Hereditary, My Dear Watson?

James Watson, formerly of Cold Spring Harbor Lab made racist comments recently that made the news . Check out Dawn Eden's description of her meeting with him.

Then, please see this article which includes this telling quote:

"James Watson would have aborted his son if a genetic test had been available at the time warning that his child would be born with severe epilepsy.

"Any time you can prevent a seriously sick child from being born, it is good for everyone," Dr Watson told The Sunday Age. "Most mothers wouldn't want to have dwarfs."

Or:

"For instance, he believes abortions are acceptable where a foetus is found to be genetically inclined to homosexuality."

Then there is the whole question of how much credit should have gone to Rosalind Franklin for the discovery of DNA's Double Helix:

From Wikipedia:

"Watson's original title was to have been "Honest Jim," in part to raise the ethical questions of bypassing Franklin to gain access to her X-ray diffraction data before they were published. Watson seems to have never been particularly bothered by the way things turned out. If all that mattered was beating Pauling to the structure of DNA, then Franklin's cautious approach to analysis of the X-ray data was simply an obstacle that Watson needed to run around."

Or from Jewish Virtual Library.org:

" In fact, many scientists believe Franklin played a larger role than previously acknowledged in the research that led to the 1962 Nobel Prize that was awarded to Maruice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson for the discovery of DNA's double helix.
Wilkins shared Franklin's data, without her knowledge, with Watson and Crick, at Cambridge University, and they pulled ahead in the race, ultimately publishing the proposed structure of DNA in March 1953."

Is this a trend here on Long Island? First St. John the Evangelist parish and now Cure of Ars in Merrick?

"The church was re-opened in early October after an extensive renovation. Some generous parishioners took on the cost of the renovation which included having the tabernacle moved to the center of the church behind the altar."

From The Long Island Catholic

Special Report: Are they inventing their own Mass in Holland?

"In Nijmegen, Holland, in the church of the Augustinian friars, each Sunday the Mass is concelebrated by a Protestant and a Catholic, with one presiding over the liturgy of the Word and the sermon, and the other over the liturgy of the Eucharist, in alternation. The Catholic is almost always a layperson, and is often a woman. For the Eucharistic prayer, the texts of the missal are passed over in favor of texts composed by the former Jesuit Huub Oosterhuis. The bread and wine are shared by all."

This story by Sandro Magister was found on Catholic Online . In the land of the murder of Theo Van Gogh, it appears Christianity is on its way out.

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS

The 15TH ANNUAL MEETING at St. John's University Law School

Post IV

Professor Joseph Varacalli, the founder of the Center for Catholic Studies at Nassau Community College, asked me if I could put together a panel on Catholic blogging and I was intimidated but very honored. I knew there were a some local bloggers around and asked Leticia Velasquez of Causa Nostrae Laetitiae and Dawn Eden of The Dawn Patrol first. I knew there were others in the NY area I could ask but both of these women said yes so there was our panel. We would each speak for 15 minutes and then there would be a question and answer period. Later, Elizabeth Andrew, a local blogger I was not familiar with, was added to the panel so we had a 4 person panel. I was exciting to talk about Catholic blogging since I have been very interested in them since I started reading some of the blogs on Gerard Serafin's "List of Some Catholic Blogs". When Gerard died I created the Catholic Blog Directory to continue this valuable resource of having a list of blogs of interest to Catholics. I wanted in my talk to give a background/history of Catholic blogging and to point out the importance of blogs to Catholics, and hope I did some justice to this. In hindsight, I wish I had gone over some ideas on blogging that I would have liked to stress, but because of time constraints and nervousness I left them out or mentioned them briefly. I also would have liked to gone into some criticisms of blogs but we did not as a panel do this. Overall though, the panel went fine. Next, I will post my basic talk for the panel and fill in some of the stuff I left out in the talk.

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS

The 15TH ANNUAL MEETING at St. John's University Law School

Post III

After the great panel on Pius XII, I skipped the expensive lunch and went across the street to the Fame Diner and had a turkey burger. Then I met up with Leticia and we went to the room where the blog conference was being held to see if we could get our blogs put up on the screen in the "smart classroom" (we figured it out somehow). Before our blog conference in this same room was a panel on The Legacy of Pope John Paul II Continues so I stayed. The discussant was Brian Scarnecchia, Chair of Humanities and Professor of Catholic Social Thought at Franciscan University. He introduced Peter Colosi of the Franciscan U. Gaming, Austria campus, who delivered a paper on "John Paul II and Christian Personalism vs. Peter Singer and Utilitarianism: Philosophical Reflections on the Foundations of Ethics".

