Contemptible Legalism

1. Fr. Jenkins, president of NDU, has sent to the board of trustees (i.e., the guys he actually works for) a response to the criticism of the decision to honor the President. I didn't attend the greatest Catholic university since time began, but even I can recognize a pathetic, contemptible, desperate, legalistic attempt to make chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what. Here's the text, and here's the first few of many replies: by canonist Ed Peters and by NDU alum Stephen Barr. More are sure to follow.

2. There are two things I find significant here. First, perhaps it's me, but if 25+ bishops tell me that I'm wrong about what the bishops themselves are teaching on behalf of the Church, maybe I should take that as an indication that I might have gotten things just a little bit wrong. But that's not the way Fr. Jenkins approaches the issue; he instead interprets the bishops' teaching as he sees it and confirms that he did so correctly (and thus says that he understands what the bishops are saying better than they do, and that they are wrong about what they themselves said). There's humility for you.

3. Second, are you familiar with the poker term "the tell"? It's something that a player does (e.g., an expression or gesture) that unintentionally reveals what's in his hand. Here's Fr. Jenkins' "tell" -- he calls the bishops' prohibition against honoring those who are opposed to fundamental Catholic moral teaching mere "recommendations". This gives the whole ballgame away. There's a technical term for those who believe that the teachings of the Apostles Among Us are not authoritative and binding, and that my private judgment is the ultimate guide for the truth. It's called being a "Protestant". And what, then, does that say about NDU's real identity?

4. For further illustration of the "Protestant Catholic" phenomenon, see the recent news regarding Mr. Tony Blair, recent but obviously incomplete convert to the Church.

5. Meanwhile, ten Holy Cross priests have written a letter to the NDU student paper expressing their disagreement with the invitation to the President.

6. The threat of same-sex "marriage" continues to grow. Gov. Paterson will introduce his own bill, and push the Senate to vote on it.. Advocates see momentum building in their direction, although they continue to be a few votes short: see here and here.. Nearby, New Hampshire's jumping on the SSM bandwagon.

7. In case anyone needs a handy reminder of how evil the Temple of Moloch, er, I mean Planned Parenthood, and its founder are, here's Kathryn Jean Lopez with the goods. But she also gives us the good news in this excellent overview of the real meaning of what the Holy Father said about sex and humanity.