Friday, June 30, 2006

SPECIAL JULY FOURTH GREETINGS TO ALL THE PERSONNEL OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL SERVICES, INCLUDING:

All Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Combat and Support Units, Air, Land and Sea

All Naval Fleet and Land-based Units, especially Security Personnel in general, "Great Nephew Jo-Jo, I know, home, you're out there somewhere!" in particular, plus "survivors" of Area Analysis 1210 (or whatever we were called long, long ago) and Naval Intelligence Service (NIS) Personnel, anywhere and everywhere, in general.

US Air Force 57th FIS, security personnel, pilots and support components, if any still around, from the old North Atlantic Tactical Zone days in the early 1970s.

273 Electronics Installation Squadron, Tex ANG, Nederland, Texas, if it's still a living memory.

All recently returned US Army Reserve - UT El Paso school mates and close neighbors from the "Big Sandbox," Omar, Rene, etc.

Recently commissioned Tex NG Second Lieutenants like ex-classmate "Julio," Don't worry señor, your turn will come, hopefully not too soon, etc.


Semper Fi!

Dennis

Thursday, June 29, 2006

[Nota: La cuenta -- elaborada con una cierta licencia poética -- de el cardenal fabuloso cuyas palabras lograron apaciguar a la chusma papabili en el famoso cónclave del año 1740 es ahora un poquito más abajo, gracias!]


Catechists, just what do you think you are teaching?

by María Esther Cadavid de Alvarez. (translated, by emailed permission)

Dennis' spin: Anyone so naive as to think that the compulsory use of such shabby so-called Biblical material compiled by the likes of such politically correct movers and shakers as Dr. John Pilch and his ilk is limited to such all-American Roman Catholic dioceses as those of El Paso, Texas and Little Rock, Arkansas, can now rethink her or his position, thanks to this psychologist turned housewife from Bogotá, Colombia, María Esther. As she makes clear, Latin American Christianity is under attack, too, you'd better believe it!

Now, here she is!

"Dear sisters and brothers in Christ:

"It is becoming clearer, day by day, that the future of Doctrinal Formation is growing more and more precarious. To be sure, there are still plenty of catechists, but what exactly are they teaching, and by what authority are they doing it?

"It bothers me; in truth, it bothers me a lot, that many of these overbearing so-called catechists are totally dedicated to deforming the Faith, and diverting their students, who have been given over to their care and instruction, from the true path through exercises in relativity.

"For example we see have seen and heard such anomalies as the following:

The sacraments are signs. Period.

The angels are literary inventions.

The Bible is 'really profound,' but! One still has to read it according to the so-called 'Anthropological School of Biblical Interpretation,' because that's the only way to get closer to the 'real story.'

Christ didn't teach what we believe He taught.

The apparitions of the Virgin approved by the Church are simple fables.

God never punishes us because he is all ... sooo ...'lovey-dovey!'

And, hey! If the angels are no more than a simple literary invention, then the Devil doesn't exist either, or at least not as a spiritual being.

"Yes! I am telling you all this because of what I've personally observed here in many of these Catholic Forums, and also what, sadly enough, I've lived long enough to experience in the parochial programs in religious education in which I've been personally involved.

"There are always the same so-called arguements, the same so-called profound literary analysis, the same confusing issues raised.

"What then, can we possibly do?"

Original Spanish language thread:

http://foros.catholic.net/viewtopic.php?t=11511

Thank you, María Esther!

Dennis

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Ay, buu, Mamá! Ya viene el coco!

¿Por qué mija?

Porque aquellos tipos ya están listos para provocar una terrible Polémica Religiosa!

¿Cómo desempeña Su papel el Espíritu Santo en un cónclave?

Este trabajo polémico tiene como intención el desarrollo de un tema muy interesante; más tendremos por lo menos tres puntos de visto, por Celia, Simón, y sus humilde servidor, Dennis, a pesar el mero hecho que este último nació allá en un rancho, y con los dos pulgares bien pegados.

Dennis: "Hola, buenos amigos! Pues ... este .. umm .. platicando por mi humilde parte, yo no precisamente como uno se puede contestar la pregunta, ¿Cómo desempeña Su papel el Espíritu Santo en un cónclave?

"Pero, no obstante todo éste, sí! Hay una cuenta de la historia que todavía a mí me encanta:

El Cónclave del año 1740, y el hombre del momento cuyas pocas palabras lograron apaciguar a la chusma papabili.

"En el cónclave del año 1740, había una lucha libre que enduró casi seis meses en lo cual los cardenales partidarios de un tal Cardenal Santito declaron una guerra santa -- o, por lo menos sin cuartel -- en contra a los partidarios de un tal Cardenal Estadista.

"Y, sin estar contento con todo esto, también hubo cardenales partidarios fánaticos de un tal Cardenal Fulano.

"Además, los Cardenales Mengano y Zutano -- más unos cuantos partidarios suyos -- tampoco pudieron aguantar la tentación en metir la famosa pata de elefante en los asuntos políticos diferentes.

"A veces favorecían ellos a un lado de la chusma papabili, a veces a un otro. Por fin, hacia el termino de seis meses de un ambiente social de rencor, Dios, Padre Eterno, mandó el Espíritu Santo, para hablar através la voz de un hombre de la hora, el cardenal legendario:

Cardenal Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini!

"Sin gastar más tiempo, y seguramente con el ayudo del mismo Espíritu Santo, el Cardenal Don Prospero le comunicó con los demás cardenales electores un mensaje, un mensaje corto, pero un mensaje que todavía brilla por su audaz:

Si a ustedes, queridos hermanos venerables, les gustaría elegir a un santo, hay que votar por Gotti.

¿Pero si les gustaría elegir un estadista?

Aldobrandini!

¿Pero si les gustaría elegir un hombre honesto?

Yo!

"Y, así lo fué: el entonces Cardenal Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini logró a ser el Papa Benedicto XIV.

