Some folks have taken issue with a comment I made regarding the future of Islam on Mark Shea's site after this post. I'm going to be addressing that in the next few days. It'll just take a while what with everything else going on.

Karl Schudt asks a great question

here: why can't there be a new Jesuit group that's more in line with what that august order was a few decades (or more) ago?

Actually, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary are quite close to what Mr. Schudt seeks. The few I've met are absolutely wonderful priests.

Not the answer they’d necessarily look for . . .

. . . or, when you can't always get what you want, if you try sometimes, you'll find, you get what you need.

Yesterday I ended up driving on a street that I only rarely take. A Pentecostal congregation had the following on its marquee: “Is Proto-Christianity Extinct? Come in N C 4 yourself!”(I think the abbreviations were more a result of lack of space on the sign than of some desire to be uber-hip.)

Now “Proto-Christianity” would be the faith as practiced by Jesus’ disciples – presumably after Pentecost -- up through, say, the death of the last Christians who had seen Jesus during His earthly ministry.

Extinction is when a living community ceases to exist. If “Proto-Christianity” were extinct, then it would have been replaced with something else – a pseudo-Christianity with editorial changes made, presumably, by sinful humans.

A living community of authentic “Proto-Christians” would be one that had continuous existence. There’s solid documentation of the continuous nature of the presbyterate and episcopate especially of the Petrine office. There’s solid documentation that the understanding of the Eucharist in the earliest days of the Church is that of the Catholic Church. (Take a look at this, or this or this, for a few ancient representations of Catholic faith.)

So, while its' true that "Proto-Christianity" isn't extinct, it wouldn't likely be extant in a Pentecostal congregation.

And so the NFL season is over. Like many a good Catholic, I observed the secular feast with a quaff of a very special beverage.

Postseason highlights:

1. The Philly fans enthusiastically booing the atrocious halftime “entertainment” at the NFC championship game. (Can’t comment on Super Bowl halftime show as we switched to NBC for its alternative show. It was mostly ho-hum)

2. Tampa’s five interceptions of Rich Gannon. That kind of great preparation, skill and execution make sports exciting to watch.

3. The Jets’ fine performance in the Super Bowl III rematch.

4. Donovan McNabb’s rapid return from injury.

Postseason disappointments:

1. The Bronx’ absence.

2. The Jets’ loss.

3. The Titans’ loss.

4. The debacle at the end of the Giants/Niners’ game. I know it’s just a game, but if you’re going to have professional players and coaches who work full-time, why not have professional officials who work full time and actually know all the rules of the game?

Had to stop on the way to work for an MRI. Didn’t think about it when they mentioned the address, but was startled to see the diagnostic imaging center located across the street from a killing zone. Amazing that efforts to improve the life and health of some exist so close to ardent efforts to exterminate others.

So on Saturday we went to the Stock Show. First time I’d been in about a dozen years. It always makes me feel like a kid again. Now the first several times I went there, I was a wee fellow. But there’s more to it than that. Dad was not only a farm-boy, but a real enthusiast for farming. So being around the agricultural puts me in mind of his many stories about agriculture and the great improvements in agriculture in the first half of the 20th century. Farm folk until very recently lived lives that weren’t that different from the lives of farm folk of long ago. That makes me feel very modern and very young.

Anyway, we saw draft horses, mules, donkeys, scads of beef cattle (including a rather impressive bull), several dozen sheep and a few hogs. When we got home, the dog gave me a very thorough interrogation. Even though I couldn’t discern any lingering aromas from the barns, he could.

Too often I’m oblivious to any number of attitudes I pick up in the world and bring home. My heart regularly needs the kind of inspection that the dog gave my outside.

New group blog: The Lidless Eye Inquisition. If you've any interest in integrism (by any of the names under which it travels), check it out!

Despite today’s higher-than-usual throughput, posting may continue to be slow for a while. This semester of school will include more demands on my time than any previous semester and things at work are picking up too. Of course much of my lack of posting results from my obsessing over various of my vices. May God grant me grace to apply myself to higher things.

Even more re: Stock Show

One of the highlights happens today, when the Grand Champion Steer is selected. This is the finest product of American cattledom. It makes me think of the Old Testament sacrifices, where the finest animals would be selected to be offered as holocausts. (I realize that a steer would not be eligible for sacrifice, but I’m thinking more of the animal as being regarded as top quality.)

Of course there’s neither a location nor a need to offer the beast as an oblation. Even if there were, our society wouldn’t stand for it. The critter will be auctioned off. Usually a top local steakhouse buys the Grand Champion, as it’s good publicity and a nifty novelty. Before the abattoir, the steer will have a day (tomorrow) on display in the lobby of the resplendent Brown Palace Hotel.

I think it’s important for us to recognize that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store. Thinking about where our food comes from is a good habit. It’s a habit that becomes even more important when one considers the panis angelicus.

More re: Stock Show

We’ll be going on Saturday, mainly for the draft horse show. A few hiccups of history ago, draft horses were important in many fields of human endeavor, from agriculture to commerce to transportation to war.