Colosi began his talk by mentioning Peter Singer's decision to hire people to take of his elderly mother who was suffering from dementia. This was a shock to me. After all, this is quite a strange thing to do for a guy who has spent years telling people killing disabled, sick, elderly, and newborn people is morally okey-dokey. Colosi said Singer could not bring himself to do what his philosophical beliefs would have him do, because he loved his mother. He contrasted Singer's philosophy with that of Pope John Paul II's and it is quite a contrast. Colosi gave a deep and interesting talk and I can't wait to read the paper, which he gave out to all in attendance.

Following Colosi, was Jose David Lapuz, UNESCO Commissioner and Executive Vice-President, Philippine Council on Foreign Relations. He spoke on "The Inspired Thoughts of Pope John Paul II and UNESCO: Why Human Rights and Reduction of Poverty is Quintessentially a Catholic Concern". Professor Lapuz spoke fondly of his encounters with Pope John Paul II and of the Pontiff's interest in the work of UNESCO in fighting poverty and in championing human rights. Later, at the wine and cheese reception, I found Professor Lapuz to be very charming and humble in describing to me his encounters with the Pope.

After this conference was the conference on Catholic blogs, which I will write about shortly...

I went to see the movie Bella today with my wife and my mother. The movie was very good, I would encourage all to go see it. I am a bit leery about movies that are touted as pro-life, or Catholic or Christian as they can be cheesy. Bella was not, it was very well done. On the way out of the theater, who did I run into? My fellow blog panelist Leticia. I still have to write about the rest of the Conference at St. John's Law School, including the blog panel. More to come...

Pius XII and The Catholic Church during World War II

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
THE 15TH ANNUAL MEETING at St. John's University Law School

Post II

I was able to attend Panel # 39 at the conference of The Society of Catholic Social Scientists yesterday. This panel was "The Pius Wars and Sister Margherita Marchione" Sister did not speak, except to mention 1 interesting fact, but at the lunch following the panel she was given an award for her work on Pope Pius XII and World War II.

The panel was moderated by Fr. Edward Krause of Gannon University. First, Kenneth Whitehead, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, gave a review of several books written about Pius XII that refuted the charges of anti-semitism and non-action during WWII. These included:

The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII

The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis

Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Revisionists

Consensus & Controversy: Defending Pope Pius XII

Did Pius XII Help the Jews?

Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Save Half a Million Jews from the Nazis

Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat during World War II

Mr. Whitehead gave an overall summary of the job many people, including those on the panel, have done in showing the charges that Pius XII was silent at the plight of the Jews during WWII was incorrect.

Next, Ronald Rychlak, author of Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Save Half a Million Jews from the Nazis, gave a talk that mentioned some more details in the fight to correct the perception of Pius XII. He spoke of the sudden attacks on Pius XII that started about 8 years ago and asked why all of a sudden was this an issue? His answer: the chattering classes saw the end of Pope John Paul II's reign approaching and wanted to influence the Church in a different direction. For example, Rychlak mentioned that the last chapter of "Hitler's Pope" was all about Pope John Paul II! Also, the last chapter of "Constantine's Sword" was about the need for a Vatican III. Interestingly, Rychlak pointed out the play The Deputy, the first attack on Pius XII's character, was produced at a time when Pope John XIII was expected to die. (In 1963 he died and the play was first staged). When Rychlak was discussing John Cornwall, Sr. Marchione mentioned that Cornwall has now recanted his thesis of "Hitler's Pope"! Another interesting fact, but the panel pointed out how the damage was already done.


Bill Doino, a Catholic columnist spoke next on "Pius XII: An International Perspective". He mentioned the collection of people, mostly those on the panel, who had been doing important work around the world to correct the errors that are now commonly held about Pius XII. This whole panel was held in the St. John's Law School Moot Court Room, and the verdict was overwhelming against those that had defamed the character of the holy Pope Pius XII. Thanks to these scholars, and to the Catholic League, (Bill Donohue was in the room also listening to the panel) the truth about Pius XII and the Catholic Church during WWII is being told.

Around St. Blog's

I have been enjoying reading The Deacon's Bench by Deacon Greg Kandra, from Queens.

I have also enjoyed reading The Cafeteria Is Closed with Gerard Augustinus' reaction to the fast pace of Manhattan, and to his experience with NYC cab rides.

I also enjoyed checking out the pics at Hallowed Ground.

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
THE 15TH ANNUAL MEETING

The panel on Catholic blogs went well today at the conference. I spoke about the background of Catholic blogging and gave a bit of history. I mentioned two ways I felt that Catholics use blogs - as a correction to and extension of the mainstream media, and also as evangelization. I will post more about the panel and the conference tomorrow.

