Help also Mrs. Anna to keep awake for scientific sewing of dresses, even though she be only a woman and a Christian and therefore unworthy of your interest!

--The King of Siam

Let's take a spin around the web, whee...

First up is Doxology. Now before I get to the actual post, I'd just like to take a minute to say something. I'm really impressed with Rebecca. Either she's receiving excellent catechesis (It could happen!) or she's been blessed with an extraordinary sensus fidei. But I guess she'd have to have that. After all, it's not like the Catholic Church does more than pay lip service to the concept of drawing non-Catholics to the Faith in North America. I guess she'd have to be pretty hardcore to begin with, to go to all the bother of converting.

A good post over at The Anchoress today, where she discusses a parish that has decided to pursue intense inter-faith dialogues during Lent, as part of their Lenten practice.

She then goes on, and asks her readers if they think this is a good thing to be doing for Lent. Rebecca answers "no", proving yet again her head is firmly on straight.

Intrigued, I headed over to The Anchoress' site. I was in for a treat.

The laity at this Catholic parish has decided that their "doing" will be a doozy. :-)

"This year, we want people to think about making peace during Lent," said the Rev. Randy Phillips, pastor of the nearly 10,000-member church at 12151 Fifteen Mile Road. "To help us think about this, we're bringing people together from different religious traditions to talk about our common hopes for peace.

A doozy, now there's an understatement. It's nice to see that The Anchoress also has a slight bit of suspicion whenever this whole "ecumenical fad" rears its head. Way to go, Anchoress.

Now, let's just break this down a little further.

A. This not only distracts from the purpose of Lent, it can form a tendency to the sin of pride.

"This year, we want people to think about making peace during Lent,"

With all due respect, Father, can we please get people to think about...oh..I dunno...prayer, penance, and fasting during Lent? I mean, seriously now, can we please have forty days out of the year for this? You get Sundays off, for cryin' out loud! Secondly, let's look at how this "reflection" can so easily be twisted. The following is an example:

I'm Jane Average Catholic. Father's told me we need to think about "making peace" while talking with some Protestants, Jewish people, and whoever else shows up at this workshop. Ok, let me review my notes.

Hmm, making peace. Well, how do I act? I'm not in the military, and I don't shoot people or blow them up. I don't even throw rocks when I'm angry. I don't support any violent groups or things. And I believe everyone should be happy and peaceful. Heck, I don't even get mad when my barrista uses two-percent milk instead of skim milk in my mocha latte grande. I've got a handle on this!

But wait, I'll sound like I'm so full of myself if I just say that! I need to come up with something...

Nine times out of ten, what they come up with is the list of things the Church gets beat over the head with.

The Crusades
The Inquisition
Galileo
The Pope helping the Holocaust.

Because you know what, that's how it always goes down. Someone throws out some charge against the Church, real or imagined, and then all the Catholics hang their heads for a sec, before fiercely affirming:

Well, that's the Old Church. We're not like that! We're better than that. Don't blame me! But, well, we're sorry.

Thanks. Some days I get disgusted that I'm on the same team as some of you people.

As a person with some Irish blood, I've been waiting (quite patiently I may add) for someone to apologize for Oliver Cromwell and The Penal Laws. Does anyone out there know what a "Mass Rock" or a "Hedge School" is? But please, babble on about what you think you know about the Crusades. That'll work.

So, what are we left with here? We're left with a "Lent" where the faithful learn: The Church did awful things long before they were born. They need to constantly make amends for this by totally debasing their religion, in order to please others. On the plus side, none of them are guilty, in the strict, technical sense, of "sin".

Nice.

There is a group within the Catholic Church (mostly comprised of mid-level diocese bureaucrats) that are actively trying to destroy the Church. Now most of them, to be fair, probably believe they're creating a better church. They believe they've got some sort of insight, and can create some sort of uberthing that will just knock the socks off that retrograde Catholicism. You know, the one with the prayers and the incense and the Latin and whatnot. I mean, that's so 1962, right? The rest of them just want to destroy. They get off on it. These folks spend their days hatching up programs to slowly but surely destroy the Catholic Faith and replace it with something of their own devising.

Now this one thing, this "dialog for peace" thing, this is right out of their playbook. I've met the people that come up with these sorts of things. I've talked with them. To be more exact ,I've listened to them gloat over their plans. "We will have women priests in fifteen years". One DRE informed me, when I applied to teach CCD. "And you had better get used to that idea. You and your Pope. The Church is heading into a new era. There's nothing you can do about it."

Oh really? Game on then.