"Su reino, que yo sepa, enduró casi 18 años, de 1740 a 1758.

"Y, pues, ¿Quién sabes? Tal vez podemos esperar el mismo por nuestro papa corriente, Papa Benedicto XVI. ¿Y, por qué no?"

Dennis

Mañana: la Respuesta de Don Simón, de la gran ciudad de Europa, Bruselas.

Hoy, Don Simón nos explica:

El proceso de escogencia del Papa

"Adjunto te explico como se escoge un Papa:

4. Preparaciones del cónclave.

Pasados entre 15 y 20 días desde el fallecimiento del Papa, los cardenales entran en oración para que así emerja el Santo Pontífice de Roma.

5. En secreto

La elección se realiza en el Vaticano en un ambiente de profunda reserva por parte de los cardenales. Deben mantener absoluto silencio respecto de las deliberaciones y los votos. La pena por dar a conocer detalles de la elección es la excomunión.

6. El cónclave

La escogencia del nuevo Papa se puede hacer de tres formas: por inspiración divina (escogencia uná nime a viva voz), por compromiso (se escogen previamente 3, 5 o 7 delegados que respresenten la mayoría de los votantes) o por votación simple. Para que la elección sea válida, el candidato debe reciber dos tercios de los votos.

7. Votación secreta

La elección por votos secretos se divide en tres fases. En la preparatoria se entrega las papeletas y de seguido se cuentan los votos. Posteriormente tres cardenales son escogidos (al azar) para dar a conocer los resultados y, finalmente, se revisan dichos resultados.

8. La votación

Cada uno de los cardenales se acerca a un altar y entrega su voto (con la mano derecha). Posteriormente, ofrece un plegaria (con Dios como testigo) justificando su voto y lo pone en un cáliz. Luego, los votos son reveueltos en este cáliz. Cuando todos votan se revisa que el número de stos corresponda con la cantidad de cardenales, de ser así, el proceso continúa. Si no, todas las papeletas de votación serán quemadas. Los votos se revisan en tres ocasiones y la última es en voz alta. Luego son colocados en un cáliz.

9. El conteo

Los votos de cada candidato son contados oficialmente y hasta que el candidato no cuente con los dos tercios requeridos, no será nombrado. Luego se queman las papeletas. En caso de que no hubiera un ganador, se pasaría a una segunda vuelta. La costumbre es que se cuenten los votos cada mañana y tarde, hasta que uno de los candidatos obtenga la mayoría.

10. La elección

Después de la elección una cúpula de cardenales consulta al escogido si acepta el puesto. De aceptar el cargo de inmediato toma las riendas de la Iglesia.

"El principio de la prescencia del Espíritu Santo en la escogencia del Papa se desarrolla similar a como aparece en la Biblia, en el libro de Hechos de los Apostoles, cuando se elige el apostol que remplazo a Judas, te recomiendo que leas esta parte en la Biblia."

Ahora, Dennis responde a Don Simón:

"Buenas tardes! Muy caro señor licenciado mío, agradecemos su muy ameno comentario, porque por medio de ello sabemos ya que nuestra humilde cita está algo como 100% equivocado.

"Tal vez porque está escrito 100% en inglés, y con aquellos sajones, pues ¿Quién sabes?

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02432a.htm

"Gracias!"

Dennis

Hoy: la Respuesta de Doña Celia, de Puebla.

"Creo que como creyentes a veces quisiéramos ver el cielo abirse y escuchar la voz de Dios, o por lo menos saber que en un cónclave el Espíritu Santo bajo en forma de paloma o de lengua de fuego y se posa sobre el elegido. Siempre nos gustan las cosas fáciles y seguras. El Espíritu Santo actúa de forma sutil, y si nuestro corazón no está abierto a su amor, no podemos recibir su instrucción.

"Lo que quiero decir es que el Espíritu Santo actúa en cada cónclave, pero los que están emitiendo su voto son personas con virtudes y con defectos, con afectos que pueden desviar una decisión, con tentaciones, con intereses que pueden ser rectos o no tan rectos. La dificultad reside en que el Espíritu Santo actúa a través de personas de las que respeta completamente su libertad.

"Por último quiero comentarles que cuando el Papa Benedicto XVI fue proclamado papa, un sacerdote de mi ciudad [Puebla, México] comentó en el radio que era una lástima que no hubiera salido ganador su candidato, que esperaba a un papa más liberal, y que esta elección dejaría a la Iglesia atrasada respeto al mundo. Yo creo que este sacerdote no cree que el Espíritu Santo esté presente en un cónclave, ni que asista al papa, y ha dado un pésimo testimonio a los católicos que lo escuchamos [tinta extra, dpm]."

Mañana: Don Simón, de nuevo!

Aquí nos vemos....

Monday, June 26, 2006

FAIR TRADE COFFEE and FAIR TRADE TEA!

St. Patrick Cathedral
1118 N. Mesa
El Paso, Texas 79902

Next Sunday both Fair Trade Coffee and Fair Trade Tea will be available after the morning Masses.

Bring the Good News to the Poor!

Buy Fair Trade!

Call (915) 533-4451 for more info.

Or:

WANT TO RESERVE A WHOLE BUNCH? YOU DO? COOL!

email: Dr. Joseph Michon, Jr. jmichon@elp.rr.com

Informational website: www.cafecampesino.com


Café ydel Comercio Justo!

El próximo domingo ambos el Café y del Comercio Justo estará de venta en la Catedral de San Patricio después de las misas en la mañana.

Por favor traiga las nuevas noticias a los menos afortunados:

COMPRE DEL COMERCIO JUSTO!

Para más información, favor de llamar a (915) 533-4451







Thursday, June 22, 2006

Rigoberta Menchú's Curse and that of All Poor Guatemalans: Her Own Family?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! That's right!

Read all about it in David Stoll's tell-all classic, Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.

Chapter 19: Rigoberta Leaves the Guerrilla Movement.

