Archbishop Burke in the Media [UPDATED]

(Archbishop Burke with Seminarians at the 2008 March for Life)

St. Louis' Archbishop Burke seems to be getting some press again [AP News] for some of his pastoral work in the Archdiocese. He has consistently been correcting public personalities (celebrities, politicians, and now Catholic university representatives) on their stances as Catholics 'in favor of choice' (i.e. pro-abortion). The media should not be surprised when our Archbishop takes a stand for life and for the Church, because his actions (as leader of the Church in St. Louis) are the same as the kind of actions any CEO would take when one of the CEO's employees contradicts his employee contract. In the Archbishop's case, he is more merciful than a CEO, because he calls the individual to repentance, and even prays for his or her reconciliation. Show me a corporate CEO who does that for rebellious employees, and I'll give you a dollar.

So many people today are bringing scandal upon the Catholic Church, and many don't even know they are doing it. Archbishop Burke is doing a wonderful thing, trying to help certain individual Catholics (consider the case of Sr. Louise Lears at St. Cronan parish [St. Louis Catholic]) become better Catholics and return to God by showing them how to avoid scandal. A Catholic celebrity, using his or her public position to promote a pro-abortion belief (or even to let it be known that he or she is pro-abortion), needs to know that his or her soul is in grave danger.

For an alternative view of certain Bishops' heroic actions, please read Anita Crane's article about Judge Andrew Napolitano's support of bishops who stand for what the Catholic Church teaches [Celebrate Life Magazine].

[UPDATE: There's an article with an interview with Archbishop Burke concerning his comments about SLU basketball coach Rick Majerus on stlreview.com]

March for Life 2008 - Wrap-Up

As I'm sitting on a charter bus on the way back to St. Louis, I can't help but think that our nation is heading in a direction of finally eradicating the evil of abortion. Whether this will take ten of fifty years, I don't know, but I noticed so many people on the march, and most of them youth, that I don't know how our society could still tolerate this sad reality. A priest on the trip mentioned that the 'pro-choice' mentality is self-defeating; if you abort your children, you're cutting off possible future support for your cause. On the other hand, if you're pro-life, and helping our nation maintain its replacement birth rate, you're supporting your cause doubly!

The march was packed, and I'm sure the media will report there having been 'tens of thousands' (if that) of people at the march, when in reality the number is likely over a hundred thousand:

At the end of the march (during which the Archbishop marched with us and led a Rosary), the Seminarians gathered at the Supreme Court and we had our picture taken with Archbishop Burke:

As much as I love the March, I'll be glad to not have to go again at some point in the future. Perhaps one of these years, we'll have a celebratory march, after the illegalization of abortion. Even at that point, though, we'll have more battles to fight over human life (such as the morality of euthanasia, infanticide, etc.), but abortion, in my mind, is the centerpiece of life issues today. You can see more of my pictures on the pictures section of this site (pictures on the March, and pictures from D.C. in general)

A Few Minutes After the March...

I am sitting in the Catholic Information Center a few feet away from a tempting table full of Dunkin' Donuts, after having finally met Dawn Eden at a 'blogger party.' I've never heard of the CIC before a few weeks ago, but I have to say it's one of the finest Catholic bookstores I've ever visited—and, as an added bonus, it has a chapel inside, with daily Mass and adoration! Here's a quick picture of myself and Dawn at the party:

The march was well-attended (of course, the mainstream media won't tell you so), and I hope to post a few more pictures later today or tomorrow. See you then!

In D.C., Preparing for the March Tomorrow

Tomorrow's the big day, and I'm now getting ready for it by taking a nice, long rest. Most of the day was spent walking around downtown D.C., and going to Macy's twice, since I needed a sweater in the morning (forgot to bring one), then lost a glove during the day (and needed another pair). Luckily, they had an awesome half off sale, in addition to a 'foreigner' sale for those of us not living in the District of Columbia, so it wasn't too damaging to my wallet.

I shot this picture of the Capitol building about half an hour before sunset:

Then a seminarian and I walked all the way down the national mall and shot a few pictures of the Washington Monument (it was a gorgeous sunset on a clear day - the little speck you see next to the monument is an airplane in the distance):

Finally, I visited the National Gallery with a few other seminarians, and we noticed a peculiar picture just outside the presidents' portrait gallery:

Apparently, Stephen Colbert had the gumption to ask if his portrait could be hung in one of the Smithsonian galleries in Washington, D.C... Maybe I could get my portrait added there, too, if I carried it in on my back [DCist.com].

Perhaps I'll be able to get a post in tomorrow; if not, you'll see a summary of my thoughts on the March (as well as some photos) by the weekend—stay tuned!

Blogging for Life

I just arrived in Washington, D.C., and will post a blog posting or two before I head back to the States. I hear there will be a lot of activity at this year's March for Life besides the march itself; and hopefully we'll have even greater numbers than usual. It's not too cold today, and hopefully that will be the case for the next few days!

Interesting Squirrel Video

One woman has gone to great lengths to show just how clever squirrels can be—she devised a complicated obstacle course for squirrels to complete to get a few nuts to eat. Click here [Maniacworld.com] to see the video (it's well worth a few minutes of time!).

No Place for God (Church Architecture)

I just finished reading a thought-provoking book by Moyra Doorly (an architect from England) entitled No Place for God. The book speaks of the Modernist architectural revolution and how it influenced (and still influences) the Catholic Church's architecture, and gives some examples to highlight some problems in the way the Church is expressing its faith through its buildings.

After reading the book (which now has many dog-eared pages), I thought about mindsets for Church architecture, and especially interior design. I can think of three main approaches to Church building and renovation today:

1. Overly extravagent: The 'let's make it ridiculously ornate for the sake of having a pretty Church that people will be jealous of' group falls here. Those in this group would love a Church where every corner is full of gold-foil paint, icons, statues, candles, etc., to the point that it becomes hard to find the altar.
   
2. Overly simplistic: Those who wish to remove all icons, artwork, and ornate furnishings from Church in order to create a space that shows how the community of people 'gathers around the table of the Lord.' However, simplistic Churches (and I'm sure anyone reading this has been inside at least one) tend to lead people's minds astray, especially since our wandering eyes don't have anything holy or spiritual to gaze upon (which would help bring us back into a state of holy awe and wonder).
   
3. Just right: In order to foster devotional life in the Church, and to express the true liturgical worship that cannot happen outside of a sacred space, a Church should have visible signs of the divine—statues of saints, icons depicting our Lord's life, a decorated sanctuary with a pleasant and cohesive architectural structure and color scheme, and other means for the faithful (as well as the priest) to lift their eyes towards God. Nothing should be so gaudy as to detract from the mystery of Jesus' real presence, but neither should anything be so plain as to make people think the Church is a place just like any contemporary office building or apartment complex.

Doorly points out in her book that many Churches seem to have been built in the spirit of Modernism, and as such have very little or no sense of the sacred in them (besides, of course, Jesus' Real Presence), because, according to Modernism, we seek the sacred inside ourselves, and the Church building should lead us inward, not outward. Being born after 1980, I can't say whether all these claims are true; I didn't live through the revolutions of the 60s and 70s. But I can say that I don't see God's majesty visibly expressed in many of the Churches I visit.

I pray that all of the Church buildings in the world can offer enough majesty through their artwork and architecture to lift Catholics' souls to Heaven, but avoid the extravegances that some Churches of earlier times may have been part of.