Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Archbishop Chaput reveals an ugly little secret:

The
American Catholic history of institutional racism



Adapted from this source: chapter 4. CONSTANTINE'S CHILDREN, from Archbishop Charles J. Chaput's latest book, Render Unto Caesar.

"Archbishop Joseph Rummel served the Catholic people of New Orleans from 1935 until his death in 1964.

"By the 1950s, he faced an increasingly ugly problem.

"The Archdiocese of New Orleans had the largest Catholic population in the Deep South and many thousands of black Catholics.

"It also had segregated schools.

"Rummel and previous bishops had always ensured that black students had access to Catholic education.

"However, segregated parochial schools had the same scarce money and poor quality as the segregated public schools.

"After World War II, Rummel began desegregating the local church.

"In 1948, his seminary welcomed two black students.

"In 1951, Rummel pulled the White and Colored signs from Catholic parishes [But! Maybe not those racist signs still inside his Cathedral, just yet, huh? So mom told us years later! Heh, heh!]

"In 1953, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregation in public schools, he issued the first of two strong pastoral letters: Blessed Are the Peacemakers.

"Pastors read it to their people at every Mass one Sunday.

"It drew a quick response.

"Some parishioners bitterly resented from the pulpit that there will be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings, just as there will be no segregation in the kingdom of heaven.

"In 1956 [ 3 years later, o.k.? :) ], Rummel said he intended to desegregate Catholic schools.

"Tempers ran hot.

"Most parish school boards voted against desegregation.

"Rummel didn't budge.

"A year earlier, he had closed a parish when its people objected to their newly assigned black priest.

"But to compound the archbishop's troubles, many parents had moved their children from public to Catholic schools, hoping to avoid desegregation.

"Members of the Louisiana legislature threatened to withhold then - available public funds from Catholic schools if Rummel went ahead with his plans [similar monkey - shines were still going on there in 1978, as we discovered -- the hard way! -- after testifying before State Representative Jimmy Long's house education committee, boy and howdy! :) ].

"In early 1962, Rummel said that in the following year, Catholic schools would integrate.

"Several Catholic politicians organized public protests and letter - writing campaigns.

"They threatened a boycott of Catholic schools.

"On April 16, 1962, Rummel excommunicated three prominent Catholics [at long last! :) ] -- a judge [ My guess? Most likely bad 'ole Leander Perez, right?], a political writer, and a community organizer -- for publicly defying the teaching of their church.

"The New Orleans events made national news, covered by Time magazine and the New York Times.

"The Times editorial board gushed that men of all faiths must admire [Rummel's] unwavering courage because he has set an example founded on religious principle and is responsive to the social conscience of our time."

Anybody wanting to look all this up on microfilm at your own school's library:

"Courage in the Church," New York Times, April 19, 1962.


Note:

'Way over in Gran Coteau, the Madams of the Sacred Heart nuns started desegregating their Womens' College by 1953 - 1954, as an older female sibling gleefully told us not too many years ago.

She was thrilled to have been smack in the middle of both the on - campus and off - campus uproar that followed.

Indeed, she and other classmates had already been given the green light by the mother superior to teach catechism to little black kids, and had apparently done so.

Such is the contrast between Roman Catholicism and so - called American Catholicism, believe it or not!


Monday, September 29, 2008

AP's Michelle Ray Ortiz broke the Rigoberta Menchu story!


"Nobel panel stands by laureate"


Adapted from this original source: The San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS, Wednesday, December 16, 1998, page 8 A.

"MEXICO CITY -- A report claiming Rigoberta Menchu, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner fabricated key details in her acclaimed autobiography doesn't discredit her work for Indians, her human rights foundation and the Nobel committee said Tuesday.

"U.S. anthropologist David Stoll asserts that the 1983 book, I, Rigberta Menchu inaccurately says Menchu had no formal education, watched a younger brother starve to death and witnessed th eexecution - by - burning of another brother.

"Details of Stoll's new book, Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans were reported Tuesday by the New York Times.

"Stoll, a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, didn't return messages let at his office.

"A Times reporter also conducted interviews in Guatemala that contradicted Menchu's account, the newspaper said.

"Menchu's autobiography cannot be the eyewitness account it purports to be because she repeatedly describes experiences she never had herself, Stoll wrote.

"In September, Menchu refused to address Stoll's criticisms, dismissing them as part of a racist political agenda intended to gain publicity, the newspaper said...."


¡Guau! Wow! ☼ ☼ ☼ :)

Writers of the Purple Prose, on the move again!

"Back when only the bad died old"


Kings of the Cowboy Book Blurb Spinners

Today's example:

Harry Beck's
Casadora
, 1977.

Inside cover:

"There were two particularly notorious Apache raiders, Antone and Casadora.

"The day Frank Emerson found his old friends Jules Choteau and his woman dead in their cabin, slain by Apache raiders, Frank wanted revenge.