It was a bit weird being at St. John's University for the first time since graduating in 1992. The campus has been built up, it now has dorms and also a Church, where a Mass was held for conference attendees. I love the academic world and felt a longing to be back at a University setting.

FINALLY, via Newsday the AP has studied the sex abuse scandals of school systems.

AP: Sexual Misconduct Plagues US Schools

"An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic."

"Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims. "

"The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. "

"The findings draw obvious comparisons to sex abuse scandals in other institutions, among them the Roman Catholic Church. A review by America's Catholic bishops found that about 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors from 1950 through 2002. "

It is about time that the problem has been studied in depth, but I wish they had done the study covering the school system from 1950-2002 as was done with the Catholic Church. I would also add that there have been many false claims of abuse filed against teachers, as there have been against priests. But at least now a study has been done that will call attention to the problem of abuse in schools.

UPDATE: The link was corrected

Two Long Island housing related stories from Newsday:

• College grads push for affordable housing

Natalie Gaebelein started Stay on Long Island to lobby for affordable housing.

"There's nothing for people my age," Gaebelein said. "There's nowhere to live. You either live at home in your childhood bedroom, which is pretty embarrassing ... [or] somebody's basement."

Although my wife and I own a coop, we are looking for a house. Both of us spent plenty of time living at home. There is simply nothing affordable for college grads here. The condo complexes that are beautiful are mostly for people 55 and over. Houses that need a lot of work cost a huge amount of money. Although the housing prices are coming down, the taxes are not. When I saw some of the places my siblings lived in other states before they bought houses I was struck at how there was nothing comparable here on Long Island. Either something needs to be done to get affordable housing here, or people need to continue to move elsewhere.

• Ban on religious statues raises legal questions

"The community's homeowners' association board approved the rule this year, banning religious statues and bird feeders and birdbaths from all common areas. In those gardens, residents are allowed to place other small statues, gazing balls, scarecrows and even plastic pink flamingos so long as they don't exceed certain other restrictions."

The president of the Condo board Arlene Crandall -

"Typical decorations" should be allowed, as opposed to religious statues, for instance, which only appeal to one segment of the community's population."

So, pink flamingos appeal to everyone?
As mentioned earlier, I live in a coop so we have common areas for planting flowers and I am familiar with the types of rules complexes must set down. We are not allowed any statues or flags or anything except flowers to be put in the common areas. This is a sensible rule since people tend to lack common sense and taste. But banning only religious statues is simply bigoted, and does not make any sense when things like pink flamingos are allowed. If the complex didn't allow statues of Mary because or the danger of a huge wind storm picking it up, this would make sense, but they actually ban any specifically religious item. If I lived in this complex, I would respond to this by planting the biggest, most gaudy, ugly and tastless stuff in every inch I could.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Massapequa Park is asking people to sign up next week if they wish to attend a traditional latin Mass. From today's bulletin:

"Our Holy Father has given permission to
parishes to have a Latin Mass. Next Sunday
there will be a sign up sheet in the back of
the church after all the Masses so we may
see how many people are interested in attending
this Mass. Date and time of Mass to be
announced."

A Long Island Catholic was mentioned in The Long Island Press on 10/3/07! Overall, a nice mention, but what was I smoking when I said Mama's Family was one of my favorite television shows?? I think I have found the link and it was a post on really bad tv shows that I still enjoyed watching. For the record, my favorite tv shows are The Simpsons and Seinfeld.

Here is the link to the article and text featuring my blog:

Citizen Journalists

A Long Island Catholic

http://www.revertedxer.blogspot.com/

What's the deal? Most of the entries deal with Catholic education, the Diocese of Rockville Centre and other Church matters. This LI Catholic school veteran (16 years) started following this modus operandi after Catholic bloggers reminded him "how awesome it is to be Catholic (even now)." He says that although his personal Church experience has been completely positive, things are so bad that he has occasionally blogged to complain or write about the corruption.

Why should you care? These are well-written posts by a self-described "liturgy nut" who is rooted in the religion of the ages, yet is a child of the times. (He says he met his future bride on www.catholicmatch.com.) He favors humor, observing that after a September 2006 address by Pope Benedict XVI resulted in violence in the Muslim world, The Onion could run a headline reading, "Pope Calls Violence Unreasonable, Muslims Violently Protest." But the 30-something cradle Catholic also veers far from matters of faith, sometimes focusing on non-Catholicism Long Island stuff: He didn't care for the Rosie/Trump feud and confesses that his favorite TV shows include Monty Python's Flying Circus and Mama's Family. He offers fixes for the high taxes Long Islanders shoulder. He reviews rock concerts.