Pages 265-266:

"Then, amid another family occasion, what had long been dreaded finally came to pass. On November 4, 1995, one of Rigoberta's nieces, the only surviving child of Victor Menchú, was getting married in Guatemala City. Suddenly the festivities were interrupted by terrible news. Another of Rigoberta's nieces had been descending from a bus when her infant son was snatched out of her arms. Men with guns sped away with the child in a car with polarized windows.

"Since Rigoberta had been investigating an army massacre, it was logical to suppose that this was a reaction, if not from the [Guatemalan Army] high command, then from officers whom it was strangely unable to restrain. The purpose was to kidnap my son, Rigoberta declared (4). If it was not the State, show me the contrary (5). As personages up to the UN secretary-general condemned the kidnapping, the security forces set up roadblocks to find little Juan Carlos Velásquez Menchú.

¿Familiares traicioneros?

Miguel Velásquez Lobos was not among her favorite in-laws. Known for his drinking and prolonged absences, he was now refusing to answer telephone calls from a kidnapper, who was demanding half a million dollars in a Mayan accent. If the child doesn't appear, Miguel responded to Rigoberta's interrogations, you will be to blame. On the sixth excruciating day, he arranged the reappearance of his son. With the complicity of his wife, Rigoberta's niece, he had parked the baby with his parents near Santa Cruz del Quiché. The [Nobel Peace Prize] laureate had refused to loan him US$6,000 to expand his business selling watches, boom boxes, and bootleg cassette tapes.

"The child's return was followed by mutual finger-pointing. Vindicated for once, the army confined itself to asking Rigoberta for an apology. President Ramiro De Leon Carpio accused her of irresponsibility(6). A government editorialist accused her of planning the hoax. Fortunately, Rigoberta had been the first to identify the boy's father as a suspect. Embarrassed and irritated, she demanded an investigation of whether army agents had lured her relatives into their inept plot(7)."

Author's footnotes, numbers 4-7, for this section:

4. "Menchú: 'El propósito era secuestrar a mi hijo,'" Diario El Gráfico, November 6, 1995, p. 10.

5. Fernández García 1995:9

6. "Irresponsable la versión sobre el secuestro de sobrino de Menchú," Diario El Gráfico, November 13, 1995, p. 10.

7. "No es con calumnias y campañas negras como se construirá la paz, la reconciliación, y el estado de derecho en Guatemala," press release, Rigoberta Menchú Foundation, November 24, 1995.


END OF TRANSCRIPTION FROM STOLL'S BOOK






Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Now, for this free public service announcement:

Antonio Arispe and Paradox Records Inc.

(915) 633-5624

¿Viva Oso Grande y los Juevones del Norte?

Friends, do you live in Ciudad Juarez, Las Cruces, or El Paso?

You do?

Still wondering what to do about all that noise of live music coming out of your own garage, or maybe that of your next door neighbors?

Say, those young men have been at it now for a year or more, right?

If so, here's some really great news!

Because that can only mean your son, neighbor, nephew, or cousin's uncle really is dead serious about his dreams and ambitions of forming a big time musical group.

And, hey!

Never mind that their current name, Oso Grande y los Juevones del Norte, seems to leave you cold, because what counts is this, o.k.?

Those young men, from 15 to 65 have two things going for them: ganas, y talento.

So, maybe now it's up to you to take the next step: put them in touch with my old and valued friend Tony Arispe.

Tony knows music inside and out, so he can help you in your own situation, after all you KNOW those guys are really good!

PARADOX RECORDS, INC
657 N. Horizon, Suite K
El Paso, Texas
79927

(915) 633-5624

paradoxceo@yahoo.com

Antonio Arispe, C.E.O.

This way, you, too, can have an important role to play in helping Tony discover the next big name conjunto:

Oso Grande y los Juevones del Norte!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


He who has not absolute faith in History does not belong in the Party's ranks.

[Umpteenth revised version, sorry!]

So, still think Christianity is a loser?

You do?

Well, here's an idealistic alternative! (heh,heh!)

A mindset, at least on college and university campuses across America, that's still very much around.

Here at UTEP those with this mindset dominate a wide array of departments, from Languages and Linguistics to "some sections" of English and "some sections" of University Studies, etc. etc.


Source: Koestler, Arthur. Darkness at Noon. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941.

This story bears an uncanny resemblance to Guatemala in the 1980s, when thousands upon thousands of campesinos died, many horribly.

Most, but by no means all, died at the hands of the Guatemalan military, and para-military vigilantes.

Because, moreover, upwards of 100 villagers (perhaps Ladinos? Or, were these villagers, too, all-Maya?) were massacred at one time by the Reds of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor [EGP].

Sub-source: Footnote 18., page 310, David Stoll's book, Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999. "The worst such case was the EGP's massacre of more than a hundred villagers in Chacalté, Chajul, on June 13, 1982, for joining the army's civil patrol. The incident has been verified by an exhumation carried out by the Archbishop's Human Rights Office (Ana Lucía González, 'La Venganza del EGP,' Revista [Prensa Libre], August 31, 1997, pp. 8-10)."

Yet, for their part, the mostly Mayan farmers were dying, all too often, for no other reason than to gratify the whim of a few hardcorps Marxist thugs and their equally hard nosed Anglo-American and European Comrades, who themselves were only too careful in keeping away from the actual fighting and killing.

But! Like their Stalinist spiritual ancestors in the former Soviet Union, these Marxist thugs, such as the so-called comandantes, who spent so much of their time in semi-permanent residence in such places as Mexico City, had no qualms about sanctioning killings within the guerillas' own ranks.

Now, on with our story!

Adapted from Pages 43-45.

Here we see one Rubashov, a soon to be extinct Communist Party political commissar from Stalinist Russia. He is presently in Germany -- or some such place -- in the late 1930's, to censure a local Party Comrade for being politically uncorrect.