These horses are much more than a sentimental reminder of a bygone era. They’re beautiful. They’re the product of multi-generational efforts of selective breeding. They’re a reminder that sometimes people can do some pretty great things with the gifts God provides us.

One of the best things about this dusty cowtown . . .

is the practice of keeping public Christmas decorations up through the National Western Stock Show (which ends this Sunday). It’s not nearly as important to the region as it once was, but it’s still a big deal culturally and it’s important for the livestock industry.

In most places the Christmas decorations come out before Advent and get taken down before the Epiphany. Here they get out a bit too early too, but they’re up for about as many days after Christmas as before Christmas – a nice reminder that Christmas isn’t an end, it’s a constant new beginning. One sorely needed in this tired wintry world.

At the risk of posting too much about movies . . . .

Saw Catch Me If You Can last night. Good flick. The story in a nutshell is that there’s a young man from upstate New York (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) who undertakes several nefarious exploits – mainly check fraud and producing fraudulent occupational credentials. An FBI agent (played by Tom Hanks) pursues our protagonist. There’s humor, suspense, drama, intrigue – pretty much everything that makes a movie entertaining.

Not the most morally edifying movie. The one moment the movie could have made a brilliant statement – oddly enough about abortion – it took the PC path. That’s really the only major fault I found in it. A few interesting minor flaws like an anachronistic company logo and a too-early appearance of a zip code in a postmark stick out, but those are fun. The opening title sequence alone is worth the price of admission.

New digs for Jesus Gil

– correction made to the blogroll. Changing hosts seems to have given Senor Gil motivation for lots of posts, many of which are top-notch.

Welcome to the Catholic Nerd blog.

I'd suggest that one might be a Catholic nerd if he has three or more patron saints --- just counting the ones that haven't been formally canonized yet. (Guilty)

One might be a Catholic nerd if he has more prayer cards than business cards. (oops -- guilty again!).

I'd better quit before this gets embarrassing.

Aristotle Esguerra has moved his excellent blog Confessions of an Accidental Choir Director (which had been at cucatholicmusic.blogspot.com) to new digs at musicamsacram.blogspot.com or you can use the link at the left "Confessions . . . ".

Get thee thither!

Call it the Obscure Compromise

So it appears there’s finally a little bit of publicity on malpractice reform. (It's only 9 years too late.) Still, it's good.

There’s also a bit of attention, if not nearly enough, being paid to life issues, like this. That’s good too -- better, even.

Let’s get two goods to make a yet greater good: a malpractice reform that will only apply in cases where the physician respects the sanctity of human life. The reform will not apply to any abortion, attempted human cloning (even if characterized as “therapeutic” rather than reproductive), euthanasia or birth control.

Since the party of Clinton (and of the media) so virulently opposes any tort reform, the exclusion for the medical procedures most favored by that same party should allay their concerns, no?

New York, New York . . .

. . . it’s a wonderful town!

Secular highlights of the recent trip: spending time with my better half’s family (they’re terrific!); seeing 42nd Street (at a theater on, of all things, 42nd Street); finally getting to Zabar’s (I used to think that LA’s Farmer’s Market on Fairfax was Disneyland for foodies – nope, this is it); going to Monday’s Letterman taping.

Since we slept in on Sunday, we couldn’t get to St. Pat’s. Instead we went to Mass at a parish near the hotel (Holy Trinity on west 82nd). When we got there, we saw about 80 firemen in uniform. Turns out that a fireman who died on 9/11 was a parishioner and this week would have been his birthday. His colleagues and family were there in special memory of him, as was a fire truck with his name and the following: “Some gave all, all gave some”.

If ever you get the chance to attend Mass at Holy Trinity on west 82nd, I recommend it. The entire space is deeply prayerful. Music was good too.

On Monday after lunch we happened in to Church of Our Saviour on Park Avenue at 38th Street, based on an article we saw in the NY diocesan paper that we had picked up on Sunday. Great place to stop and pray in Midtown.

Was saddened to learn (very late) of the untimely death last year of Msgr. Anthony Dalla Villa, who had been rector of St. Patrick’s. Had heard him preach twice – two of the best sermons I’ve yet heard.

And so, after a very strange span of four weeks during which my father died, we celebrated the mystery of the Incarnation, I marked another year of my life, we entered the new year, I went to northern California, came home, went to New York and returned home for a good long while, things start to settle down. One week from tonight, the spring semester starts. May I learn as much from it as I have from these last few weeks.

Best recent purchase: this Louis Prima album. Joie de vivre! His act was considered to be the wildest of the 1950s – whether that’s because of its (mild by current standards) ribald qualities, its exuberance or its being integrated – I suspect all played a part – it’s worth the listen. “Jump, Jive and Wail” has been cheapened by overuse in commercials, but songs like “Buona Sera”, “Banana Split for My Baby” and “Angelina” haven’t suffered that fate and probably never will. Good stuff!

Hmmm . . . Maybe he’s on to something.

The proprietor of Modern Drunkard Magazine mentions that one of the advantages of drinking until you black out is that confession is much less embarrassing. I like the way he thinks! Then again, I do enough things I can remember that there’d probably be no real advantage.