"Then someone brought in two murdered children, and Frank made up his mind.

"With his brother Sam and a vaquero named Emilio Herrera, Frank went after Casadora and his band of deadly ragheads.

"He did not expect to emerge alive, let alone achieve revenge, but Frank, Sam and Emilio were a match for any Apache, even the wily Casadora.

"They triumphed, but there were times when it was impossible to tell how it would end, because of the clouds of gunsmoke."


Saturday, September 27, 2008

"Pop goes the Mass:

"The Curse of bad liturgical music (part one)"



Adapted from this source: Antony Esolen's article by the same name in "This Rock," October 2008.

"Clap! It's a Performance


"If they're not folk songs, and they're not traditional hymns, what are they?


"A glance at the scores shows that the composers are not thinking of a coherent piece of music that can be sung by many people together.

"Rather they compose the music by singing it alone to the key - board or, more probably, the guitar, and then they transcribe what they have sung, with all the idiosyncratic lilts, shifts in meter, pauses, sultry dragging, and strange intervals.

"When you see the written music, you are not looking at what anybody can sing, but at what somebody in particular has sung.

"The difference is critical.

"But the narcissist underestimates the value of rigorous training and patient learning.

"He does not understand how deeply indebted the true geniuses are to the artists they painstaking follow, as Beethoven was indebted to Mozart, Virgil to Homer, Dante to Virgil, and Milton to all three.

"The narcissist trades on his own modest stock of talent, but he will not admit that it is modest.

"The result is not originality but cheap tricks."

bad hymns echo the television commercial


"Some of the flourishes of our bad hymns echo the television commercial - for instance, the furniture - polish ad to which we owe the music to make you to shi - ine like the sun in On Eagle's Wings.

"Others sound like an arm - flinging finale to an off - Broadway musical.

"I think of the bathetic windup at the end of Let There Be Peace on Earth.

" And let it beginnn, with ME , sings St. Francis of La Mancha.

"But enough with the bad music.

"In the next issue, I'll show how it is the perfect music for the bad theology of the lyrics."

1972 - All State -- Brackett HS Jersey # 24 Mr. Eddie Solis tells us!!

What happened last night
: Homecoming 2008!!


"Brackett won against Leakey, 58 to 20!
"

He tells us.


Wow!

"The Brackett Team Spirit of 1972 still lives on
!"


Just by watching our Brackett Homecoming Team wax the opposition set in motion those memories of long, long, ago -- for all it was not so far away.

'Cause Mr. Solis, Brackett HS Jersey #24 was there -- both in 1972 and last night -- so what he says is the way it happened, folks!

Many of you will remember that it was in 1972 when then - Brackett Tiger Mr. Solis scored against San Antonio South Side's team with a 60 - yard intercept and touchdown, and all the family was there to see it, you bet!

Friday, September 26, 2008

"La Migra" by Michael McMahon

"With sleep in her eyes she parts the curtain,
sees the black van and three strange men.


"Standing on tiptoe in woolen pajamas
she raps at the window, sees him drive off
with three strange men.


"They've come to the farm in a dusty van,
found him at work on the fence out back,
st him between them and drove the lane
scattering stones and dirt.

"In blue pajamas with padded feet
she runs to the phone and tells the O
Papá's been taken away in a van
from where she lives with the broken chair
and chicks in the yard and he fell down
running away from three strange men.

"All alone in a quiet house she holds
on tight to a blanket end
to keep her safe from the raging wind
and the angry shouts of three strange men."

"MICHAEL McMAHON is presently teaching at Fresno Pacific University. His poems have appeared in Seneca Review, Notre Dame Review and Poetry East."

"America" September 22, 2008.

Saint Mary Magdalene's Ms. Icela Rueda scores 22nd in Varsity Girls Cross Country in SA!!

"The [BHS] varsity girls cross country team returned home from UTSA Saturday, September 20, as team champions.

"The girls placed first as a team with 56 points..."

Meanwhile, such SMM Youth Group personalites as Ms. Bianca Terrazas scores big time in BHS Tigerettes Volleyball, while Ms. Nena Molinar scores in Blocks with Ms. Becca Mann.

"The Tigerettes traveled to Comstock on Friday, September 19th and defeated the Lady Panthers to begin district play with a win.

"The Tigerettes begin District competition this Friday [That's today, folks!] as they travel to Comstock to take on the Lady Panthers at 5 and 6 pm..."

Good luck, ladies!!

Tip of the 'ole cachucha to: The Brackett News, Thursday, September 25, 2008.

"Same Olde, Same Olde: Swiftboating George Washington"


Adapted from this source: David Martin's commentary with the same name in "Smithsonian," October 2008.

