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Month: May 2007

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Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Yummy cheese

From Polish Radio via the Polish American Forum: Slovakia backs down on sheep’s cheese war

Slovakia will withdraw its veto on the registration of the Polish `oscypek‘ highlander cheese. An agreement on the matter has been signed by Poland’s deputy premier and agriculture minister Andrzej Lepper and his Slovak opposite number Miroslav Jurenia.

Slovakia officially filed the veto with the European Commission on February 19th claiming it has for centuries been the producer of a similar type of cheese under the name of `osztiepok’.

If Poland would receive the Recognized Certificate of Origin, its `osztiepok’ could encounter serious barriers in export to other EU markets, Slovakia argued.

However, the Polish side had been successful in explaining to its southern neighbors that a bilateral agreement of December 2005 effectively guarantees the two products and their brand names absolute independence of each other, having entirely different cow milk content and place of origin.

This allows for independent registration of the Slovak and Polish cheese product. The contentious cheese has been produced from times immemorial on both sides of the border in the Tatra mountain region with the initial differences becoming more visible, or rather palatable.

The Polish `oscypek’ continues to be hand made by highlander shepherds and has a cow milk content of only 40%, while in the Slovak `osztiepok’ variety it goes up to 80% and the cheese is produced in seven selected dairy plants with Dutch and French capital participation.

Now if some of my Górale friends or family would just send some over… Oh, and a case of Harnaś as well.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective

OK, I’m confused

As I noted in my article, Rules are rules, especially if we don’t like you, The Roman Catholic Church uses its prerogative (which it is perfectly entitled to) to discharge folks who don’t follow its beliefs.

There have been numerous articles on the subject. Examples include the firing of unmarried pregnant teachers and the subject I wrote on, the firing of a devoted church youth music director (who happens to be the wife of a PNCC priest on active duty with the U.S. Air Force), and so on.

My feed reader caught two articles today that show the discrepancies and unequal treatment practiced from diocese to diocese.

From NineMSN: Catholic schools in bid to ban non-Catholics

Tasmanian Catholic schools have applied for an exemption to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act in a bid for the power to turn away non-Catholic students.

Archbishop Adrian Doyle has outlined the new plan, which aims for all Catholic schools to have at least 75 percent Catholic students.

He said the policy would ensure “very strong Catholic ethos and vision” in Tasmanian Catholic schools, and would be slowly rolled out across the state…

— versus —

From RTí‰: Presbyterian gets top Catholic Church post

The Catholic Church in Ireland has appointed a Presbyterian as the head of its child protection unit.

Ian Elliot, Director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Belfast, is to become the first Chief Executive of the Church’s National Board for Child Protection.

When he takes up his duties in a month’s time, he will have completed two years on secondment to Northern Ireland’s civil service where he has led a major reform programme for child protection services.
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Church sources say he is the first non-Catholic to be appointed to such a senior post in Irish Catholicism.

OK, so there’s a shortage of Roman Catholics in Ireland!?!

I get that I’m being sarcastic, but doesn’t the Roman Church’s inconsistent treatment of folks make it look all subjective and vindictive?

Again, no problem if the Church chooses to solely hire Roman Catholics, and solely Roman Catholics who follow Church teaching. That might actually represent something – a strength of witness. Instead it looks like it is all ends justify the means Machiavellian. That’s unfortunate.

Calendar of Saints, PNCC

May 29

Within the Octave of Pentecost
St. Cyril of Caesarea, Martyr, (251)
St. Theodosia, Virgin and Martyr, (745)
Saints Sisinnius, Martyrius, and Alexander, Martyrs, (397)

Homilies,

Memorial Day Holy Mass at Albany Rural Cemetery

Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.

I could use this homily to make a strong case for the enduring sacrifice of our brothers and sisters. They most certainly responded when called upon.

Rather than being paid, they paid, paid with their lives. So it is with those who serve our country with honesty and integrity. They aren’t in it based on dollars and cents. Many would take a grease burn at McDonald’s any day, for a little less money, over an IED along a roadside in Iraq.

