This last week’s Gospel got me thinking: what is the status of the soul that is possessed?

I’ve always found this particular Bible passage (about how the devil that is cast out goes wandering in search of comfort, and, when he can’t find it, gets together a group of his evil buddies and goes back to invade the soul from which he was evicted) quite eerie. It actually seems to give us a bit of insight into demon psychology… but also to suggest that, after the demons are cast from the soul, it is ultimately in even greater danger since they are likely to return in force. Now, allowing one’s soul to be invaded by demons certainly doesn’t seem good. Our priest used this passage as an opening for talking about the importance of giving the devil no quarter, and keeping the door firmly closed to his influence. That doesn’t seem an unreasonable way to expand on the passage, but even so, I have to wonder: are people necessarily blameworthy when they are possessed?
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I’m thinking of writing a country song called “Barack Obama Done Stole My Heart.” And, as you all reel in shock and horror, let me specify that this would not be a loving tribute to the Commander in Chief, but rather a lament that, given our country’s steady saunter towards socialism, I’ve become sadly cynical about any effort that is supposedly aimed at helping “the poor.” (Actually, there might be exceptions, because I do think that the poor in this country suffer greatly, but it is a suffering born primarily out of the totally degraded social conditions under which they live. So I don’t sneer at job training programs or marriage education, but mostly the programs I hear about seem aimed towards offering handouts of one kind or another, many of them no doubt to people who ought to be working.)

A classic example of what I hate cropped up at Mass recently where, at the Archbishop’s request, all the parishes have been playing a recorded message basically asking us to give money to the archdiocese. Now, in the first place, playing a recording seems tacky to me. If you want to send a letter for pastors to read out, fine. But do we have to have a little commercial, complete with cheesy, recorded music? It’s just not dignified.

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Coming out of the last post (on “excessive Mariology), I thought I might pose the question: is it right to think of gender as accidental? When I say this, of course, I am referring to the Thomistic metaphysical language by which the characteristics of any thing are either essential (roughly, an unchangeable part of the sort of thing it is) or accidental (a characteristic of the thing that could theoretically be changed without changing the fundamental nature of that thing.)

Bonifacius, following St. Thomas, contends that gender is accidental, on the way to making an argument that the female gender is (accidentally but still intrinsically) inferior to the male. It is my opinion that this argument is offensive and degrading to women generally and Our Lady in particular; it is a fact that it contradicts the explicit teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You may read more of that discussion in the next thread. Here I just want to ask: how helpful is it to think of gender as an accident?

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It’s a common refrain among new parents or the parents of young children. “Before I had kids, I used to get so annoyed with other people who let their children… (fill in the blank.) Now I understand more, and I feel bad for being so uncharitable.” I’d like to think that I’ve been more charitable with respect to children’s behavior. But I figured it might be an interesting experiment to record my thoughts on this matter now, so I can check back later and see if I have anything to regret.

I like to think I’ve always been pretty sympathetic to the needs of young families. When I’m on a plane and I hear a baby howling, I mainly feel sympathy for both parent and child. A break from routine is often upsetting for a baby. And what’s the poor mother supposed to do – take the kid outside? As far as the rest of the passengers go, well, that’s what headphones are for. In a hotel room, similarly, I don’t get too irritated if the sound of a crying child comes seeping through the wall. A blaring television or radio is a legitimate source of annoyance, but I understand that sometimes kids cry, and the parents are probably doing the best they can to restore calm.

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So, just as I promise not to disappear again, I promptly do. It’s not really my fault this time, though. We’ve just finished moving, and had no internet at home for quite a long time. Thanks to Bonifacius for keeping things alive around here… hopefully now that I’m back at my computer I can help once more.

Is there anything more exhausting than moving? It’s a great allegory for Purgatory – anticipation of better things to come, but for the present, seemingly endless pain and toil. This was just a local move, and it still left me wanting to go into hibernation for the next five months. But the happy news is, the Doctor and I are now homeowners for the first time! Hooray for mortgages, property taxes and home improvement projects!

Anyway, just to get my fingers warmed up again, here are the things that I’ve learned over the course of this latest move.
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Ah, Cornell Society! How have I missed thee! This past month I put myself under a posting ban, in an effort to finish an academic project that desperately needed finishing. I figured I really had to conserve my mental energy. Of course, now that this project is complete, others immediately crowd in demanding attention. But I’m lifting my self-imposed ban because, well, I quite miss it, and I wouldn’t like to disappear entirely.