His claimed source (heh, heh, heh!) is listed thus:

"Back page of the January 3, 1789, edition of the Philadelphia Weekly Gazette :

"WE, THE DELAWARE BOAT VETERANS, take as our solemn duty before our Creator to make known the truth concerning the Presidential candidate who calls himself George Washington.

"We beseech the public to read our account.

"George Washington hath permitted certain myths and misconceptions to arise surrounding his alleged role in the crossing of the Delaware River on December 25, 1776.

"As pious and patriotic citizens, We have the Means of calling the right of it in question and thereby setting history's record straight.

"On the night recalled, Each one of us did cross the Delaware.

"But none of us did see General Washington in any of the lead boats.

"We were in the first two boats to come ashore and We attest that no officer of a rank higher than captain was with us.

"Whilst it may be that the General did in due course make his way to the opposite bank, it was well after the dawn and passage was in a heated ferryboat.

"Any account of him astride the bow of the first boat is most assuredly a fable -- perhaps a rumor conceived by the General himself, to provide inspiration for a future painting in the service of his vanity."

GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT WHERE?


"We further have it on reliable evidence that General Washington spent Christmas night at a local Inn [Wow! Maybe this is the origin of that famous phrase: George Washington slept here] in the company of his goodly wife, Martha.

"Whilst we suffered the bitter cold of that fearsome night, he supped and drank and then slept under down in warm comfort.

"By these perfidities, he has verily shewn himself to be unfit to rule a free people.

"We desire not to tarnish the General's reputation.

"Indeed, we seek only the God's truth, for Washington did command the Continental Army and, by His grace, was ultimately victorious.

"There are those who claim that Washington's intemperate use of food and drink impaired his judgement, but we offer no comment on that matter, for he always supped alone and discarded his empty bottles away from our sight [Wow! These guys were really on to something, huh? :) x 12 ].

"It has been said by some that we are partisans of John Adams or Thomas Jefferson.

"We know not from where such false rumours hath arisen.

"But when a man such as Washington seeks to corrupt the truth to his own benefit, we cannot in all good conscience stand idly by.

"In truth, we doubt even the veracity of the tiresome childhood fable about his refusal to dissemble about the cherry tree he felled when the tempers were upon him..."


Boy, oh boy! And, oh my goodness! :) x 11.





Thursday, September 25, 2008

UTEP Detective Fiction, and True Crime ...

Adapted from "First Things" magazine. October 2008. Joseph Bottum's Ain't Nothing But a Meanness in This World.

"You'll find here the puritanical murders of Cotton Mather's time. and the prairie crimes of Abraham Lincoln's day, and the rapes of young girls in the 1940s, and the clue - ridden corpses scattered like bread crumbs by the serial killers of the 1970s.

"Isn't it a sign that a genre has something wrong at its center, when it makes Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Trillen sound alike?

"[A] selection from Lincoln opens, In the year 1841, there resided, at different points in the State of Illiniois, three brothers by the name of Trailor.

"[A] selection from Trillin begins, On a bright afternoon in September, 1967, a five - man film crew working in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky stopped to take pictures of some people near a place called Jeremiah.

"For that matter, in the genre of true crime, the facts always seem to have a strange, half religious light cast on them, as though, in the end, original sin alone provides much explanation of crime. "

true crime .. a sort of low - rent theology


"If fiction is the great humanistic endeavor, seeking human reasons for human behavior, then true crime is not an art form but a sort of low - rent theology.


"In its American form, at least, it offers little more than a Christian worldview -- or what the Christian worldview would be without the possibility of Christ: sin without redemption; the Fall without the Resurrection; justice, sometimes, but never mercy.

"Ain't nothing, really, but a meanness in this world."

At the very bottom, on page 21, we read this interesting tidbit:

"Joseph Bottum is editor of First Things..."

"A chance at redemption"

Miners look to exorcise last year's loss in Las Cruces


THE BATTLE OF INTERSTATE TEN CONTINUES!



UTEP Prospector's Mr. Quinton Martinez lays it on the line, September 18, 2008. The following sadapted from Mr. Martinez's original work.

"Fresh off of being manhandled by a pair of Big 12 opponents, UTEP and New Mexico State will take their shot at one another in Saturday night's renewal of the Battle of I - 10.

"Two weeks ago, the Miners took their best shot at Texas in the Sun Bowl and came away with a 42 - 13 loss, whie NMSU fell at Nebraska 38 - 7 to open up their season last weekend.

"NMSU, under third - year head coach Hal Mumme, is far from the team coached by Tony Samuel that UTEP shut out 45 - 0 in [Coach Mike] Price's first season.

"Mumme, along with senior quarterback Chase Holbrook, has transformed the Aggies into one of the most dangerous air attacks in the country..."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"Combaten en Jalisco .....


"TRAFICO DE TORTILLAS"



Adaptada de esta fuente original: LA JORNADA / Zócalo / Guadalajara. Martes 23 de Septiembre de 2008.