For his part, Richard, the local Communist Party stalwart, is discouraged because the enemy's police have taken a horrendous toll of his own Party faithful. Richard expresses bitterness towards Rubashov for failing to understand what is really going on.

Richard: "You talk of a strategic retreat while half of our people are killed, and those which are left are so pleased to be still alive that they go over to the other side in shoals. These hair-splitting resolutions which you people outside fabricate are not understood here... Please, you must understand. Here we are all living in the jungle..."

"Rubashov waited to see whether he still had anything to say, but Richard said nothing. Dusk was falling rapidly now. Rubashov took his pince-nez off and rubbed it on his sleeve.

"The Party can never be mistaken, said Rubashov. You and I can make a mistake. not the Party. The Party, comrade, is more than you and I and a thousand others like you and I. The Party is the embodiment of the revolutionary idea in history.

History knows no scruples and no hesitations.

History knows no scruples and no hesitation. Inert and unerring, she leaves the mud which she carries and the corpses of the drowned. History knows her way. She makes no mistakes. He who has not absolute faith in History does not belong in the Party's ranks.

"Richard said nothing; head on his fists, he kept his immovable face turned to Rubashov. As he remained silent, Rubashov went on: [and on, and on, until finally...]

"I have to inform you, in accordance with the Central Committee's decision, that you are no longer a member of the Party, Richard.

"Richard did not stir. Again Rubashov waited for a while, before standing up. Richard remained sitting. He merely lifted his head, looked up at him and asked:

Is that what you came here for?

But, then, 200 pages or so later, Ex -Comrade Commissar Rubashov gets to hear these inspiring words in a Stalinist Rubber Stamp Peoples' Court:

"[T]the Public Prosecutor will demand your life, Citizen Rubashov. Your faction, Citizen Rubashov, is beaten and destroyed."

Believe it or not, in the savage war in Guatemala in the 1980s, the Reds carried on in exactly the same self-devouring way.

In fact, the former director of Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu's Foundation, Gustavo Meoño, who had left it in 1993 for high-sounding motives, was himself accused in 1998 of former involvement in nasty goings on within the guerillas' own ranks (Stoll-271).

The charge?

He, too, had been implicated in the Stalinist-style summary trial and execution of fellow comrades in the so-called Guerrilla Army of the Poor, or as Stoll tactfully puts it, he "was among the figures accused of responsibility for the murder of three EGP members in 1982 (Stoll-271)." Plus footnote 18, page 310: 'Dos crimenes en la agenda del EGP,' Crónica, March 27, 1998,p. 28.

My, oh my! "The more things change, the more they stay exactly the same!"

Monday, June 12, 2006

Ancient Amazonian Civilizations:
vast anthropogenic landscapes...

Source:

Heckenberger, Michael J.. The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place, and Personhood in the Southern Amazon, A.D. 1000-2000. New York and London: Routledge, 2005.

Pages 23-25, high-lighted, italicized, or paragraphed at will:

The ecology of the Upper Xingu

"One of the most critical features of the land, both forests and wetlands, is the degree to which it has been altered or domesticated by Xinguanos, creating vast anthropogenic landscapes (Baleé 1989). When I first lived in the Kuikuru (Xinguano) community in 1993, it took me sometime to discard my own preconceived notions of tropical forests and realize just how constructed and artificial the landscape was.

Contrast with Marajó Island or lowland Bolivia

"Unlike Marajó Island or lowland Bolivia, where major earthworks in open grasslands had been known for many decades (Denevan 1966; Meggers and Evans 1957), the ancient occupational remains in the Upper Xingu are entirely covered in forest. Nonetheless, the conclusion that much of the landscape was not only anthropogenic in origin but intentionally constructed and managed is inescapable the more the scale of ancient settlements and their monuments (e.g., plaza and causeway peripheral mounds and massive ditches) are investigated.

[Do] not assume that any part of the forest is pristine.

"Today, I would not assume that any part of the forest is pristine without a detailed examination on the ground. In place of small paths in the forest and minor openings related to plaza villages and gardens, I now envision tree-lined causeways, well maintained, broad roads, large, patchy tracts of agricultural fields leading out from the towns and villages that make up the skeleton of Xinguano history, and an equally well-constructed wetland environnment, including major transportation canals, managed ponds, improved fishing, drinking and bathing reservoirs, raised causeways, wells, raised fields, and road systems, among other features.

Populations were significantly larger in the past

"The scale and constructed nature of the Xinguano landscape also draws attention to the fact that the fixity and intensity of land use was higher in the past and not only were populations significantly larger, but space was much more tightly controlled."

Page 345


Xinguanos today

"In the specific local context, Xinguanos are people committed to settled village life, guided by bodily disciplines that are part and parcel of a fully agricultural economy. They are in a constant oscillation between domesticating nature and being domesticated by it.

This is also an ecology of power

This is also an ecology of power, which also involves a complicated process of domination and resistance of different types of persons. Not only are the people tied to a very long history of plant domestication, in this case bitter manioc, as is true of Amazonians, in general, but as manioc people, banking over 80 percent of their subsistence output in it (Carneiro 983).

The Xinguanos: carriers of deep Amazonian histories, the descendants of very ancient persons, ancestors.

"They are continuously and actively at work managing their lands and rebuilding their houses and settlements, and how could it be otherwise in a tropical forest environment that creeps back into gardens, paths, and even villages if not carefully tended. They do not chip away at the high forest for the short-term satisfaction of a new garden, but instead to open areas for long-term management, areas that are owned as gardens and orchards, or is simply reincorporated in the extraordinarily complex mosaic of the Xinguano countryside.

"It is an impossibility, however, to conceive of a Xinguano landscape without forest mixed with the highly domesticated fields, gardens, orchards and the diverse constructions associated with roads, settlements and wetlands: the people could not survive socially, symbolically or economically without forest.

The point is that Xinguanos are uniquely situated in and adapted to their landscapes, as well as carriers of deep Amazonian histories, the descendants of very ancient persons, ancestors.