Besides, I’m sure crowds of people have been waiting on pins and needles for the second installment of the vegetarianism debate.

For the present, however, I wanted to make a small report on the Cornell Catholic Community. We’ve kind of gotten away from our roots on this blog; reporting on the abuses of the CCC was one of the main things that brought this little clan together. Now that all but one of us have moved on to greener pastures, we haven’t much to say on that subject anymore. Of course, I personally never did. I arrived on the scene comparatively late, and was warned away from that unhappy organization. Thus, when I accompanied a friend to Mass on Cornell’s campus this last Sunday, it marked only the third time I had ever done so.
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Coming off of Labor Day weekend and a classic season of outdoor barbecues, I thought it might be interesting to consider the question: is vegetarianism morally defective?

First of all, I should define my terms. For the purposes of this reflection, I regard as vegetarian a person who doesn’t eat meat on the basis of some kind of principle that they would regard as ethical. A person who rarely or never eats meat for pragmatic reasons (because they can’t afford it, because they have digestive problems, etc.) doesn’t count as a vegetarian for this post. I myself, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, was a de facto vegetarian for a time, simply because my apartment had no adequate refrigeration, forcing me to avoid foods that could easily spoil and cause disease. But this was never a moral position, and as a guest in someone’s else’s home, I would willingly eat meat if it was served to me. These sorts of commonsensical cases raise no difficult ethical questions that I can see.
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You’re not supposed to use mean words like these anymore to describe bad Catholics, but the past week has shown just how desperately we need them.

Cardinal O’Malley’s recent blog post justifying his participation in Ted Kennedy’s funeral was, in its way, almost as painful as the event itself. Signs of bad faith are everywhere. Consider, for example, his suggestion that many people have been upset about the funeral because Kennedy “did not publicly support” Catholic teaching and advocacy on behalf of the unborn, as though the offense were merely oversleeping through the March for Life instead of a longstanding, public commitment to supporting abortion legislation. Then, after some glowing (but very brief and unspecific) homage to the Senator’s life accomplishments, the remainder of the post is a study in irrelevance as he reminisces about other deceased members of the Kennedy family (apparently we’re supposed to be impressed that not every Kennedy was through-and-through depraved; Rose Kennedy, for example, had a lovely prayer card at her funeral), the beauty of the music at the funeral, and the charm of the Irish generally. He also made some mention of his own record of pro-life activities, as if to prove to the Catholic faithful that honestly, he isn’t pro-abortion.

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When I was in college, I joined a kind of Evangelical Bible Study club for about a year. A friend invited me and I was in that contrary phase where I was trying to find arguments why Catholicism might not be the way to go, so I accepted. The discussion wasn’t on as high a level as I would have liked, though it did probably help me to establish a daily regimen of Scripture reading. The scariest part, though, was when I was asked (not asked really, so much as ordered) to sell candy to help raise money for the summer mission trip of a girl in the group.

My problems with this were that 1) I really don’t do the candy-selling thing, 2) I wasn’t sure how I felt about the whole Protestant mission-trip business, and 3) This girl was crazy. Truly neurotic. I won’t elaborate, except just to say that she would be a dreadful emissary for Christianity in almost any setting. I was almost sorry she was going to a Muslim country instead of a Catholic one; as a representative of Evangelicalism, she might have been an excellent instrument for scaring Catholics back to Rome.

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I was reading Fr. Z’s blog today, and ran across a tidbit in an article he posted from the Catholic News Agency that I found rather alarming. Fr. Z let the remark pass without comment, but it certainly popped off the page for me. The article was covering an ongoing “conversation” of sorts between Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, and Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. Richards was wagging a finger at the US bishops for (gasp! shock!) opposing Barack Obama’s attempts to include national sponsorship of abortion in his health care bill. Doerflinger was trying to argue, contra Richards, that the bishops are not, in fact, opponents of “women’s rights.”

Here was the part that alarmed me:

“Doerflinger said the bishops’ materials about health care reform have been centered on supporting universal coverage, but opposing mandated abortion coverage.

‘She keeps talking about how we’re trying to diminish a right,’ he said of Richards. ‘A mandate is not consistent with personal choice. If what she’s talking about is people’s personal ability to choose whether or not to buy abortion coverage, we’re not going to oppose legislation that allows that.’”
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