I also like that he mentions my old neighborhood and the tree that looks like a martini glass down the street from the Satire Lounge -- itself the spot of a few nice lazy afternoons.

Yowza!

Lileks outdoes himself today both in his craftsmanship and showing good sense. He even uses the euphonious phrase “bite the wax tadpole”. I’d like to use that title for something, but it’s been appropriated. Maybe “Cool Charm” will work instead – remind me to tell you the story some time.

The in-flight catalog the other day had a most peculiar item: a replica of The One Ring.

That prompts a few thoughts:

1. The Certificate of Authenticity – is it meant to assure others that this isn’t really the original Ring?
2. The Ring was of such a nature that even Sauron himself couldn’t make a reasonable facsimile, so how do these guys do it for only $295 plus shipping and handling?
3. The Ring exerts a baleful influence on those who possess it. Are we to then conclude that the buyer is hoping to become a minion of evil?
4. Are some good-hearted folks expected to purchase the replicas and destroy them?

Among my other travels . . .

We went to Chicago – not the city, the movie. I had mixed feelings about seeing the movie as I was so taken by the play. The movie’s as good, perhaps better in a few ways.

Casting was great. Richard Gere danced very well and brought the character to life in a way few others could. Glad he didn’t try to sing more than he did, though. The man who played Amos Hart was outstanding. The two female leads were both better than I had thought they’d be.

What made the movie so good in a technical sense is the creativity to move beyond the limitations of the stage – particularly in the puppetry scene and the number “Tap Dance”. The puppet scene in particular did a terrific job of portraying how the media is manipulated.

What really made the film great was the clear depiction of both the depravity of our society and of the banality of evil. The recent version of the baptismal vows includes renouncing the glamour of evil, and rightfully so. Too often I find myself taken in by the glamour of one form or another of evil (for myself, pride and anger and frequent, though not exclusive, manifestations). A reminder of how evil’s glamour is utterly empty and unsatisfying can be helpful.

I was starting to wonder if CAI had gone away. Looks like they haven’t, although I note that there’s nothing new from Mr. Sungenis or Mr. Michael in quite some time.

A pause in my travels.

Monday I took a trip to California. Last night I returned. Saturday I leave for NY. Quite a flurry of activity.

This was the first air trip I’d taken since 2000. On the outbound flight, I got selected for just about every security precaution short of a cavity search. Still caught the flight.

My first stop was the city named after the Most Blessed Sacrament. That naming is sacrilege. The whole town smells like dirty socks. It also is cursed with the worst traffic I’ve ever encountered. On the way from the airport to my company’s office, I got stuck in traffic connected with the re-inauguration of the Gray Functionary (of whom I heard that “Gray” is actually not his real first name, but a nickname given him by his family). The work visit was enjoyable and productive, even though it included meeting a mind-numbingly beautiful woman (who’s fiancé looks like a real troll – good for him!). On the way out of town I got stuck in inexplicable traffic that caused the first 20 or so miles of the 100+ mile trip to the Bay Area to take well over an hour. Needless to say, I was not a very happy camper when I reached the hotel late Monday night. I don't have a desire to retun to the capital city of California any time soon either.

Tuesday I spent time with company folks in the east bay and then on to the highlight of the trip – an evening in SF. As much as Manhattan is a beautiful place, there are attributes of San Francisco – probably having to do with its smaller scale – that make it even more ravishing. Of course I stayed out later than I should have.

Yesterday I went on a mess of sales calls and found my way home via the Oakland airport, after a wrong turn. I had thought Oakland may have been the victim of bad publicity. Now I'm sure it isn't -- it's bleak too. The airport, though, is terrific. Obviously refurbished, including a first-rate business center. The Oakland airport security staff wasn’t interested in me as there was a voluptuous and scantily-clad woman who had their full and undivided attention.

Old Oligarch has a quiz about which Medieval figure one might be. My top result was “Constanstine” – perhaps a relative of Constantine who converted to Judaism? Also had Arthur son of Uther Pendragon as a top choice as well as Karl der Grosse and Friedrich Barbarossa (my spellings, not theirs).

Best of all though, the closing quote from OO which I heartily second: “I’d rather be a pig’s ass than Mohammad.”

While most bloggers were quiet in the last week of 2002, I'll be rather quiet for the first 2 weeks of 2003. I'm taking a business trip early next week and a pleasure trip a week from tomorrow. (Preparations for the two trips have consumed much of my time this week, thus the rather small amount of recent posts.)

Neither trip is likely to include much time on line. That will be a challenge. I'll post as I get the opportunity.

Mister Victor Lams has a good post on some obscure aspects of cloning.

Too few people mention that any alternative means of generating humans (cloning, in vitro fertilization, etc.) have the effect – even if it may be somewhat unintended –of making people into a commodity. Even contraception does that to a degree. That’s probably why there’s so little resistance to the steady increase in the commoditization of people – it’s been gradual and each step has had its coterie of enthusiasts. May I be emboldened to fight for what's right!