Sólo las tortillerías con licencia pueden trabajar en Tala, Jalisco


Hacerlas en casa está prohibido


Las Reinas de la Masa



"[A]firmó María Elena Vega, Somos madres solteras, divorciadas, viudas o tenemos que mantener a nuestros maridos.

"A sus 55 años, es una de 18 mujeres que, a cambio de $800 pesos semanales, trabajan en la tortillería de Benjamín Castro, con 20 años en el negocio de la tortilla manual.

"A las 10:00 de la noche, la leña se prende y tres comales empiezan a arder.

"En cada uno trabaja seis mujeres hasta las 4:00 de la mañana, cuando la leña se consume.

"A las 7:00 de la mañana, entre 800 y 900 paquetes de medio kilo se transportan en contenedores a Guadalajara y Zapopan y se venden a 12 pesos el kilogramo.

"En San Isidro Mazatepec, las tortillas han sido una fuente de trabajo desde un siglo.

"En 1910, la familia de Elena Acosta fue pionera del mercado de la tortilla artesanal.

"Ella dice que en San Isidro todo es igual desde la época revolucionaria.

"Se compra el maíz, se mete en una cazuela, se le pone agua y cal, se magulla el grano para ver si está ya nixtamalizado, se deja enfriar, se lleva al molino, se amasa ...

"Pero sí que hay cambios.

"Hoy, paquetas de medio kilo se venden en la ilegalidad..."


Es esta prohibición una ley absurda


"San Isidro Mazatepec, comunidad de cuatro mil habitantes ubicada en el municipio de Tala, Jalisco, es el único lugar del mundo donde fabricar, comprar o vender tortillas hechos a mano es un delito, y en el cual se trafica con tortillas recién salidas del comal.

"La Policía implementa por la madrugada operativos antitortilla, y combate al tortimenudeo."


"¿Dónde están las tortillas?"


"¡Investígalo tú!"


"La madrugada del 23 de abril pasado, policías e inspectores municipales cimbraron un portón en San Isidro.

"El comando de fuerzas especiales era encabezado por María del Pilar López Jáuregui, La Pili, quien preguntó charola en mano a Betzabé Figueroa Acosta, dueña del lugar:

¿Dónde están las tortillas?


"[R]espondió Figueroa Acosta:

¡Investígalo tú!

¡Yo estoy dada en Hacienda!


"Los vecinos formaron una valla humana en defensa del rtel del Nixtamal.

"Guadalupe Valle, abogada de la organización criminal, dialogó con la autoridad,

"Los policías huyeron cuando los lugareños sacaron unas cámaras fotográficas.

"El cierre del local, por el H. Ayuntamiento de Tala, fue inevitable..."

"Gisella Guadalupe: preside alegre tertulia"

"No cabe duda, ¡Cumple cuatro años!"


Adaptada de esta fuente original: el señor licenciado Benito Duéñez Robles / El Zócalo / Piedras Negras. Martes 23 de Septiembre de 2008.

"Motivos de Rosita Fresita pidió en su fiesta de cumpleaños la linda nena Gisella Guadalupe Pérez Gutiérrez.

"El festejo en su honor estuvo lleno de sorpresas; sus amiguitos le llevaron muchos regalos.

"Sus queridos papis Abraham Pérez y Lilia Angioletta Gutiérrez consintieron sobremanera a la pequeña Gisella Guadalupe, quien en su cuarto aniversario de dulce vida no se limitó en cuanto a disfrutar su festejo se refiere.

"Los amiguitos invitados se dieron cita a su tertulia la llenron de mucho regalos, así como de cálidas felicitaciones por parte de sus seres queridos, en especial de sus abuelitos Teodoro Gutiérrez y Carolina Meza, Francisca Ledezma y Martín Pérez.

"Cuatro velitas y cuatro deliciosos pasteles compartió la festejada, ya que le encantan los postres y esta ocasión no podía pasar desapercibida y aprovechó para comer le que más le gusta:

"¡Ricas rebanadas de pastel de fresa!"

Monday, September 22, 2008

UTEP's Ms. Vanessa Juarez:

"Student finds a career abroad"



Adapted from The UTEP Prospector, September 16, 2008.

"When Luis Macias graduated from UTEP in 2005, he had no idea that three years later he would find himself serving as Peace Corps volunteer in a small town four hours outside of Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

"Macias, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in Spanish, has been living and teahcing in Kazakhstan for two years.

"Macias decided to join the Peace Corps as a volunteer when he learned about the program from a colleague who had also been a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa..."

A good read, Vanessa...!

"Lepanto: la battaglia del 1571" X

Lo svolgimento della battaglia


"Al termine della battaglia la Lega aveva perso più di 7.000 uomini, di cui 4.800 veneziani, 2.000 spagnoli, 800 pontifici, e circa 20.000 feriti; i turchi, contarono più di 25.000 perdite e 3.000 prigionieri.