No, there is something more important to them. It is, I believe, grounding in ideals, ideals based in the gospel reality Isaiah prophesied;

Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.

No, I will not make the case for their sacrifice. It’s already apparent, just look at the headstones around you.

In the years ahead we will be seeing more and more markers in places like this. 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry, HQ Company, 1987 – 2007. We will also see more and more of the wounded and crippled coming home. They will search for jobs and apartments that can accommodate them. They will seek services in an effort to readjust, adapt, and make sense of it all. They will come to pray along side us in our parish.

In the years ahead we will see the veterans of the Second World War pass into history and we will see our Korean and Vietnam vets pass as well.

Again, none of these facts are a mystery to us. Common sense tells us that death is inevitable. Our Christian faith assures us no death is void of hope.

Their sacrifice endures, yet we still ask the question: ‘Why?”

St. Paul gives us an insight:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Our brothers and sisters who have sacrificed thought about those things, and not by accident. Our history, both as a nation and as a people, founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ, and owing to the patrimony of the Church, taught them to look for, study, and imitate what is right and good, namely sacrifice.

May their sacrifice be an eternal memory. May their sacrifice teach us to do likewise, to stand for what is right and good against all that would oppress us. May their sacrifice inspire our efforts in protecting the oppressed, and battling against all that is selfish, self-serving, and without merit.

In the end, it is our duty to honor, protect, defend, and promote the Gospel, and the way-of-life shown to us by Jesus Christ in the beatitudes. That duty goes beyond presidents, countries, borders, and even time. It is our Christian duty, the same duty those of integrity have stood and died for throughout the ages. It has been passed on to us and is ours to take-up, cherish, and honor.

Amen.

Poland - Polish - Polonia

Memorial Day

We remember

The verses from Czerwone Maki na Monte Cassino (Red Poppies on Monte Cassino).

poppey.jpg

Monte Cassino holds the monastery that is the cradle of Benedictine Order and one of the pillars of Christianity. It was built about 529 A.D. Monte Cassino is strategically located about eighty miles south of Rome.

This song commemorates the World War II Battle of Monte Cassino (actually a series of battles) in which Polish forces prevailed in the battle for the strategically placed monastery. Troops from each of the Allied powers attempted to take the fortified mountaintop position, but only the Poles were able to prevail. The battle was strategic in that it allowed Allied forces north of Monte Cassino, in the Anzio pocket, to link up with southern forces prior to the capture of Rome.

D`you see those ruins on the hill-top?
There your foe hides like a rat!
You must, you must, you must
Grab his neck and cast him from the clouds!
And they went, heedless of danger
And they went, to kill and avenge
And they went stubborn as ever,
As always – for honour – to fight.

Red poppies on Monte Cassino
Instead of dew, drank Polish blood.
As the soldier crushed them in falling,
For the anger was more potent than death.
Years will pass and ages will roll,
But traces of bygone days will stay,
And the poppies on Monte Cassino
Will be redder having quaffed Polish blood.

They charged through fire like madmen,
Countless were hit and fell,
Like the cavalry at Samosierra,
Like the men at Rokitno years ago.
They attacked with fury and fire,
And they got there. They climbed to the top,
And their white and scarlet standard
They placed on the ruins `midst clouds.

Red poppies on Monte Cassino
Instead of dew, drank Polish blood.
As the soldier crushed them in falling,
For the anger was more potent than death.
Years will pass and ages will roll,
But traces of bygone days will stay,
And the poppies on Monte Cassino
Will be redder having quaffed Polish blood.

D`you see this row of white crosses?
Polish soldiers did honour there wed.
The further you go, the higher,
The more of such crosses youl’l meet.
This soil was won for Poland,
Though Poland is far away,
For Freedom is measured in crosses
When history from justice does stray.

Red poppies on Monte Cassino
Instead of dew, drank Polish blood.
As the soldier crushed them in falling,
For the anger was more potent than death.
Years will pass and ages will roll,
But traces of bygone days will stay,
And the poppies on Monte Cassino
Will be redder having quaffed Polish blood.