Quotable: "When someone asks you, 'Think about what Jesus would do,' remember that a valid option is to freak out and turn over tables." (He attributes this quote, which appeared on one of his entries, to http://www.catholicpillowfight.com/.)

I am back from a relaxing week in Mexico and am just catching up with the news from Long Island. Seems I missed an interesting week Church-wise:

The parish of Leticia from Causa Nostrae Laetitiae and Patrick from Creative Minority Report is all over the Catholic blog world. It seems Bishop Murphy was at Saint John the Evangelist Parish for confirmation and was not happy with the comportment of the parishioners before Mass. The result: at his direction, the tabernacle is being moved front and center! This is great news and typical of the leadership of Bishop Murphy. Please go to the two links above to read the Bishop's letter.

Also, Diogenes at Off The Record and Fr. Z. at WDTPRS both link to retired Bishop Wcela's article in America magazine regarding the traditional latin Mass. The article is typical of this bishop's smug and condescending attitude toward tradition. Bishop Murphy is pushing this Diocese into the right direction, which is opposite from the direction that Bishops McGann and Wcela took it when they ran things.

Found via Charlotte was Both -

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP at Domine, da mihi hanc aquam! has some great observations on campus ministry including:

"You had a crappy childhood at St. Sixtus of the Perpetual Frown under the bruising discipline of Sr. Mary of the Five Wounds of Christ, so religious habits, rosaries, crucifixes, devotional booklets, Latin, incense, sanctus bells, etc. all remind you of stifling dogmatic lectures, knuckle-rappings, silly moral imperatives, triumphal-martial Catholicism, etc. Guess what? They aren’t you! They didn’t have these experiences, so they don’t associate Eucharistic adoration and First Friday Masses with intellectual repression and physical pain. Let them transform these traditions and make them their own."

The whole post is very good, go read the whole thing. Thankfully, the campus ministry, youth ministry and young adult ministries in the Diocese of Rockville Centre have all been transformed over the past few years so they are on the right track.

I have always read the obits in Newsday. I don't consider it morbid, they can actually be a pleasant read, especially when the person has lived a good, long life. An example was -

Peace activist Jozef van der Grinten dead at 88

Today, liberal Catholic and Newsday columnist Bob Keeler remembered him in this column.

I had sent Fr. Z at What Does the Prayer Really Say? a link to Bishop Murphy's column on the Motu Proprio published in The Long Island Catholic. He does his usual parsing of the statement and mentions the statment was a pleasure to read. For some reason the comments section became a bitch-fest on the Diocese of Rockville Centre with many talking as if conditions in this Diocese are a result of Bishop Murphy's leadership. I never thought I would be defending a Bishop or the DRVC but there I am in the comments section doing just that!

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS

THE 15TH ANNUAL MEETING

Friday and Saturday, October 26-27, 2007

The St. John’s University School of Law

8000 Utopia Parkway Jamaica, Queens, New York 11439

I had listed the panels and speakers for Friday, now I will list the panels for Saturday. The panel on blogging is Panel Sixty-Three.

Panel Twenty-Two: Economics and Catholicism: II

Panel Twenty-Three: Topics in Catholic Historical Research

Panel Twenty-Four: Problems and Prospects in Catholic Education

Panel Twenty-Five: Problems and Prospects of Globalism

Panel Twenty-Six: Eastern Catholic Saints: Developers of Eastern Social Conscience

Panel Twenty-Seven: The Knights of Columbus: Founding, History, Apostolate

Panel Twenty-Eight: Issues of Life and Death

Panel Twenty-Nine: The Sociology of the Two Great Commandments: Shaping the Structure and Function of Society

Panel Thirty: The Voice of the Poor: The Advocacy Mission of the St. Vincent de Paul Society

Panel Thirty-One: Topics in Catholic Psychology: Community and Church Based Counseling Services, Parental Attachment, and Human Formation at a College Seminary

Panel Thirty-Two: Human Society

Panel Thirty-Three: The Sexual Scandal in the Catholic Church Today: Should The Church Oppose Extending Statutes of Limitation?