"Il nome di Lepanto era entrato nella storia.

"Per la prima volta dopo un secolo il Mediterraneo tornò libero.

"A partire da questo giorno inizò il declino dell'impero ottomano.

"Nel pomeriggio del 7 ottobre, Pio V che aveva moltiplicato le preghiere a Colei che sempre aveva socorso i cristiani nelle ore drammatiche della cristianità. stava esaminando i conti con alcuni prelati.

"D'improvviso fu visto levarsi, avvicinarsi alla finestra fissando lo sguardo come estatico e poi, ritornando verso i prelati esclamare:

Non occupiamoci più di affari, ma andiamo a ringraziare Iddio

La flotta cristiani ha ottenuto vittoria...

"Il Pontefice attribui il trionfo di Lepanto all'intercessione della Vergine e volle che nelle Litanie lauretane si aggiunngesse l'invocazione Auxilium christianorum.

"Anche il Senato Veneziano che non era composto da donnicciole, ma da uomini fieri e rotti a sfidare i più gravi pericoli in mare e in terra, vole attribuire alla Santissima Vergine il merito principale della vittoria e sul quadro fatto dipingere nella sala delle sue adunanze fece scrivere queste parole:

Non virtus, non arma, non duces, sed Maria Rosarrii, victores nos fecit.

Non il valore, non le armi, non i condottieri, ma la Madonna del Rosario ci ha fatto vincitori...."






Catholic priest "first proposed the Big Bang Theory for the birth of the universe"

UTEP Spring 2009 Open Enrollment in the History of the Physical Sciences 1318, slots filling fast!

¡Hey, Familia! This class is already guaranteed to rock!! :)



¡Ora, UTEP!


¡Ora, MEChA!


¡Adelante, DESTINO!



Adapted from this original source: "This Rock" magazine September 2008. Matthew E. Bunson, Fathers of Science.

"Georges Lemaître (1894 - 1966)


"Fr. Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest, physicist and mathematician, first proposed the Big Bang Theory for the birth of the universe
.

"Born in Charleroi, Belgium, he studied math and science at Cambridge University after ordination in 1923 and specialized in the then - most - current studies in astronomy and cosmology, especially Einstein's general theory of relativity.

"The accepted idea in physics at the time was that the universe was essentially in a changeless state -- a Steady State."

A priest challenges Einstein!!


"Where Einstein saw that the universe was actually moving --either shrinking or expanding -- and devised the the cosmological constant that maintained the stability of [the] universe, Lemaître concluded that the universe was expanding.

"Not only that, Lemaítre proposed that from this it could be concluded that all matter and energy were concentrated at one point.

"Hence:

"The universe had a beginning.

"This theory, at first met with great skepticism, was termed rather sarcasticlaly as the Big Bang.


a day without yesterday...


"For his part, Lemaître elegantly described this beginning as a day without yesterday.

"He presented his theory in January 1933 to a gathering of scientists in California, and at the end of his presentation, Einstein applauded and declared,

This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened.


"Lemaître's ideas subsequently gained ground.

"Today, astrophysicists readily accept the Big Bang and the continuing expansion of the universe
.

"For his labors, Lemaître was made a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and a canon of the cathedral of Malines.

"In 1936, Pope Pius XI inducted him into the Pontifical Academy of Science.
.."

Saturday, September 20, 2008

"The sixth thing to have nailed down:


"Belief and works are one"


More from that "top secret" big time asset of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI!

Whose name, of course, is Robert Wolgemuth, a sort of non - Catholic Christian top - ranking Opus Dei personality.

His rock'em sock'em Christian best seller?

Seven Things You Better Have Nailed Down Before All Hell Breaks Loose.

Page 152. More on 1 Peter 2:9 - 12:

"Yet in our careers,we have drawn a disturbing line between secular work and full - time Christian work.

"The New Testament apostles would not have approved.

"You are a chosen people, the apostle Peter wrote to ordinary folks, including painters, musicians, writers, bricklayers,doctors, farmers, teachers, and ministers, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

"First - century folks reading these words may have been as shocked as those high school seniors in our living room.

"But Peter was unequivocal.

"You are a full - time professional priest, regardless of your vocation.

"What this means is that you and I, as people of faith, are always people of faith regardless of where we are or what we do."

I'm the priest on call...



"We're always on call.

"When someone has a flat tire in the parking lot, I'm the priest on call.

"When our kid's friend gets pregnant, when the neighbor's lawn is overgrown because he's visiting a sick relative out of town, when our pastor calls for volunteers to help with the children, we're the priests on call.

"And when tragedy hits people who have thoroughly intergrated faith and works, they don't panic and collapse in despair.

"People of faith know who they are: priests on call."

"¿Por cuál independencia gritarán?"