Perspective, ,

Pontifically Ecumenical

I’m not really sure as to what happened to Fr. Al Kimel’s Ponifications Blog, but it appears to be gone. He had a temporary space at WordPress.com, and perhaps, that is where he’s going, but who knows.

I recall reading that he was planning on moving the blog – and he well may have, but I’m not going to perform an exhaustive search for it.

As one of my web design mentors, Dean, at Heal Your Church Website might say, mystery meat navigation is bad enough, but non-navigation is completely wrong. If you are going to move a site, at least leave clues (Col. Mustard in the library with a pipe 😉 ).

I searched a few of the usual suspects like Sacramentum Vitae, but no news. While there I did find a pointer to an argument Fr. Kimel and his Orthodox correspondents were engaged in (see: Not talking about God) which pointed to Not Yet Ecumenical from Energetic Procession.

It was the typical point and counter-point of the filioque, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, etc. Nothing I want to cover in this post though. The PNCC and Orthodoxy are on the same page on these issues anyway.

The quote from Not Yet Ecumenical that struck me was as follows:

Third, Fr. Kimel’s —ecumenical— approach isn’t yet ecumenical. To be ecumenical he needs to recognize the legitimacy of the other in terms of the other. Orthodoxy has to be seen to be legitimate on its own terms. It cannot be ecumenically engaged by either reducing its teachings to some other Latin expression in a dismissive fashion or arguing contrary to fact that its distinctives don’t hold the weight of the teaching authority of the Orthodox Church. These are both strategies that Fr. Kimel has employed rather routinely.

Nor is it ecumenical to dismiss Orthodox commentators as —polemicists— who are only interested in seeing Rome as heterodox. It never enters Fr. Kimel’s mind that they might have some measure of rational justification for thinking so. And yet the Orthodox are supposed to take seriously the dogmatic claim by Rome that the Orthodox are at least materially heterodox. What Fr. Kimel’s whine amounts to is the old canard that the Orthodox are just instrinisically [sic] sinful and schismatic. To even speak of the same common faith that we are to work towards presupposes the Catholic view of things, that we do in fact have a common faith. That has to be demonstrated, from the Orthodox view, rather than assumed. And this I think picks out a major difference between us. Communion for the Orthodox will depend on a demonstration and not the judgment of a singular authority.

That’s it in a nutshell. That is why great care must be taken when speaking of dialog with the Roman Church.

The table you sit at, with the Roman Church, allows for the dialog – it is conducive to that. The table allows for on-going grievances and difficulties to be aired, but the table, regardless of its shape, still represents sides and positions.

The Roman Church, by its sheer size, weight, and attachment to certain stumbling block dogmas, while at the same time adhering to (albeit in an unspoken way) extra ecclesiam nulla salus is not in a position to bind up wounds and heal divisions. All of us, in the Catholic fold, excepting Rome, are inherently schismatic in their eyes, and anyone who lives apart from the Pope is not fully Catholic.

I’m not saying these things because of Fr. Kimel’s positions. He is certainly a top notch apologist and polemicist. He has personal axes to grind with the folks in TEC that let him down. He found solace in the strictures and rule books of Roman Catholicism, which is fine for him. At some point the hurt will lessen, the polemics and staunchness will wear down, and faith, the core element of hope will come out on top.

As to the general theme of dialog, the final quote from the Not Yet Ecumenical post sums up the problem of ecumenical dialog with Rome:

And to even ask when Orthodoxy dogmatized this question is to measure Orthodoxy by [Roman] Catholic standards. It didn’t and doesn’t need too because it is in the Fathers and the Liturgy. It’s called Tradition, not a dictionary.

Indeed the Roman Church’s sine qua non for unity is adherence to its terms, conditions, and definitions.

When the PNCC, or Orthodoxy for that matter, are admitted in the door as full living Churches with their own character and practices, which are at heart fully Catholic, then I’ll believe it is otherwise. Else wise we must continue to pray and talk.

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