too, remained part of an autocratic society that repressed women and ignored their progress in the secular world.

I, too, rationalized as men in dresses allowed our religious kingdom to decay and to cling to outdated misogynistic rituals, blind to the benefits of welcoming women’s brains, talents and hearts into their ancient fraternity.

I may have to reverse my opinion of Maureen Dowd's writing in the NYT. For some time, I haven't liked a good many of her columns because her writing had become too flip, glib, and shallow to suit me, but this is the second excellent column in only a couple of weeks. Read the entire column. Maureen scores as she points out how the exclusion of women from the highest levels of authority causes dysfunction in the very structure of the Roman Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to read Maureen Dowd, when the NYT begins to levy a charge to read their online version.

Thanks to Ellie for the link.

IF YOU THOUGHT YOU'D HEARD IT ALL...

From the Guardian:

A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is.

The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.

Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers."

The interview was spotted on Friday by the American Jewish Group Committee, which said Babini was using "slanderous stereotypes, which sadly evoke the worst Christian and Nazi propaganda prior to world war two".

On its website, the American Jewish Group Committee quoted bishop Vincenzo Paglia, an official at the Italian Bishops' Conference, as saying Babini's remarks were "entirely contrary to the official line and mainstream thought of the Catholic church".

Did the American Jewish Committee get a screenshot?

I'll give Bishop Babini the benefit of the doubt until I see how this "row" plays out. I don't see why the American Jewish Committee would make up a story like this. Of course, the Vatican cannot be held responsible for the words of each and every wayward bishop. One wonders just exactly what the Vatican can be held responsible for.

Thanks to Cathy for the link.

UPDATE: I no longer give Bishop Babini the benefit of the doubt. The "row" is playing out with him as the loser. From the Times:

Bishop Babini denied he had made any anti-Semitic remarks. He was backed by the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), which issued a declaration by Bishop Babini in which he said: “Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me.”

However, Bruno Volpe, who interviewed Monsignor Babini for Pontifex, confirmed that the bishop had made the statement, which was reported widely in the Italian press today. Pontifex threatened to release the audio tape of the interview as proof.

There you have it.