"Historical anthropology in the tropical lowlands over the past several decades suggests that diverse Amazonian peoples were linked across the entire region into vast social networks, as is now well known in North America, Africa, Oceania, and across the non-Western world, at least before European colonialism truncated native world systems and strictly indigenous histories."

Sunday, June 11, 2006

RETIRO ACTS PARA VARONES!


"ACTS es un acrónimo de Adoración, Comunidad, Teología y Servicio. Un Retiro de ACTS reforzará su Fe y [la] manifestación de su Fe en la vida diaria. Los asistentes al retiro crecerán espiritualmente y encontrarán un sentido renovado con propósito espiritual.

"El Personal laico presenta el retiro bajo la guía de [un] asesor espiritual [mejor dicho: un padre].

"El retiro se inicia el jueves 15 de junio del 2006 con su registro en la Parroquia de San Patricio. Se la transportará de ahí al Centro de Retiro La Santa Cruz [Holy Cross Retreat Center] en Mesilla, Nuevo México.

"El retiro concluye con la celebración de la Santa Misa a las 1:00 p.m. el domingo 18 de Junio en la Parroquia de San Patricio.

El costo es de $150.00.

Con un depósito no reembolsable de $75.00.

El saldo de $75.00 es pagadero al registrarse.


"Entregue o envié por correo la forma mostrada enseguida con su depósito de $75.00 en la oficina de la Catedral de San Patricio:


St. Patrick Cathedral Rectory

1118 N. Mesa, El Paso, Texas 79902


"Para conseguir más información corriente o para ayudar a usted mismo resolver cualquiera duda, favor de comunicarselo con las personas responsables, quienes son los señores licenciados siguientes:

El Sr. Lic. Robert Rueda (915) 227-0630

El Sr. Lic. Juan López (915) 351-0705

El Sr. Lic. Alex A. Méndez (915) 474-0213 o (915) 838-7000

Gracias!

Felicidades a Nuestro Señor Obispo!


En El Paso, Texas:

Diez Años de Ministerio Pastoral

Todos están invitados a nuestra celebración parroquial de diez magníficos años de servicio pastoral y liderazgo de nuestro Señor Obispo y Pastor Armando X. Ochoa. El Señor Obispo ha sido parte y hemos sido parte juntos de su jornada por el periodo de diez años.

El Sábado, 24 de Junio, 2006 a las 7:00 p.m. nosotros estaremos con el en la celebración de la Misa de Gracias por su servicio, liderazgo y amistad. En este fin de semana será el tiempo para demostrar nuestra apreciación al Señor Obispo y a su familia. Seguido de la Misa habrá una recepción y música en la cafetería y afuera en la plaza.

Todos quienes estén disponibles pueden traer un platillo como nosotros regularmente lo hacemos para nuestras celebraciones parroquiales.

Esta es una magnifica oportunidad para agracederle a nuestro Señor Obispo por todo lo que el ha hecho dentro de nuestra comunidad.

!Todos son bienvenidos!

Coming of the White Man to Maya Land!

Source: Schele, Linda and Freidel, David. A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990.

Adapted from pages 377-379, high lighted hither and yon.

"Naum-Pat, Halach Uinic (true human), felt the gentle waves of the dark, glittering sea lap against his feet as he watched the strange canoes bob against the stars. They were vast floating palaces really. Lit from within with lamps and torches, their tall masts and rigging graced the cool moonlight of Lady Ix-Chel.

"Mother of all, he whispered to himself, where did these foul-smelling barbarians come from?

"He sighed in astonishment and worry. He had been a seaman all his life. Like his people a thousand years before him, he had plied the deep blue waters and treacherous shallows in great canoes, laden with honey, salt, slaves, chocolate -- treasure of all kinds. He had fought enemies upon its rolling surface; he had ridden out the great storms that graced its shores. The sea was his, world of his ancestors, great and dangerous and rich in prescious, holy things.

"Now it had vomited up this monstrosity -- a canoe that was a house. The light-skinned barbarians wielded great power, no doubt about it. A shiver ran up his spine. They would be worse and more dangerous than the Aztec pochteca -- those dangerous merchants from the west who were extending the Mexica empire toward the ancient lands of the true people.

"On the temple mountain yesterday,

that old fool of a priest had addressed these new strangers as if they were gods.

"He had blown incense on them only a moment before they pushed him aside and entered the sanctuary. After defiling and smashing the sacred images of the gods, they had opened the bundles and handled the holy objects of the ancestors, taking those made of sun-excrement -- the yellow metal the foreigners coveted.

"Worse than looting the temple -- other pirates had done that -- these men had raised up the World Tree in the form of a wooden cross. They had opened a book -- small, black, and poorly painted, but still a book -- and read from it in their unutterable tongue. The chilan, his city's prophet and interpreter of the gods, had watched from the crowd at the base of the temple, shaking his head in fear and wonder.

"Naum-Pat shuddered with horror of the memory of what the strangers had done. As he did so, the words of the famous prophecy of the Chilam Balam went through his head.

"Naum-Pat had watched in stunned disbelief as the strangers threw down the kulche', in the Holy House, and put the wooden Tree in its place.

"Like the chilan, Naum-Pat had seen the raising of the Tree as a powerful portent, but somehow the strangers' black book had frightened him more. In all the world, only real human beings, only Maya, had books. Others, like the Mexica, had pictures of course, but not the written word of ancestors and heroes, not the prophecies of the star companions.

Books were records of the past, they were the truth, the guide to the cycles.

"The strangers' metal knifes were powerful weapons, but many weapons of the Maya could kill just as efficiently. It was the books that Naum-Pat feared, for with the books came true knowledge, knowledge that could vanquish his people's present and capture their future.

"He had planned a feast for them tomorrow in the council hall and would treat them distantly, yet with dignity. But what of the future? As Naum-Pat turned his back to the quiet beach and headed home, his thoughts turned to his children."

