Just askin'

Several disaster relief entities are listed here. Only three of the seventeen aren't explicitly religious in nature and none go so far as to exclude participation by people of faith.

Something worth pointing out when secular fundamentalists yammer on about their concern for their fellowman, no?

A good day after all

Today was a big day and a good one at that. I made a presentation to a state legislative committee regarding proposed changes to the state’s Medicaid program. The changes would have had a significant negative impact on hospitals like the one where I work. The proposal was defeated. (I doubt my presentation was the deciding factor, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t hurt the cause either.) There’ll be something else next year, but today’s worries are surely sufficient for today.

I’ve got the sort of job where it’s often hard to see tangible results to what I do until lots of time has passed and we’re able to analyze larger samples of data. Seeing results just a few short hours after doing something is a nice novelty. It’s also just tons of fun to have even a short time to give a proper speech in a formal setting.

Courtesy of Dappled Things:

William Powell You scored 16% Tough, 42% Roguish, 14% Friendly, and 28% Charming!

You are the classic rogue, a stylish rake with the devil of a wit and a flair for mischief, and you shake your martinis to waltz time. You are suave and debonair, but slightly untrustworthy, and women should be on their guard. If married, you are simply a bit of a flirt, even if it's just with your own wife...but if you're single, watch out. You usually rein yourself in to concentrate on one lovely beauty at a time, but with you, we never know. You're not a bad guy, but there's a playful devil behind your eyes, and those trying to get close to you should know they're playing with fire. You're stylish and fun, but you follow your own course, which may or may not include a steady gal. Co-stars include Myrna Loy and Carole Lombard, classy ladies with an adventurous streak. Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 23% on Tough You scored higher than 99% on Roguish You scored higher than 15% on Friendly You scored higher than 48% on Charming

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid

Censorship blues

I use an RSS feed to read lots of blogs. I list my own blog on my RSS feed largely out of curiousity. Lately the RSS feed has routinely ignored my own blog. I suspected a reason, so I googled a two-word phrase that I had used a few times in discussing alleged child molestation. The search returned absolutely no hits.

Apparently TPTB on the 'net find the use of certain words to describe such conduct more offensive than the conduct itself. The offending phrase* is being replaced with "contraheteronormative intergenerational holistic sex education".

*The first word was a seven-letter word starting the the letter "b" and the second word was spree.

Accused priest: 'I feel rotten'

So says today’s Rocky Mountain News regarding Fr. Harold Robert White. Whether he now feels as rotten as the 16 boys did when he molested them is not yet clear.

The article contains a few other direct quotes:

"There's a lot of half-truths and, I don't want to say, lies, but . . “

“I'm just sorry that these guys are all going through this right now," he said. "I feel that they might be doing it to themselves, or their attorneys are doing it."

"Their lawyers are all out for money, and I don't have any money”.

Speaking of money, this would have to be the money quote: "This all ended in 1981".

Seems to confirm both the veracity of the allegations and the theory floated earlier that the 1981 sabbatical marked the end of White’s campaign of contraheteronormative intergenerational holistic sex education.

The newest religion on the block

Just like Steven and Alicia I hold no truck with the Calvinist Synod of Dort’s TULIP doctrines (Total Depravity of Man; Unconditional Election; Limited Atonement; Irresistible Grace; and Perseverance of the Saints.) – although the first of them doesn’t seem nearly as far afield as the rest of them do.

I’ve seen someone lately, though, that runs with these doctrines almost exclusively: Fred Phelps. Seriously.

Via Dappled Things I found this interesting little synopsis of the Phelps Weltanschauung (also excerpted by Kathy Shaidle).

Turns out the Phelpsies don’t even refer to themselves as Christian anymore – and that’s fitting as the Christian God would not create people for the express purpose of despising them. The Phelpsies now self-identify as “Tachmonites” – an epithet found twice in the OT referring to a particularly mighty and fierce warrior in the army of King David (2 Sam 23: 8; 1 Chr 11:11). Like fellow Kansan John Brown, the Tachmonites see themselves as holy warriors. Unlike Brown, they claim to be the only elect. They even go so far as to claim impeccability for themselves Also unlike Brown, they appear to have repelled vastly more people from their cause than they’ve drawn to it.

It is worth remembering that every vice is either a deficiency of or an excess of some virtue. It’s easy to attribute Phelps’ vitriol to a lack of charity and humility. Still, no one does well to counter Phelps’ excessive zeal for chastity with apologies for license.

The wages of sin . . .

More lawsuits have been filed arising from Fr. Harold Robert White’s alleged sixties and seventies campaign of contraheteronormative intergenerational holistic sex education.