"Violencia y crimen matan libertades"


Así nos dice el dichoso joven señor licenciado Ricardo Alemán en: El Zócalo de Ciudad Acuña, Martes 16 de Septiembre de 2008
.

"Vivimos bajo el yugo de otra dictadura, el crimen y la incapacidad del estado por brindar seguridad, por hacer justicia, perseguir a los criminales y acabar con el flagelo madre; la impunidad."

Bien dicho, señor licenciado, bien dicho...

Aleman2@prodigy.net.mx

Mientras tanto, platicando por mi humilde parte por lo menos, y como estranjero y nada más, la gran República Mexicana hoy en día me acuerda tantíssimo de el entonces Argelia francés durante los años sangrientes allá de 1961 a 1962.

"Judge Tom Lee ... checking w/Sheriff Buddy Burgess ..."


"MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2008


"1800 N. here now.

"Gave him miniature roses.

"Terrific winds!

"Sirens wailed earlier.

"1820 Looks like N. may get 2 other children in his ongoing custody dispute w/ Irma Coronado, N. & N.

"Judge Tom Lee's letter dated February 25 & stamped received by N's Del Rio lawyer, an attorney named Mr. Ortiz seems to indicate this.

"Judge Lee seems to be doing a good job.

"[C]hecking w/ Sheriff Buddy Burgess office as well as principal Irma Gutierrez in re: N, as well as speaking likewise in person w/ Mr. Lupe Sotelo, principal of the Eagle Academy Charter School in Del Rio, where Nx is supposed to have been enrolled by his mom but wasn't.

"Again I recommended N. bypass Deacons [sic] & enroll his kids w/ Julia Terrazas.

"Evening

"1800/6:30 pm.

"Still daylight, but wind now howling and moaning.

"N. says it's supposed to get down to 30's tonight, etc."

"Thursday, March 6, 2008

"PM

"Helped N & sons w/2 more tires - worth of gardening."

NOTE ADDED SEPT 20, 2008:

This was most likely when N. told us of his exploits earlier in his career, claiming to have been successful in shooting two other homeboys before they did so to him, and going to jail for all that he won the trigger - pulling contest.

ITEM:

Did the Rev. Mr. Joe Goebel evade communicating all of this, given the strictly hypothetical possibility he was indeed legally obligated to do so, even if it was without the approval of the Archdiocese of San Antonio to:

A. Texas State District Judge Tom Lee?

B. Sheriff Buddy Burgess?

C. That laugh - out - loud sick joke called the Texas State Child Protective Service?

Friday, September 19, 2008

Real deal K of C Dr. Edward Sri: "Mary and the Word of God"


Adapted from local K of C, Mr. Albert G. Garcia's Columbia magazine, September 2008, page 17.

Note:

Feel free to compare and contrast what we are posting below with the so - called American Catholic Church's view for the use of their ordained clergy, as expounded to us personally by the Rev. Mr. Joe Goebel, in the afternoon of Tuesday, November 27, 2007 (or whenever it was), in his own garden on El Paso Street, Brackettville, Texas, USA, Zip code 78832! :)

"Consider how Mary's command, Do whatever he tells you, has a profound effect on the servants at the feast, inspiring them to trust Jesus in a radical way (John 2:5).

"Just put yourself in the servants' shoes.


"The wine has run out at the wedding feast, and Jesus tells them to take the six stone jars for the Jewish rites of purification, fill them up with water and draw some out to present to the steward of the feast.

"These stone jars would have been used for ritual washings of hands (and possibly feet).

"Astonishingly, Jesus tells the servants to fill up these very jars with water and present the cntents to the steward to serve as drink for the guests.


"This would demand a lot of faith from the servants.

"Imagine what they are thinking:

Fill up these jars?

With water?

And serve it to the guests?

How is this going to solve the problem?


"From a human perspective, Jesus' plan does not make any sense.

"Yet, Mary tells the servants to place their total trust in Jesus even if they do not understand his plan.."

Something to think about, all you good Christian people, wherever you may be this bright and beautiful almost - Fall day!!

Could it be that author Robert Wolgemuth is yet another ally of Pope Benedict XVI?!



Adapted from this source: Seven Things You Better Have Nailed Down Before Al Hell Breaks Loose. By Robert Wolgemuth. Published by Thomas Nelson, 2007.

Here's Wolgemuth's take no prisoners advice to to teenagers in his youth group work.

It is revolutionary straight talk, just as -- let us say! -- such regional Christian - media personalities as Janie and Mena and Brother Jeff and Paul are more than likely to offer their own respective Youth Group members here locally, whether at First Baptist Church, or St. Mary Magdalene's.

As brother Wolgemuth tells his teenagers, both boys and girls, starting on page 151, "There's only one choice for a Christian career ..."

