It is great to see Karen Hall, formerly of Disordered Affections, back blogging at Some Have Hats.

Catholic Light has posted some excerpts from a leaked copy of the new English translation of the Mass. Some of this looks great, such as the return of "We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we glorify you" in the Gloria. Also, I like "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed." I don't care for a few things, such as the Creed where the line "by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man" was changed to "and by the Holy Spirit became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man". Still, I hope this is the correct translation and that I will be able to pray this way at Mass soon! Some of the prayers are closer to the english translation in my father's 1943 missal that I use when attending the traditional latin Mass. Some of the translations are gender neutral, such as "for us and our salvation" in the creed. If that makes the gender neutral crowd happy, then so much the better. Perhaps with this improved translation, we Catholics will finally be able to "just all get along".

Is Newsday Anti-Catholic?

Why is that even a question? Of course it is, but the Catholic League is asking people to vote on their website so please go here and vote.

My post about the parish on Long Island holding a seder was mentioned on Blogs4god. The poster could not understand why learning about the seder was troubling to me, as does the commenter on my post. I should explain more because nothing bothers me about learning about a seder or any other tradition. What bothers me is that a Catholic parish would be learning about another religion's traditions rather than its own. I just don't see the point. How about the parish gathering together to participate in some Catholic tradition? The reason this is a touchy thing with me is not because there is anything wrong with having a seder, but that the one time I read about 200 Catholics "learning tradition" in a parish, it is not a Catholic tradition. If I had been taught any kind of Catholic tradition in my parish, then I would not find it so weird, and if this parish already does emphasize Catholic traditions, then fine. But it is disheartening to want to learn and experience Catholicism and not being fed. Meanwhile, at many local retreat houses, there is Reiki, Zen meditation, and praying to the four winds, all of which might be fine and dandy, but not truly part of our tradition. In fact, the seder makes more sense for a Catholic parish to have than any of these things. I also obviously have a problem with Fr. Papa being a pastor when he was caught with porno sites on his computer. He admitted to viewing them, but denied viewing the child porn sites that were found, he claimed they just popped up. This parish supports him because he is very liberal and supports Voice of the Faithful, etc.. I don't think Fr. Papa should be leading a parish at all, but if he is, how about leading them in some Catholic traditions, in addition to the Jewish ones? Is that so much to ask?

Jim Post, president of the Voice of the Faithful dissident group spoke on Long Island recently:

"Consider the tone and tenor of the challenges we face today as Catholic citizens.

The Passion of the Christ. Has this movie become the new teaching of Christ's life and message?
The institutional attack on gay marriage, court rulings, legislative proposals, and, in some instances, all homosexual people.
The issuance of instructions that ban altar girls.
The decision of some Bishops not to wash the feet of women on Holy Thursday (for fear it would encourage the faithful to believe that women have a priestly calling).
Overt challenges to the right of some Catholic citizens (politicians) to receive communion. This is politicization of the sacraments.
Requiring new rituals to separate the laity from the ordained.
These actions are mean-spirited and range from attacks on innocent people whose sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, to pettiness (rather like the "petty apartheid" that prevailed in South Africa 25 years ago) designed to ignore, shun, and humiliate people our Church leaders do not like."

Based on this quote, not only is Post a dissident, but a complete moron as well.

Mel Gibson can’t be the only Catholic who can take Catholic stories, imagery, etc.. and turn them into excellent movies. I hope there will be others who take up that particular apostolate. I can supply one idea towards this:

Action/Suspense- A movie set far into the future which revolves around a man, perhaps played by James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, or Harrison Ford, who appears to be a leader of some type. He comes across as dignified, weary, but strong. The movie will hint cleverly at the identity of this man but not spell it out. Many will think it is the President of the USA or some sort of rebel leader. The movie plot would be a group of this man’s supporters trying to get this man to a destination. It would be clear that many want this man dead, that he is some sort of leader, that he leads people who have been severely oppressed and that things are turning their way. His leadership will be a turning point for the people, if he can get to where he has to go. He would travel clandestinely and secretly with help from many underground supporters. Only at the end of the film (a la The Sixth Sense) would filmgoers find out his identity. The various clues throughout the film would have to be difficult to pick out at first viewing. There would also be things that might throw the viewer off. This man would be the newly elected Pope, in sometime in the distant future, and his destination would be Rome.