The picture gets much murkier. One of yesterday’s lawsuits was filed by the first alleged victim to have told his story through the Denver Post. That alleged victim self-identifies as “gay” and says that bringing attention to clergy molesters, rather than money, is the motivation for the suit. The announcement yesterday was choreographed by folks who have been involved in cases against dioceses in other states.

It now appears likely that these suits and the media attention that preceded them are primarily meant to serve as attacks on the Church by political activists, rather than to seek justice. We can all agree the conduct alleged to have been committed by Fr. White is reprehensible, as would be complicity to such conduct by the Archdiocese. Nothing, though, could justify this apparent resulting effort to trash moral standards.

In related news, no lawsuits appear likely to arise from the recent public school teacher who groped boys in a public swimming pool earlier this month.

More sadness to come

Two lawsuits have been filed in Denver District Court against the Archdiocese of Denver (details from the Denver Post or a local TV station). They arise out of Fr. Harold Robert White’s alleged molestation of boys in the 1960s and 1970s. Normally the statute of limitations would preclude such lawsuits, but the plaintiffs allege that the AoD fraudulently concealed its liability for Fr. White’s actions and its own role in transferring Fr. White while purportedly knowing of Fr. White’s crimes and, as such, that the statute of limitations should be tolled until such time as they learned of the AoD’s potential liability.

While I am not a lawyer, I have a degree of experience with the judicial system. In these cases the assignment of judges will be even more important than in most other cases. There are some judges who are likely to use all possible efforts and resources to find the facts and apply the law to the facts, while at least one would probably conduct them in a manner resembling the Salem witch trials.

The crucial question is when the plaintiffs knew or should have reasonably known about their putative claims against the AoD. There are several possible answers to that question, including:
• during the brief mid-1980s national publicity about clergy sexual abuse;
• in 1993 when Fr. White was removed from public ministry for reasons that
have not yet been disclosed;
• in 2002 when the Boston cases started coming to public attention;
• in 2004 when Fr. White was laicized for reasons that have not yet been
disclosed; or
• last month when the Denver Post started its series of articles on Fr. White.

The first three answers would appear to grant the AoD protection under the statute of limitations, while the last two answers would allow the suit to proceed. The 2002 and 2005 dates seem to have the strongest arguments in their favor.

I’d like to conclude with a few relevant quotes (tip o’ the fedora to The Old Oligarch, who found the source from which they’re taken and reproduced part of said material) regarding recommended ecclesiastical responses to the conduct that gave rise to this sad series of events:

Saint Basil of Caesarea, the fourth century Church Father who wrote the principal rule of the monks of the East, establishes this: “The cleric or monk who molests youths or boys or is caught kissing or committing some turpitude, let him be whipped in public, deprived of his crown [tonsure] and, after having his head shaved, let his face be covered with spittle; and [let him be] bound in iron chains, condemned to six months in prison, reduced to eating rye bread once a day in the evening three times per week. After these six months living in a separate cell under the custody of a wise elder with great spiritual experience, let him be subjected to prayers, vigils and manual work, always under the guard of two spiritual brothers, without being allowed to have any relationship . . . with young people.”

The Third Lateran Council (1179) establishes: “Anyone caught in the practice of the sin against nature, on account of which the wrath of God was unleashed upon the children of disobedience (Eph. 5:6), if he is a cleric, let him be demoted from his state and kept in reclusion in a monastery to do penance; if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated and kept rigorously distant from the communion of the faithful.”
Saint Peter Canisius says this about the sin of sodomy: “Those who are not ashamed of violating divine and natural law are slaves of this turpitude that can never be sufficiently execrated.”

Who am I to argue against such authorities?

St. Peter Damian ora pro nobis

More sordid allegations regarding Fr. Harold White came out this week. The latest story details the tragedies in the life of Christian Gamblin. The allegations against Fr. White have moved from the monstrous to the demonic.

Mr. Gamblin says that, as a troubled teen in the 1970s, he went to Fr. White to discuss his problems. Rather than helping the youngster, Fr. White debauched him. Words fail entirely.

Mr. Gamblin has further claimed that Fr. White made unsuccessful advances toward him a few years later at the altar of my parish church immediately after a memorial service for Mr. Gamblin’s brother.

There are also claims that Fr. White molested a third Gamblin brother.

Christian Gamblin, now 44 years old, has gone on to molest teenaged boys himself. He’s also spent time in prison and contracted AIDS. He’s not likely to remain among us long.

Today the Old Oligarch serendipitously posts a thorough compendium of relevant historic teachings on such conduct. OO has had a leading blog for a very long time now, but today he has reached a pinnacle that may be insuperable.

Oh My.

TSO joins Miss Welborn in noticing the absence of bad Catholics.