He then goes on to base this on 1 Peter 2:9-12, and, most likely unknowingly, on certain very specific sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

In turn, these sections are the following: CCC: 709, 782, 803, 1141, 1268, 1546, which are themselves based on 1 Peter 2:9 - 12, and in fact say so:


"There's only one choice for a Christian career:


"You are all going to have to become priests"




"I can just see the shock on their faces.

"But I wouldn't have left them hanging there very long.

"One of the tragedies of religion is that a wall is often created between the secular and the sacred, carrying with it the inherent danger of thinking the balanced life includes some activities that are religious and others that are nonreligious.

"The same is true of art, music, literature, and vocation.

"Hundreds of years ago, there was no distinction between secular art and sacred art - only good art and bad art.

"Incorporating biblical themes into secular paintings was not only common but predictable.

"A visit to any notable art museum plainly reveals masterpieces depicting detailed scenes from the bible.

"These works are hung right alongside exquisite portraits and paintings of landscapes and scenes of everyday life.

"There was also no division between secular and sacred music.

"Listening to the classics confirms it.

"In literature, the distinction was not between secular and religious writing, but between true and not true ... good and bad.

"Today in the arts the distinction between religious and nonreligious is clear and strong.

"Da Vinci, Beethoven, and Dante would have found separate Christian Contemporary Top 40 Charts and Christian Best - Seller Lists to be unnecessary..."

A fascinating read, you bet!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

St. Mary Magdalene's Catholic Church


Altar Servers Sunday Schedule
:



Saturday, September 20, 2008 @ 6:30 PM Mr. Adam Resendez, Mr. Jonathan & Mr. Christian Quiroz.

Sunday, September 21, 2008 @ 8:00 AM, Ms. Brenda Pacheco, Ms. Bianca Martinez, Ms. Bianca Terrazas.

Sunday, September 21, 2008 @ 10:30 AM, Ms. Isela Rueda and Mr. Garón Rueda, Mr. Johnny López.

"First Baptist Church of Brackettville, Texas: Fellowship Lunch"


Sunday, September 21, 2008

After the Morning Service.

Come and enjoy the fellowship and food!

If you can, please try to bring a little extra food for our visitors.

www.fbcbrackett.org

"Lepanto: la battaglia del 1571" IX

Lo svolgimento della battaglia


"Il provveditore veneziano Agostino Barbarigo che comandava l'ala sinistra dello schieramento cristiano, si batté, fino a che non gli mancorono le forze, con una freccia infitta nell'occhio sinistro.

"Sulla sua ammiraglia, Sebastiano Venier, combatté a capo scoperto e in pantofole perché, risponde a chi gliene chiede il motivo, fanno migliore presa sulla coperta.

"Ha settantacinque anni e imbraccia la balestra, aiutato da un marinaio per il caricamento dell'arma, un'operazione che era ormai superiore alle sue forze.

"Sopraffatto dal numero viene soccorso dalle galee di Giovanni Loredan e Caterino Malipiero, che trovano la morte nella lotta..."

"El sacerdote Ricardo Hernández derramó las maravillosas aguas del jordán...

"... sobre la cabecita de la pequeña Blanca Gabriela..."



Adaptada de esta fuente original: El Zócalo, Martes 16 de Septiembre 2008. Por la licenciada Claudia Mezano, presente.

"El sacramento bautismal recibió Blanca Gabriela Gaona García, en la iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe el 13 de septiembre.

"El sacerdote Ricardo Hernández derramó las maravillosas aguas del jordán sobre la cabecita de la pequeña Blanca Gabriela, mientras la sostenían en sus brazos sus padrinos los señores [??!!] José Angel Hernández y la señora Santa García Hernández, que se hicieron presentes desde Houston, Texas.

"Hermosas palabras dedicadas por sus padres y padrinos:

Celebramos tu entrada a este mundo, y rogamos señor que envíes tus ángeles para que su vida sea un manantial de luz, amor y sabiduría, y tu familia sea para ella una bendición ahora y siempre.

"Después de la ceremonia bautismal celebrada a las 5:00 de la tarde, en la iglesia de Guadalupe, familiares y amistades se reunieron para celebrar este acontecimiento tan especial, es la quinta sol y luna ."

¡Felicidades, niña!

B. Adoukonou:

Jalons pour une théologie africaine:


Essai d'une Herméneutique chrétienne du Vodoo dahoméen.


Adapted from a fine little book we just got in the mail yesterday afternoon: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI's classic work of 1977. Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church's Marian Belief.


Pages 77 - 78.

Regarding the Catholic Church's Infallibly Defined Doctrine of Mary's Assumption into Heaven, the then newly - appointed "archbishop of Munich and Freising" ponders:

"The way human life is, implanted in a world where death is the condition of life, birth is always ambivalent, simultaneously a dying and a becoming.

