Someone explain this to me.....

Obama is America's no 1 hero, not Jesus: Survey-US-World-The Times of India

"The top 10 list based on the poll showed Obama at number one position, Jesus Christ at number two, and Martin Luther King at number three.

Wrapping up the top five are Ronald Reagan and George W Bush.

They were followed by Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger, and Mother Teresa in the same order."

I haven't been updating the Katrina/home blog lately.... Mostly because we haven't been working on the house lately. We have been otherwise occupied.

Invited by our parish priest, Redemptorist priests Fr. Warren Drinkwater & Fr. Vic Karls treated us to a parish mission this week. After all of these years... when it seemed like the parish was either in its late death throes - or already dead... These guys managed to bring us back to Life.

And I was thinking about it this morning... What is it that revived our church - that will revive the Church? There were no creative liturgical interpretations. There was no interpretive dance. No fireworks or people dressed up as Barney the dinosaur. No puppets. No I'm-okay-you're-okay hug sessions. Nope. There was preaching... confession.. and the Holy Mass.

That's the stuff.

Thank you to our beloved priest, Fr. Kelleher - as well as Fr. Drinkwater & Fr. Karls. They will remain always in our prayers and I hope our readers will include them as well.

Got God?

We participated in a wonderful parish mission this week - and I am planning on posting about the mission itself within the next couple of days... But, in the meantime, I had to share this one irksome experience from last night.

Part of our motivation for deciding to homeschool our kids was our disappointment with the Catholicism (or lack thereof) of our local parochial school. Was I asking too much when I expected my boys to come home with some knowledge of the sacraments... or knowing the basic prayers?

Last night our mission ended with a reception at the elementary school cafeteria. I haven't been in the cafeteria there since prior to Hurricane Katrina - and was happy to see that they had fixed the place up. What made me even happier was to see a gorgeous and substantial crucifix adorning the main wall of the room (something which was painfully absent before) and a poster featuring Pope Benedict XVI a few feet away.

However, when I stood in line to get something to drink - I noticed this on the wall directly across from the new crucifix:

Am I the only one who finds this advertisement to be inappropriate for a cafeteria where Catholic children from preschool to sixth grade eat their lunches all week? I mean -- even if we ignore the skin-tight wife-beater style boy shirt and the undeniably provocative pose.... There's the message of the text: "Girl Power. Actress by day. Rocker by night. I've got to keep fit to keep up. Some studies suggest that teens who choose milk instead of sugary drinks tend to be leaner and the protein helps build muscle. It's the best of both worlds." And then the trademark slogan: "body by milk".

The problem here is the message... "Girl Power" as suggested by this ad - consists of what, exactly? The girl is not an athlete ... So having a lean and muscled body (as suggested by the photo) affords such a girl with what advantages? Right. "Girl Power" = Sex. Sexual appeal... experience... prowess, even.

Just. Ugh.

"The battle lines have been drawn"

Rabbi Speaks on Pope Benedict Controversy: Leftist Catholics Using Jews to Attack the Pope: "'It has now become very clear, for all to see, the extreme danger that having some who hold high positions in the church seeking to destroy their own church and attack their own pope.' He added: 'The silver lining is that its now that the battle lines have been drawn.'"

No sir, I don't like it.

And you probably won't either.

Have you read the new census questionnaire? You should. It's here. (It's a .pdf - in case you need the warning.)

What ever happened to a simple: "How many people are living in the household?"


(h/t Jane Q Republican)

When 'human rights' trump human beings

Above: A flagrant example of the lack of new values centered in the
recognition of fundamental human rights.

I sat down with my coffee this morning to this little gem of a news item:

United Nations Population Fund Leader Says Family Breakdown is a Triumph for Human Rights: "Speaking at a colloquium held last month at Colegio Mexico in Mexico City, UNFPA representative Arie Hoekman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent instead the triumph of “human rights” against “patriarchy.”

'In the eyes of conservative forces, these changes mean that the family is in crisis,' he said. 'In crisis? More than a crisis, we are in the presence of a weakening of the patriarchal structure, as a result of the disappearance of the economic base that sustains it and because of the rise of new values centered in the recognition of fundamental human rights.'"

Yesterday I had planned to write about the trials and travails of being a stay-at-home mother to five kids in a household supported by a conscientious and loving husband and father. The idea started to lose ground as I mentally played-over various hypothetical responses to a post on such a subject: "You don't work and you're complaining?" "Try being a single mother." "You're the one who decided to have five kids." The internal conversation quickly devolved further into accusations of selfishness: "There are starving children in the world and you chose to bring more into it." "Do you even think about how much solid waste you people produce? What about your carbon footprint?" "I bet you live in a big house and drive an SUV too, you ignorant zealot." Or self-righteous pity: "You're nothing more than a house slave to that man." "Your unenlightened world-view brings you to actually believe that reproducing has some bearing on your self-worth."

Eventually the hypothetical responses won the day - and I never published the post.

But those responses were grounded in more than theory - they were all drawn from experience. Alternatively, if I had a dollar for every time someone has exclaimed, "Wow, what a beautiful family!" - I still wouldn't be able to make change for a five. We are constantly belittled and berated instead. Complete strangers find it well within their rights to make obscene remarks about whatever they imagine our sex life to be. At best we are ignored - a social pariah.

So now Mr. Hoekman spells it out for us: We are a seven-person force of oppressive patriarchy. Our disdain for 'fundamental human rights' represents all that is still wrong with the world. But not to worry - we're fading fast... We, the anachronistic hold-outs in the face of progress and modernism! Someday - as the enlightened forces of good contracept and abort themselves out of existence - those of us too stupid to stop reproducing will disappear from the face of the earth and... Uh... wait a second.... Just how well was this plan thought out again?

Link to the petition

An increasing number of headlines each morning are chiding Pope Benedict XVI and his decision to lift the excommunications of four SSPX bishops. Of course, headlines chiding the Pope for something appear every morning... And all those general disagreements have not gone away either. Therefore, the internet is positively cluttered with criticism of the Holy Father this morning.

CatholicCulture.org has an excellent summary here. (Complete with links to news articles.)