MR AND MRS POTUS WITH THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCE

Oh my! What a wonderful picture. Ours look good even without the ribbons and medals.

Photo stolen from Leonardo at Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano, who is over the rainbow. He credits the photo to the AP.

And from Paddy Anglican: POTUS and ME in Moneygall, Ireland....



Here I am showing President Obama the parish records showing his Irish ancestry.

And from USA Today:

After basking amid one of the most affectionate audiences of his presidency Monday in Ireland, Obama arrived here to be feted by a queen and three generations of princes.

He and first lady Michelle Obama were welcomed at Buckingham Palace, where they were given a six-room suite last occupied by Prince William and his bride, Kate Middleton, on their wedding night.

They were fawned over at Westminster Abbey, greeted warmly at No. 10 Downing St. and, finally, lauded at the first state dinner thrown here for a U.S. president in eight years.

Gosh. The Obamas may decide to stay "over there".

JESUS AND MO - CHEAP

Click on the strip for the larger view.

FromJesus and Mo.

STORY OF THE DAY - DOWN TIME

I can read minds, she said & I said, OK
& she said, Do you want to know what
you're thinking? I said no thank you. I
don't do stuff like that on weekends.

From StoryPeople.

Dedicated to someone who shall be nameless who has told me on more than one occasion to stop thinking.

PADRE MICKEY SPEAKS

Read Padre Mickey's post on the rapture that didn't happen. What he writes is wise and compassionate. Besides, he posted the beautiful icon below.



Padre Mickey is not only fun and games and music, you know. He's a good priest and a good pastor. Read what he has to say.

"THE JOHN JAY DOCUMENT 2011 – REALITY REVISED"

Thomas Doyle provides excellent commentary on the recently released John Jay report on clerical child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. I suggest you read his entire critique, but below are excerpts from his fine essay.

Fr Doyle studied all the reports on clerical abuse, including information from more than 6000 victim's attorneys. Regarding the "Woodstock Defense" in the latest John Jay report, Fr Doyle says:

The victim support groups and plaintiffs' attorneys here and abroad are seeing a significant increase in victims who were violated in the fifties and even the forties. As one of my astute friends remarked, these are the victims from the Big Band era so what does that constitute, the "Benny Goodman" defense?

There you have it!

Further:

Those who see the main conclusions from the Executive Summary as support for the bishops' blame-shifting tactics are probably right. Yet these conclusions are only a part of the whole story and in some ways they are of minor relevance. The finding that the majority of cases occurred in the 1960s and 1970s can be quickly challenged. It is more accurate to say that the majority of cases reported in the post 2002 period involved abuse that took place in the period from the sixties to the eighties. Its way off base to assume that the majority of incidents of abuse happened during this period. Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald founded the Paraclete community in 1947 to provide help to priests with problems. From the beginning he was treating priests with psycho-sexual issues and in a letter to a bishop he said that 3 out of every 10 priests admitted were there because they had sexually molested minors. Fr. Gerald wrote that letter in 1964. Unfortunately it is difficult if not impossible to do a study of abuse victims between the 30's and the 50's but Fr. Gerald's information leaves no doubt that sexual abuse by priests was a significant phenomenon long before the free-wheeling 60's and 70's. The one constant that was present throughout the entire period from before the 60's to the turn of the millennium has been the cover-up by the bishops and the disgraceful treatment of victims. The John Jay researchers were commissioned by the bishops to look into the reasons why priests molested and violated minors. They were not asked to figure out why this molestation and violation was allowed to happen. That would have been deadly for the bishops and they knew it. (The author's emphasis)

Hallelujah! Fr Doyle emphasizes the distinction between when incidents are reported and when the incidents actually took place, which is a vital distinction to be made.

Fr Doyle adds that while the report was commissioned by Roman Catholic bishops in the US and, in some areas, the researchers give the bishops a pass when they should not get a pass, the report is, by no means, a whitewash. He lists sections of the report which are quite critical of the responses by bishops to the disclosures of clerical abuse. I ask again that you please read the critique in its entirety.

From the National Catholic Reporter:

Tom Doyle is a priest, canon lawyer, addictions therapist and long-time supporter of justice and compassion for clergy sex abuse victims.

The public disclosures of child abuse in my Roman Catholic Diocese of Houma/Thibodaux began to come to light in the latter part of the 1990s. The "boiling point", as Fr Doyle names it, was reached in the rest of the US in 2002. The national press paid scant attention to the scandal in south Louisiana dioceses at the time the "boiling point" was reached here. I suppose the media thought what was happening in our area was nothing more than an aberration in a swampy backwater.

OH NOOO! ROWAN WAS RIGHT!

Stolen from MadPriest at Of Course I Could Be Wrong.

UPDATE: Another rapture favorite from somegreybloke. I'm a little late with the video - or perhaps not. The Rev Camping was only certain of the day, not the hour. Thanks to Erika at Facebook.



And another from Countlight.

STORY OF THE DAY - HEARING VOICES

I used to hear voices a lot, but then I
read up on it & found out they don't
exist, so now I don't listen to a word
they say.

