Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.
Telegram: The T&G reports that SMOC is closing the “wet shelter” in Framingham. A wet shelter is a place you can go if you’re homeless but not sober.
Also reported: a project by Worcester State College students reveals, “Most neighbors favor group homes.” (I’ll post some commentary when I get my hands on the report.)
Continue reading “Items”
Confused about the Middle East? Want to learn more? Come hear
Voices for Peace in Palestine
A slideshow presentation by
Palestinian peace activist George Rishmawi.
Wednesday, October 4
7:00-9:00 pm
SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker
52 Mason St., Worcester
Discussion and refreshments to follow. For more information, call: 508
753-3588
George Rishmawi, of Beit Sahour, West Bank, has spent more than a decade promoting peace initiatives within the Occupied Territories. He is the co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, an organization that links internationals with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, and a board member of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People.
A Palestinian Christian, Rishmawi, 33, is also coordinator for Siraj, an organization of the Greek Orthodox Church that provides educational programs and meaningful pilgrimages in Palestine.
Radio host Tom “Mr. Hetero” Crouse writes:
[Debbie Maken] has written a book that advocates that all single people should be looking to get married. She goes so far to say that a single person who purposely chooses to not get married is in sin. While that may be a little strong, there is merit to the thesis of the book. It is God’s norm that people get married. It is the most sacred of relationships that we have on this side of eternity, as there are no others that display Christ and the Church.
Huh.
In 1 Corninthians, chapter 7, after telling husbands and wives that they should be intimate with each other, Saint Paul (who most Christians consider an authority on Christianity) goes on to say:
This I say by way of concession, however, not as a command. Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am [unmarried], but each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. Now to the unmarried and to widows, I say: it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do, but if they cannot exercise self-control they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire.
For a Catholic perspective, which not surprisingly takes the advice of St. Paul into account, see the Catechism on virginity and Catholic Answers on “Is Marriage Mandatory?”
Mr. Crouse’s views on marriage are silly, but also I think of some concern. When he says of the marriage relationship and how they share time together and in intimacy maybe using accessories like the impressive bullet vibrator. Marriage is becoming a family and having the same faith “there are no others that display Christ and the Church,” he paints a picture of the universe as a small and scary place.
This contrasts with the view of Jesus, who in the parable of the sheep and the goats says that acts of kindness toward the needy are acts of kindness towards Christ Himself. When we feed the hungry, we are feeding Jesus.
All of our relationships can “display Christ and the Church.” That’s the point of being Christian! To the extent that our relationships display Christ and the Church, we lead successful Christian lives. Every moment and every gesture can be sacred. God is not present only in a few grand things (marriage, church buildings, right-wing talk shows), but everywhere and at every moment.
(I would have posted this as a comment to Mr. Crouse’s blog . . . but he turned off comments some months ago and deleted all the old ones.)
I make an appearance on this week’s Saint Kermit podcast, speaking from my parents’ basement (like all the real podcasters do). I manage to talk politics with Jim for a few minutes, and then start ranting about the pope’s Regensburg speech.
{{{mp3}}}
From tonight’s City Council meeting agenda:
23. Charles Luster request to change the name of Chandler St., from Main St. to Park Ave., to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Worcester Magazine notes that four new streets will be created by the CitySquare project, which the City suggests be called Church Street, Mercantile Street, Trumbull Street, and Eaton Place. You know they could only have come up with such crappy names on purpose, to wave a red flag in the face of those who love the city, in hopes that those folks would respond with a list of excellent names such as Worcester deserves.
Why not name one of the new streets MLK? Follow that up with Abbott Hoffman Way and Harvey Ball Boulevard (which would lead motorists right to Smiley Square).
We now have a street named after Major Taylor. Let’s keep the momentum going and recognize more Worcester heroes this way.
Speaking of Worcester heroes, Gary Rosen is on his way to becoming my favorite City Councilor with agenda items like this:
37. Request the City Manager consider the feasibility of introducing rubber sidewalks in the City of Worcester. (Rosen)
A worthy follow-up to his rat proposal.
The reader who submitted the above agenda items also sent this one in:
C. Request City Council Accept an Offer from the Worcester Sharks to Provide Transportation, Admission, Food and Refreshments for City Officials to Attend the Inaugural Worcester Sharks Game at the Portland Pirates on Friday, October 6th at 7:05 pm.
Kevin Ksen and Matt Feinstein have written their accounts of an incident in which Worcester police roughed up Mr. Feinstein and arrested Mr. Ksen while the two were passing out flyers. The police version of the story has Mr. Ksen blocking the police from entering a house. Not surprisingly, Messrs. Feinstein & Ksen remember things very differently.
As noted previously, Kevin has filed a complaint relating to this incident.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the pope’s now-controversial Regensburg speech, but I’m hardly the person to weigh in on theology, and this is hardly the place to discuss something so widely discussed elsewhere. (In fact, I’ve turned off comments on this post.)
But I wanted to point you to Mike Griffin’s comments on the speech, and especially the pope’s treatment of violence:
George Weigel and Richard John Neuhaus seem increasingly perplexed by the growing pacifism of the Holy See. First they tried to dismiss John Paul the Great as a kindly old man who, of course, wants peace but really should stick to religion and let the U.S. exercise “prudential” warcraft. But now comes along Benedict, the one who in a May 2, 2003 Zenit interview said that “we should be asking whether it is still licit to speak of the very existence of a ‘just war’.”
And again in last week’s Regensburg speech, the pope rejects the very basis for violence. It is not rational. One way of putting the pope’s point is that the authentic commands of God are reasonable, even if faith is needed to penetrate their depths. And, of course, to see what the Father commands, we turn to the Son who shows us the face of the Father. In that turn, to Jesus Christ, we have full clarity. Christ offers a way of nonviolent, sacrificial love of friends and enemies. Period. No wiggle room for building nukes—whether it is Muslim Iran or Christian America-—or using violence to further principles.
One thing you can say about Jesus: he didn’t kill anyone, however bloodthirsty his subsequent followers might have been.
Kevin Ksen, a well-respected Worcester activist and frequent contributor to the Worcester Independent Media Center website, has filed a complaint against the Worcester police for “harassment” and “false arrest.”
Kevin and another activist were passing out fliers for a rally protesting the filming of the “COPS” TV show in Worcester when some police showed up, with the “COPS” crew in tow. Kevin says that when he tried to take photos of the situation for Indymedia, things got out of hand.
Good story in the Telegram:
With the first flash, Mr. Ksen said, Officer [Mark] Rojas “quickly grabbed my arms, which were in front of me with the camera, twisted them up behind my back and slapped cuffs on me in seconds. I was pretty amazed how fast I was cuffed.†During the episode, he said, officers deleted a photo from his digital camera and threw away the fliers he and his friend were distributing.
[…]
In an open letter sent Monday to Worcester City Council members and others, Mr. Ksen said his own case was another for “the list of stories we have all watched unfold this past year through which the bad cops have given our City and the (Police) Department a black-eye …â€
Lest you forget, a few days after Kevin was arrested, Worcester’s Police Chief kicked “COPS” out of the city, saying:
“I just believe it is in the best interest to ask ‘Cops’ to leave.â€
I’m leaving South Bend tomorrow.
From the introduction to John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row:
Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, “whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,” by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, “Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,” and he would have meant the same thing.
The Catholic Worker community: Margie Pfeil, Mike Baxter, Cinnamon Sarver, Brenna Cussen
From today’s reading (James 2:18):
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
a recipe
1/2 part Miller Lite
1/2 part Bud Light