Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Approaching Moment of Decision

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, a Catholic, has been advised by her bishop and now, privately, by the Pope, on the subject of her church's position of abortion. The message was simple. Catholics agree with science that life begins at conception. The church requires its members to accept that the taking of human life is wrong, and thus abortion is morally wrong. The Vice President of the United States is a Catholic. Likewise many in Congress are Catholic including Senators Kennedy and Kerry. Most of them are pro-abortion. The President, chosen by millions of Catholics, has already within hours of his oath of office begun an abortion friendly administration. Polls indicate that non-practicing Catholics are somewhat abortion oriented as well. However the same polls claim that practicing Catholics are not. Cardinal Eagan of New York has retired and will be replaced by Archbishop Dollan who will eventually as cardinal, be the leader of the Catholic hierarchy in America. It is probable that he will publicly call on the church to deny communion to Catholic politicians who refuse to champion the lives of the unborn. His point will be that they have removed themselves from communion with the church, and therefore, should not participate in an act of communion at Mass since it is both invalid and sacrilegious. Perhaps, the American Catholic church is finally coming to a moment of decision...a line in the sand...a litmus test as to who is, and who is not a Catholic. Indeed, the abortion issue may be to the Catholics what the gay issue has become to the Anglican / Episcopalians...a passport in or out of the faith. There are indications that global Christian traditionalist are seeking reunion with the Roman church while those attempting dogmatic accommodations to current secular morality are either leaving privately or en mass once the issue truly becomes a media platform.

Leaving the dense forest for a moment it does appear from the sky, that something is happening as Bob Dylan said.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Cowards?

With a sense of urgency and fear, white America chose as its leader an inexperienced African American instead of one of their own, a war hero crippled by imprisonment and seasoned with years of political experience, and now the new Attorney General calls us a nation of cowards when it comes to the subject of race. Did I miss something?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

A Journey Begins

The American ship of state has launched. All on board sense a journey into uncertain dangerous waters. A short time ago we stood on the dock and listen to the two men who wanted to be captain. Both told us we were in for perilous times, both warned us that ghosts of our parents and grandparents' generations would soon be seen in our world. They would arrive as news clips, books, family conversations and in many other formats. Their common message would be what it was like to live in a time of war and economic depression. Ugly history would become a modern challenge to a new generation, born into material wealth, spiritual poverty, and diversity on a scale never experienced in America. Handicap ghosts America never really knew in World War II and the Great Depression were about to appear. So we chose a captain and set sail. As the coastline of familiar America fades, a fog sets in. Some refuse to look away from the comforts of America past. Some stare across an endless sea of America future and wonder. Some just keep their eyes closed hoping they will not be tossed overboard as the storms intensifies. We have a captain. He was our choice. We study his every word, each decision and wonder...did we make the right choice? Will our nation survive the storms? How many of us will be lost at sea? What part of history will return, and this time beat us? The clouds show ghosts of America past...secession, war, depression, and racial warfare. Human rights seem threatened all over the globe. Asia and Africa systematically abuse them. Europe seems sleeping again as it was before World War II as this, our source of the Enlightenment, slowly dissolves into cultural suicide. America seems strangely alone in the turbulent sea. February 2009, America at sea...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Winter Dawn

The quiet moment before the noise...the brief reminder that there is a God...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Thoughts of the Executor

Filing an insurance claim for a dead friend on a rainy day prompts shuffling through old papers which yield photographs and greeting cards of so many happy times. Finally, the death certificates are found, telephone conversations ensue with faceless but kind company representatives, important numbers and spellings are confirmed, and the task is done. All that is left is a grey sky and cold winds of a February rain. A task is done. It has been completed many times by many people. It is the duty of the survivor to bury the fallen. Life always goes on as they say, but for the survivor life is diminished...again.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Traditional Anglican Movement (TAC)

More than likely, 400,000 Anglicans will return to the Roman Catholic church this Spring with their married priests and bishops ending a 450 year separation from the papacy. TAC is a global religious group which left the Anglican Communion after it allowed women to be ordained to the priesthood. If the reunion happens, it will have a powerful impact on both the Anglican Church of England and Catholics. Anglicans, unhappy with their church's acceptance of a female clergy and the active practice of homosexual behavior, but who love their historic English based religious rituals, will have a place to go possibly resulting in a massive migration from the already fragmented Anglican church including its Episcopalian American branch. For Catholics the returning Christians will also have a potentially powerful impact well beyond their 400,000. With married priests and bishops in union with Rome on a global basis a bridge will have been built for all married men to become priests. This right already exists for the Ukrainian rite of the church, but if the Traditional Anglican Community returns to Rome there will be a universal highway to Rome for a married clergy without the Ukrainian language and culture. The Traditional Anglican Community price for reunion will be Roman Catholic acceptance of married priests and bishops.

Sun Dial Moments began today, 2/17/2009.