"The words of judgement in Genesis 3:16 describe exactly this fate of man, and the ambiguity of biological becoming: birth is part of death, it happens under the sign of death and points to the death that it in a certain sense anticipates, prepares, and also presupposes.

"[35] The religions of the world frequently express this in a profound way.

"Important references references to this are found in the still unpublished dissertation written at Regensburg by B. Adoukonou, Jalons pour une théologie africaine: Essai d'une Herméneutique chrétienne du Vodoo dahoméen.

"In the voodoo religion treated by Adoukonou (the form practiced in Dahomey, Benin) after a child's birth the placenta and umbilical cord are carried in solemn ceremony to the grave and buried in a circle symbolizing time; on top of it a tree, the symbol of life, is planted: this ritually shows the undivisible alliance of birth and dying, life and death, which stands at the center of this whole religion.

"To give birth to life always signifies at the same time to open oneself to death.

"Now, if Mary is really the one giving birth to God, if she bears him who is the death of death and is life in the full sense of the word, this being the Mother of God is really a new birth (nova nativitas): a new way of giving birth inserted into the old way, just as Mary is the New Covenant, even as a member of the Old Covenant.

"On the other hand, the title [Mother of God] points to the Assumption: from this birth comes only life, no death..."

One tough old - time North African bishop's chilling Brackettville prophecy!!

"Later times were to behold wicked men, imitative as the ape that would like to pass for a human being, who arrogate to themselves [as our American Catholic deacons are so quick to do these days!] exclusively the name of Catholic; with shameless effrontery, they assert that the Catholic Church is to be found only with them."

St. Augustine,
quoted page 97 of THE ROMAN CATECHISM, the one we might call the Pope John Paul II - authoized edition of that old classic The Catechism of the Council of Trent!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

"I Won't Become My Parents!"


Adapted from: Mary E. DeMuth's Building the Christian Family You Never Had.


Pages 45 - 46.


Everything Should Be Fine -- Now That I've Paid My Dues
...


"I remember making a vow to God during college.

"I didn't bother to ask whether he agreed with my pact, but I made it nevertheless.


"My pact was this: I've had enough pain in my life from growing up.

"I don't need any more.

"Therefore, from this point henceforth, life should be easy.

"No pain.

"No trials.

"No problems with parenting.

"Nothing.

"Didn't he know that in order for me to fulfill that first vow -- the one in which I swore I'd never become my mother -- I needed to have children?

"Didn't he know I also needed a stress - free, happy life?

"What kind of God would allow my first baby to drop into my body cavity away from the safe comfort of my womb.

"After hours of surgery, I felt just like that sweet baby -- detached from everything life giving ..."


Hey guys! This is one, powerful read!!

"I received a copy of the letter you sent to Archbishop Pietro Sambi on December 3, 2007"

From: The Most Reverend José H. Gomez, S.T.D., Archdiocese of San Antonio, Office of the Archbishop.

To:
That bad 'ole rabble rousing notched - eared Dennis, 'way down in a gen - you - wine Medieval - Catholic style Borderlands Gnostic - Fantasy Enclave called Brackettville, Texas, U.S.A. Zip code
.

Date: December 11, 2007.

"I received a copy of the letter you sent to Archbishop Pietro Sambi on December 3, 2007.

"I will pass this information to Rev. Tony Vilano, Director of the Office for Clergy and Consecrated Life of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, so that he may address your concern regarding St. Mary Magdalene Parish.


"Be assured of my prayers for you and I ask you to please keep me in yours as well.

"May Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, grant you a blessed Advent season.


[Signed]

"+José H. Gomez

"Most Reverend José H. Gomez, S.T.D.
"Archbishop of San Antonio


"JHG/lvu"

Note:

The information cited in the archbishop's letter concerns the by - now well - known impending public relations nightmare involving accusations of a parishioner against a certain deacon, the Rev. Mr. Joe Goebel, to the effect that he, the parishioner, was not merely told, but according to him, anyway, actively encouraged -- to attend services at the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah Witnesses in Del Rio, Texas, to study everything they gave him to study such as their ideas of the last book in the Bible, "Because Joe says they're much more advanced than we [Catholics] are, etc." or so this informante expressed his understanding to me in words of same or similar effect.

Note two:

This same informante assured me that the Jehovah Witnesses gladly opened their pockets and gave him $cash $money for "traveling expenses."

Note three:

They also indoctrinated him in how to maintain shear hatred for the Catholic Church, and of how, in at least one instance, he could share their "history" of how nuns routinely murdered their babies and buried them on convent grounds in one of Mrs. Elizabeth "Liz" Goebel's so - called Faith - Sharing meetings on parish property, and in the presence of two wide - eyed minor children.

Because Mrs. Goebel was (and I am sure still is!) acutely aware of her husband's foolhardy and continued involvement in all these anti - Catholic activities, she was careful to keep silent herself, and strove to prevent this man from being challenged by any of the rest of us present.