ANTI-BULLYING BILL FAILS IN LOUISIANA HOUSE

State Rep. John Bel Edwards speaking in favor of the bill. (Advocate staff photo by Arthur D Lauck)

From the Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

Legislation designed to define what constitutes bullying among school students died in the Louisiana House on Thursday amid complaints that it would promote gay lifestyles.

The Louisiana Family Forum, which calls itself a voice for traditional families by pushing biblical principles, characterized House Bill 112 as a homosexual agenda.

The organization issued notes to lawmakers alleging that the legislation would introduce sexual orientation into the classroom.

___________________

___________________

___________________


All right. I'm all done banging my head on the keyboard.

When I read about the Louisiana Family Forum and its influence on so very many of the legislators in Louisiana, smoke comes out of my ears.

HB112 fell 10 votes short of passage, with 43 lawmakers voting for it and 54 voting against it.

The legislation’s sponsor, state Rep. Austin Badon, said the Louisiana Family Forum intimidated lawmakers.

“The hate spilled out — the ignorance of the fact that there are gays and lesbians all over the world,” Badon, D-New Orleans, said after the bill failed to pass.

Bravo to Rep. Badon and to all 43 legislators who stood against the bullying tactics of the Louisiana Family Forum.

State Rep. Patricia Smith struggled to keep her voice at a normal volume when she rose from her House desk to respond to Seabaugh’s amendment.

Smith, D-Baton Rouge and a former School Board member, accused Seabaugh of diminishing the hateful words that are used to bully children.

“I am very upset by what you just said because I do not like Family Forum. I will state it here right now on the floor. I do not like Family Forum … because their perception of anything that’s different from what they perceive is that they feel it’s always going to be taught to children,” Smith said.

Amen, and amen, and amen!

I see hope in this outcome, because getting 43 votes in favor of the bill in the Louisiana House is more than I would have expected. Maybe next time.

From the website of Louisiana Family Forum:

Our Mission is to persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research, communication and networking.

UPDATE ON SLAVE LAKE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE FIRE

A home in Slave Lake burned to the ground.

Tim Chesterton, an Anglican priest who lives in Edmonton, Alberta, writes to give an update on the aftermath of the fire in the nearby town of Slave Lake:

Hi Mimi:

Thanks so much for mobilising the troops for prayer for Slave Lake. On that subject, I thought this might interest you.
....

Your friend in Christ,

Tim

From the Anglican Journal:

When Pastor Leigh Sinclair and the congregation of St. Peter’s Ecumenical Church in Slave Lake, Alta., gathered for a confirmation service last Sunday morning, they didn’t think the wildfires were close enough to town to be worried.

Most went to celebration lunches and barbeques for the newly-confirmed. At around 3 p.m., Sinclair said people at a barbeque party she attended started getting worried. “Everybody thought, ‘This isn’t normal. There’s too much smoke!’ ”

By 6 p.m., Sinclair–who pastors a shared ministry with the Anglican, United and Lutheran churches–packed a bag and started the long drive to her parent’s home in Edmonton, joining a stream of vehicles on the road out of town.
....

She would later learn that two-thirds of Slave Lake burned down. Her home and St. Peter’s church were spared but five families who belonged to St. Peter’s lost everything. (My emphasis)

Thanks be to God that no lives were lost. Pray for the people of Slave Lake and the other towns who lost everything as they begin to rebuild their homes and their lives.

If you recall Tim asked for prayers for the people in the area several days ago.

Tim blogs at Faith, Folk, and Charity.

Photo from the Vancouver Sun.

LATEST REPORT ON CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE BY ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY

For some days I've intended to write about the report by the researchers at John Jay College on child abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, but I'm blocked. One stumbling block is the consistent use in the report of "incidents of child abuse", rather than "reported incidents of child abuse". We know, or we should know, that incidents of child abuse are grossly under-reported everywhere. The authors of the report state as much themselves. Therefore, it seems to me that the modifier should be used consistently. I don't know. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but when "reported" is left out, I stop in my tracks and think it should be there. What we know, especially about earlier times, may just be the tip of the iceberg, and there is much that we will never know. Even now, reports of cover-up still surface as is demonstrated by the recent story of the removal from active ministry of 21 Roman Catholic priests in Philadelphia.

And I surely do not buy the blame-it-on-Woodstock excuse. As Ken Briggs says in the National Catholic Reporter:

The Sixties did it.

The John Jay College report on child sexual abuse by priests nails it. Don't put the chief blame on the church -- nothing wrong with its teachings on sexuality or celibacy.

It's the demon Sixties with its ravenous demand for freedom. Blacks, women, college students, war protesters cut loose against the old restraints. Vatican II chimed in, wittingly or not, or borrowed from it, espousing such things as letting fresh breezes blow through the church and encouraging a participatory, more democratic Catholicism.

To many church authorities, the "revolution" that mattered most was about sex. Cramped minds imagined orgies and impulsive free love that assaulted church teachings.

I've finished reading the summary, and I'm on page 20 of the 152 page report, but I can't promise to read it all. The report is here in pdf format and is titled The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2011.

There's so much that I would like to address in the report that I don't know where to begin. As a result, I may never begin. The contributors at The Lead have done a terrific job of following the commentary on the report here, here, and here. Pardon me, if missed a link or two.