Panel Thirty-Four: Evangelization through the Airwaves: The Example of Radio Maria

Panel Thirty-Five: African American Catholicism and Catholicism in Africa

Panel Thirty-Six: Faith and Reason in Catholic Thought as Understood by Pope Benedict XVI

Panel Thirty-Seven: Catholics in American History: Perspectives on the Founding

Panel Thirty-Eight: Catholicism Transforming Culture

Panel Thirty-Nine: “An Afternoon with C.S. Lewis”

Panel Forty: The Pius Wars and Sister Margherita Marchione

Panel Forty-One: The Inevitable Metaphysical Connection with Social Science

Panel Forty-Two: Abortion, The Church, and American Society: Past, Present, Future

Panel Forty-Three: The Sociology of New York City

Panel Forty-Four: The Contribution of Frederic Ozanam

Panel Forty-Five: Teaching in the Classroom

Panel Forty-Six: Psychology and Catholicism

Panel Forty-Seven: The Cardinal Newman Society/ The Promotion of Chastity: National and Local Efforts

Panel Forty-Eight: Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, andSocial Policy (Scarecrow Press)

Panel Forty-Nine: Catholic Approaches to Criminal Justice

Panel Fifty: Trends in Sacred Music During the Twentieth Century: An Appraisal

Panel Fifty-One: Roundtable: The Ancient-Moderns Distinction: Catholic Perspectives

Panel Fifty-Two: The Sexual Revolution: How Christians Accepted It and How to Counter It

Panel Fifty-Three: The Legacy of Pope John Paul II Continues

Panel Fifty-Four: A Critique of the Writings of Some Prominent Secular Thinkers: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Sigmund Freud

Panel Fifty-Five: Catholic Faith and Morals in the Institution of the Family

Panel Fifty-Six: Catholics of the South

Panel Fifty-Seven: Catholicism and Social Work

Panel Fifty-Eight: Resolving Conflict in the Middle East

Panel Fifty-Nine: “Catholicism and Social Science”

Panel Sixty: “Catholicism and the Law: Special Topics”

Panel Sixty-One: Staying the Course! A Tribute to Monsignor George A. Kelly”

Panel Sixty-Two: Attacked on All Fronts: How Secular Ideology is Marginalizing the Rule of Law and Catholic Contributions to Law and Society”

Panel Sixty-Three: The Impact of Catholic Bloggers: How They Are Becoming An Important Alternate Voice in Catholic Culture

Panel Sixty-Four: The Legacy of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI and the Direction of the Church Universal

Panel Sixty-Five: Critiquing MacIntyre’s Critique of Liberalism

Panel Sixty-Six: Critical Issues in Catholic Education

Panel Sixty-Seven: Roundtable Discussion with the S.C.S.S. Sociology Disciplinary Section: “Developing a Sociology Textbook As a Companion Volume for the Compendium of Catholic Social Teachings”

Panel Sixty-Eight : Catholicism and Politics

Panel Sixty-Nine: Economics and Catholicism: III

Panel Seventy: The Use of Virtue in the Treatment of Psychological Disorders

Panel Seventy-One: What Catholics Need to Know About Islamic Jihad

Panel Seventy-Two: Strengthening Catholic Higher Education: A Roundtable Discussion

New "Extraordinary Form" of the Mass on Long Island!!!!!!

Thanks to reader Anthony for pointing out this from Fr. McCartney, the pastor of St. Matthew in Dix Hills:

"For some four years now we have offered the Novus Ordo Mass (the Mass of Vatican II) celebrated in Latin each week with music provided by our Gregorian Schola. Because I have received so many letters from parishioners requesting the Tridentine Mass, I am happy to announce that the 9:00 a.m. Sunday Mass in the chapel will become a weekly Tridentine Mass. The first Mass of this “extraordinary form” of the liturgy will be celebrated by Msgr. Vincent Keane on Sunday, September 16, 2007. It will be a learning process for both priests and people, and there may be some bumps along the way. But I am very happy to be able to offer this Mass, so important in our Catholic tradition, to those who desire it. I have been studying the liturgy, and look forward to being able to celebrate the Mass myself soon."

Leticia Velasquez of Causa Nostrae Laetitia, who was aptly named a "dynamo of Catholic energy" by Oswaldo Sobrino, has created the Dr. Jerome Lejeune Society. The goals of the group are:

1. To provide support for parents of children with Down syndrome with the help of their Catholic faith, including a beautiful prayer which Dr Lejeune's daughter, Anouk Lejeune Meyer will send us.
2. To raise society's awareness of what beautiful children they are to lower the 90% abortion rate
3. To raise funds to support ongoing research to treat and to cure Down syndrome, like Fondacion Lejeune
4. To support Dr. Lejeune's cause for sainthood, by raising awareness of his contributions to the science of genetics, to the pro-life movement, and to raising the dignity of individuals with Down syndrome.

I read Life Is A Blessing, written by Dr. Lejeune's daughter and it was a wonderfully inspiring book. Here is the link to the Dr. Jerome Lejeune Foundation and a link to the Wikipedia article on him.