This seems very odd to me.

Compare, if you will, the sense of the second reading for this Sunday – a section of Romans 11 that skips 14 verses - (available here) with the sense of the full chapter (available here). Verses 20b through 23 seem to me a very salutary message, particularly to give some context to the reading many would give to verse 29 these days. Must be that whole neo-Cath thing.

Idiosyncrasy

As the torpor of summer abates a bit we’re finally enjoying some fresh tomatoes. Many more are on the way, though most will require at least a couple more weeks of waiting. There are yet many tiny yellow blossoms that probably won’t produce ripe fruit before the first frost. Vita brevis indeed. While tomato-lovers will be appalled, I have more desire for the comforts of autumn than I do for an abundance of pomodori.

More great spam material

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Just a guess: this message is not about spelling or typing, right?

Samurai stock info
Well I was wondering what Buck Henry was up to these days.

Are clean do gruyere
Does it then logically follow “aren’t clean, don’t gruyere”?

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Before the internet how would they have known what I seek and what I can afford?

Need to reach accomplices
As do we all.

Talk with his pills
Just don’t expect an answer!

Viggra is lousy
At least so say the other pills.

More offrr
In start so wishbone prospect
So says the Viggra, whose lousiness is particularly acute when it comes to communication.

Some of the senders have names worth mentioning too, viz:

Cutlery S. Imbibing
Unseal V. Mentioned
Abednego Lozano

Rede mit einander

Mr. Cork seems to have renamed his blog again. He's got a way to go in that department before he catches up to the very-much-missed Dylan, though.

Ugh.

The sad and infuriating story of Fr. Harold White continues to unfold. New items in the Denver Post give the impression this is going to get much uglier. The reports to date seem to emphasize individual incidents more than the pattern, so I here extrapolate a pattern from the information available to date.

So far there are published allegations of sexual molestation of boys during each of Fr. White’s first six parish assignments over a period from the early 1960s until either the late 70s or early 80s.

Other information goes to the Archdiocese’s response:

1. One accuser claims that he told his pastor (who has since passed away) about a 1965 incident. Shortly thereafter Fr. White was abruptly reassigned to a parish hundreds of miles away.

2. Fr. White’s then-pastor now says he reported an incident to Abp. Casey in 1968. Shortly thereafter, Fr. White was reassigned to another distant parish.

3. In 1981 Fr. White took a sabbatical. To date no accusations have been published alleging molestations after the sabbatical, during which time he served in five more parishes plus one parish in which he had previously served.

4. While Fr. White had been a pastor twice prior to the 1981 sabbatical, he was not again a pastor until after three terms as an associate pastor. To my knowledge, this was not common in the Archdiocese at the time.

5. The parish to which Fr. White was assigned immediately after his 1981 sabbatical – Good Shepherd – was the then-brand-new product of the consolidation of two other parishes. As such, it would have already been receiving some special attention from the Archdiocese. The pastor of Good Shepherd at the time – Msgr. Anderson – was highly regarded and reputedly a confidant of Archbishop Casey.

6. In 1988 an accuser contacted the Archdiocese and received a response saying that Fr. White would receive “an evaluation from competent personnel to determine whether there are recurring difficulties."

7. Fr. White left active ministry in 1992 (at about age 60) and was laicized eleven years later.

It is reasonable to conclude that the 1981 sabbatical and the immediately succeeding assignment may have been related to the allegation(s) known to the Archdiocese. The use of “recurring difficulties” in the 1988 letter is interesting as it implicitly admits knowledge of previous difficulties. We do not know why Fr. White left active ministry at such a young age, why he was laicized and whether either of those events are related to the evaluation mentioned in 1988.

Each day presents many more questions.

Hmmm.

A better man and wittier than I had a post about growing tomatoes that I wanted to link, but I find the post has since vanished. Anyway . . .

I'm growing tomatoes this year. So far they're doing better than most I've grown. I don't have the great green thumb that my farmboy Dad did. I got a late start due to travel so I bought the really big plants - after Memorial Day. We should get a ripe one Thursday or so. We would have had one sooner but a raccoon or other varmint stole it.

While tending the tomatoes I thought of something Dad often said: that a weed is merely a plant that's out of place. He always referred to that as a quote from his first class at Colorado Agricultural & Mechanical College in the fall of '41. Makes sense from a theological standpoint too.

One out-of-place plant that we have in profusion is bindweed. Bindweed is unusual in that the vines reattach to the roots quite frequently. New shoots will soon sink into the roots and then become hubs for several more new shoots. This seems to me to be a good example as I ought to reattach to the root more frequently rather than extending far afield.

Other than that, I'm just ambling along as an offensive lineman in the fantasy football game that is life.