Page 495:

Chilam Balam -- "The last great Maya prophet: chilam, 'interpreter [of the gods],' and balam, 'jaguar.' which was probably his family name. Roys (1967:3 and 182-187) suggested that Chilam Balam lived during the last decades of the fifteenth century or perhaps during the first part of the sixteenth century and that his lasting fame came from his foretelling the appearance of strangers from the east who would establish a new religion."

Public Service Announcement

Diocese of El Paso's Improvised Protocol (I.P.) dealing with questions and/or accusations of male on male sexual harassment growing out of Mens ACTS Retreats:

"I hope you understand that neither ACTS or the church is responsible. This occured at the church where certainly all people are welcome. It happens that both parties are part of the ACTS community but that is the only connection."

UTEP faculty member Richard Gutierrez, email, Tuesday, 5/2/2006 10:54 AM.

If further clarification is needed by potential Mens ACTS retreatants as to potential liability waivers, please feel free to call either one of these two(2) attorneys at law, whose support of our Cathedral Parish bulletin indicates they are unbiased and Pro-Diocese of El Paso:

Mr. David Duran, Attorney at Law, 534-0227.
Ms. Maria B. Ramirez, Attorney at Law, 544-6115

Retraction of tentative identity of 2nd. lieutenant #4 on Armed Forces Day posting for May, 21, 2006:

Now changed to UNKNOWN, as it was not Officer B

Officer B was not assigned to Fox Co., 2nd Bn. Ist Marines, rather he was assigned in 1968 to Hotel Company, 2nd. Bn. 27th Regimental Landing team. While we were at Ha Dong Bridge Officer B got bored and drunk one night and tried to call in artillery on our perimeter, with the result that one Staff Sergeant (E-6) Vasquez put into motion the necessary steps to have him relieved.

Officer B was duly re-assigned to the 3rd Bn. 27th RLT and was subsequently awarded the Silver Star for leading a counterattack against an oncoming wave of NVA/PAVN Bo-doi "infantry" on Og Noi Island.

His dad, a brigadier general in some other branch of the military, made the award in person, back stateside, while the Leatherneck Magazine photographer present made sure, while showing Officer B on crutches, that we couldn't see why: he'd lost his lower legs in a machine gun, or automatic rifle burst. One helluva story. Life, or at least his military career, over by age 22 or 23.

Sorry for the mix up!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Muevete, Dan Brown!

Ya viene su bis-abuelo de hace seiscientos años, también un mentiroso legendario:

Virgilio de Córdoba!

Fuente: Menendez y Pelayo, Marcelino. Historia de los Heterodoxos Españoles, III. Buenos Aires: Editora Espasa-Calpe Argentina, S.A., 1951.

Páginas 301-303.

"Español parece haber sido, o a lo menos educado en Toledo, el autor del libro apócrifo Virgilii Cordubensis Philosophia.

"El nombre del autor, la fecha del libro, la pretensión de ser traducido del arábigo, todo es falso. Cierto que el escritor debía de saber poco de cosas arábigas, cuando se le ocurrió llamar a un filósofo musulmán Virgilio.

"Guióse, sin duda, por la tradición napolitana de la magia de Virgilio, y tomó aquel nombre para autorizar sus sueños, que hoy llamaríamos espiritas. La latinidad de la obra supera en barbarie a los más desconcertados escritos de la Edad Media. El autor parece estudiante, y de los más rudos. Con ideas confusas de filosofía rabínica y musulmana, mezcla lo que había alcanzado de artes mágicas y fantásticas noticias de escuelas y de enseñanzas, que algunos eruditos, con sobrado candor, han tomado por lo serio.

"El supuesto Virgilio Hispano comienza hablando de los grandes estudios de Toledo, especialmente del de filosofía, al cual concurrían los filósofos toledanos, que eran doce, y los de Cartagena, Córdoba, Sevilla, Marruecos, Cantorbery, y muchas otras partes.

"Cada día se disputaba de omni scibili, hasta que se llegó a cuestiones muy difíciles, en que los pareceres se dividieron, si bien los filósofos toledanos iban siempre unidos.

"Al cabo, para concertar la disputa, determinóse acudir a un juez,

que no fué otro que el mismo Virgilio,

"profesor entonces en Córdoba de Nigromancia o Refulgencia. El no quiso moverse de su ciudad, y les aconsejó que, si querían saber algo, trasladasen los estudios a Córdoba, que era lugar sanísimo y en todo abundante.

"Así lo hicieron, y a ruegos suyos compuso Virgilio este libro, fudado todo en las revalaciones de los Espíritus, a quienes interrogó. Realmente su fatiga fué bien inútil, y

los espíritus de aquel tiempo debían saber tan poco como los del nuestro,

"pues no le dijeron más que vulgaridades de filosofía peripatética sobre la existencia del primer motor, la inmortalidad del alma, etc., e impugnando la eternidad del mundo: por donde se ve que eran espíritus de bien y enemigos de toda herejía, aunque a veces se resienten de malas y peor digeridas lecturas.

"Las noticias que da el tal Virgilio de filósofos españoles amigos y contemporáneos suyos, son de lo más peregrino, y acaban de demostrar su insensatez, a no ser que pretendiera burlarse de la posteridad.

"Cuenta entre ellos a Séneca(!), a Avicena y Algazel, que jamás estuvieron en España, y a Averroes; habla de los 7.000 estudiantes que concurrieron a las aulas de Córdoba; de los tres famosos astrólogos

Calafataf, Gilberto y Aladanfac;

"de los tres nigromantes toledanos

Philadelpho, Liribando y Floribundo,

"y de otros maestros de pyromancia y de geomancia, cuyos nombre eran ( apréndanlos mis lectores!)

Boromandrac, Dulnafatac, Ahafil, Jonatalfac, Mirrafanzel, Nolicarano ...

"O Virgilio, estaba loco, o decía bernardinas."

"También nos habla del Arte notoria, quae est Ars et scientia sancta, la cual sólo el que esté sin pecado puede aprender. Autores de ella fueron los ángeles buenos, y la comunicaron al rey Salomón. Este encerró los espíritus en una botella, fuera de uno que era cojo, el cual logró libertad a los demás. Cuando Alejandro tomó a Jerusalén, su maestro Aristóteles, hasta aquel día hombre rudo, logró saber dónde estaban encerrados los libros de Salomón, y se hizo sabio.

"Esta Arte notoria no parece ser otra que la Cábala. Cuanto al Diablo cojuelo, verémosle reaparecer en la sabrosa ficción de Luis Vélez de Guevara."





Ndi Nyina wa Jumbo; I am the Mother of the World

[Source: Fr. Richard J. Beyer's Blessed Art Thou. I was privileged to be his Chaplain's Assistant for six weeks or so]

Adaptation from pages 399-401.

"The central African country of Rwanda has recently experienced a genocide so vast that the world has stood by in shock and disbelief at the devastation.

"Eleven years before, the Mother of God had given the young seers of Kibeho a startling eight-hour vision; what they saw terrified them: a river of blood, people killing one another, abandoned corpses, a tree in flames, bodies without heads. The visionaries could not control their tears and anguish, and those present, estimated at 20,000, had a sensation of great sorrow and fear.

"The reported apparitions in this small African country began in November of 1981 and lasted approximately two years.

"First of the seers was Alphonsine Mumureke, aged sixteen at the time and a student at Sister's College in Kibeho.

"She was helping to serve dinner when a voice called, My daughter, whereupon she went toward the corridor, instinctively knelt and asked:

Who are you?

"The Virgin replied, Ndi Nyina wa jumbo, I am the Mother of the world.

"And later: I have heard your prayers. I desire that you and you[r] companions have greater faith, for some have very little.

"Alphonsine described the Blessed Mother in these words:

She was not really white like we see in the pictures. I could not determine the color of her skin, but she was of incomparable beauty. She was wearing a white dress with no seams and a white veil on her head. Her hands were joined together and turned toward heaven. When she left, I saw her ascending toward heaven like Jesus.

"Bishop Jean Gahamanyi of Kibeho has written an encouraging pastoral letter outlining the events and messages of Kibeho, and invites the faithful to be patient as the church continues its investigation."

Thursday, June 08, 2006

"Good Luck" to UTEP's Fewer than 8?

Wednesday, June 7, 2006. Headlines in the El Paso TIMES :

UTEP data breached

Info on 4,719 students, staff accessed

By Erica Molina Johnson

"The dean of students is trying to complete her investigation, and depending on what she finds, she may impose some kind of disciplinary action."

Full story: EXPIRED!!! [This added 6/26/2006]

Good luck you fewer than eight unhappy people, so good to have known you!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Wikipedia's take on Fox Co., 2nd Bn. 1st Marines, and our role in Operation Union I & the Battle of Binh Son, Vietnam, April 21, 1967!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Union

Event: Christmas Eve, December 24, around 238 A.D.??!!

[source cited at end]

Who?

Military outpost of the Roman Legion, the III Augusta.

Where?

Bu-Njem, North Africa.

Issue?

"What" or "Who" was being celebrated, "God" or "a god?" or ???!!!?

page 39 of Brian Campbell's War and Society in Imperial Rome 31 BC - AD 284. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.

"The records of military bureacrats preserved on papyri or wooden tablets reveal the daily life of an enclosed community. For example, the record of a detachment of the legion III Augusta stationed at Bu-Njem in north Africa in the third century AD indicates that, of fifty-seven soldiers on 24 December, there were present one clerk, one orderly, one scout, eight cavalry; twenty-two were possibly on exercises, one man was on the watchtower, one at the gate, one at the commanding officer's, one possibly doing building work, three were sick, one was being flogged, seventeen had no specific task of whom fifteen were at the bake house (?) and two at the bath."

My own knee-jerk opinion is that the 15-man "working party" at the bake house just might have been assigned to help put together the mother of all December 25th parties, but! If so, I'd like to know for whom?

A special, albeit belated, thanks to aquellas hermanas dinamitas de la parroquia de San Patricio, Margarita y Irene, plus compañero Jason, from Washington State, for the following websites, whether in English or Spanish:

1)Margarita, inglés y castellano:

http://es.catholic.net/santoraldehoy/
http://es.catholic.net/
http://www.corazones.org/
http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/teaching.htm

La Guadalupana

http://es.catholic.net/imprimir/index.phtml?ts=44&ca=589&te=1484&id=13442

2) Irene

www.maryscall.com

www.stannesgilbertaz.org

3) Jason

http://www.rorate-caeli.blogspot.com

Thanks, everybody!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Monday, June 5, 2006: Dia de San Bonifacio, St. Boniface's Day, at least in the Catholic Diocese of El Paso

[Last update & edit job, Wednesday p.m., 6/07/2006]

The hardworking and dynamic young Jesuit priest from down South Oregon Street who came to say the 7:00 Mass Monday morning told us all he could about Saint Boniface, but!

Being a good and prudent priest in the mold of Pope John Paul II and Saint Ignatius Loyola, he left out the more sensational stuff.

So, anyhow, here we go:

"Controversy continues to rage among America's top academics over supposed scientifc proofs offered in support of a revolutionary new thesis, linking the Mens ACTS Retreat movement, at least that segment most concerned with the March, 2006 ACTS Mens' Retreat in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to ancient legends about an early prototype of ACTS associated with Archbishop Saint Boniface's arrival in what is now Southern Germany." Dr. Snizzlestein, Phd. Rodney, et al. Editors. The American Journal of Contemporary Polemical Anthropology. May, 2006.

As the good Dr. Snizzlestein assures us:

"It was an alert anonymous reader of the UT El Paso Library book by the British author Henry Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, who started it all."

"She quickly won a 3-year $50,000 dollar per year Brenda Lynn Castaneda Grant, Restricted Funds Contracts & Grants # 26-Appt-0309 2002-2003 (less UTEP's 15% mandatory administrative kickback. Oops! excuse me! It was actually a "Voluntary Contribution to the Hector Villa III Foundation for Minority Rights," a Ms. Cynthia M. Villa, Honorary Chairperson) for proposing to study this issue. Upon assuring the University of Texas System Board of Regents in Austin that she could indeed both read and write, the student won against all of her competitors, hands down.

"As she quotes from Mayr-Harting's work, page 270:

When Boniface wrote to fellow bishops, he was fond of reminding them that episcopal authority meant service, a very Gregorian theme, and the service of the pastor had been exemplified by Christ's washing of his disciple's feet and his command that they do likewise to others.

His reminder therefore took the form of sending them towels for this purpose.

Boniface never seemed short of this commodity, and whatever presents he might receive -- cloaks or spices or books -- back would go, as likely as not, the inevitable towel."

So, there we have it, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: and that's the way the authentic legend of St. Bonifacio's link to the Mens' ACTS Retreat movement was born...

In the hands of a pro, commercial and/or academic:

"Outta Sight Variation" of Marine Corps Green Doo Wah Diddy Ribbons Saga!

Plus! A compañero from Platoon 1025 has some great input, too!

An invocation of The Cattle Cars, the Blanket Parties, plus inferentially, at least, my own personal recollections of that special world of the M1 Garands and BARs and tough old NCO specialist instructors of the World War II era, that go along with my memories of 2nd ITR's 2-week Alpha Co., in Camp Horno, and 4-week Romeo Co. in Camp San Onofre.

Check it out in comments section, bottom of May's "Grand Finale" Episode.

"This University Pro has got beaucoup tenure .. you can be sure of that!"

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Fair Trade Coffee -- Café del Comercio Justo

St. Patrick Cathedral, El Paso, Texas: Ist Sunday of each month "after the [morning] masses at 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, and 11:30 a.m. Plan to buy this great tasting coffee with a conscience."

Catedral de San Patricio, El Paso, Téxas: "les invita a que marquen sus calendarios para que compren Café del Comercio Justo, cada primer domingo de cada mes, después de las siguientes Misas: 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, y 11:30 a.m."

For more local information, please email:

Dr. Joseph Michon, Jr., MD at jmichon@elp.rr.com

Or call the Cathedral Parish Rectory at (915) 533-4451

Three random websites dealng with this issue:

http://www.cafecampesino.com/

http://www.sandavid.org/fair_trade.htm

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/starbucksfax.html

"When all is said and done, good coffee, for which the growers get a fair price, is everyone's business." Ancient Chinese proverb generally attributed to the era of the somewhat legendary Hu Phlung the Hermit Dynasty.




Saturday, June 03, 2006


Christianity makes no sense if you think you are all right.

Chad Walsh's Campus Gods on Trial

From inside the book cover flap

"When Chad Walsh first surveyed our godless colleges in 1952, he discovered that godless was the least fitting epithet to apply to the campus. There, of all places, gods abounded in staggering profusion. If the God of Judaeo-Christian tradition was not much in evidence, a dozen new gods were, with Progress, Materialism, Scientism, Humanistarianism, Relativism, and Security heading the roll."

Walsh, Chad. Campus Gods on Trial: The Changing Pattern of Religion on the College Campus. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962.

Pages 83-85. [Some elements highlighted or italicized]

Chapter 10: Psychological Reasons for Not Being a Christian

"The self-reliant man comes up against his own limitations. The Christian (who by definition is un-self-reliant) can also fail. But the Christian has one advantage. He knows he can't do it alone. There is only one expert who can mold the I and guide its quiet, steady growth. The progress the Christian achieves may seem slower than that of his grimly etermined, self-sufficient neighbor. But the progress he makes is more permanent, because it reflects the basic alterations that God produces in the I. In the long run, the somewhat relaxed tortoise will outstrip the tense hare.

But why can't we lift ourselves by our bootstraps and win perfection of chracter? Because there is something wrong with each of us at the center -- something that only God can remedy. Christianity makes no sense if you think you are all right.

"In each of us there is a stubborn self-centeredness. It shows itself most transparently in small children, who make it clear that parents, planets, and stars ought to revolve around them. It is revealed more subtly and danerously in grownups. (How about your big [campus SGA] wheels? Do they ever try to manipulate other students to increase their own prestige?)

"We are jealous of God himself. He is our rival. We are rebels. This kind of rebellion is not going to be overcome by graduate school and a Ph.D.; nor will many expensive hours on the psychoanalyst's couch cure it. And yet we are not happy rebels. Down underneath, we intuitively know that the future holds little for us except tenseness, inward frustration, an dulcers, unless we call in the services of the only expert who is competent to make the necessary adjustments and alterations.

"Most of us, when we really think about it, can see that objectivity and self-reliance are vitamins in moderation but viruses when gulped to excess. Freedom, however, seems the cure-all and universal tonic. But freedom, like objectivity and self-reliance, easily becomes the mask for pride, which Christian psychology has shrewdly sized up as the most deep-rooted sin and the highest hurdle between man and God.

"Writing home to explain why the dean has suspended you from school is a blow to your pride, but only a fain hint of what it means to turn to God and say, You take over. Two students, writing from opposite viewpoints, agree on this:

To realize his full potential, man must stop using God and religion as a crutch. Only with true independence and self-dependence can man reach great heights of progress, and becuase the Christian God -- and most other gods -- deny me that complete self-reliance, I cannot accept him.

I believe the greatest stumbling block [to religious commitment] lies not in a person's acceptance of a creed but being able to humble himself before God ... To let his will be done, not ours.

"Putting yourself in God's hands is an act of surrender; his Church is the P.O.W. camp. If anyone tells you this is easy, the right answer is a horselaugh. Freedom is a word properly dear to us; nobody likes to walk across no man's land, white flag in hand."