News
John Michael Talbot’s monastery destroyed by fire
Catholic musician John Michael Talbot and his community of lay monastics suffered a great loss this week:
The home of The Brothers and Sisters of Charity founded by Dove Award-winning musician John Michael Talbot suffered a swift and vicious fire close to midnight on April 29. There was no loss of life, although members of the community, including Talbot, are suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
The fire began in the chapel and spread to the community’s Common Center which housed the kitchen, offices, library, classrooms and dining space. All are a total loss. It is unknown how the fire started, but has been declared “no fault” by the fire inspector, says Talbot. Various awards melted in the heat or were burned along with the community archives, inventory and tour equipment. Living areas, studio and instruments were unharmed.
Talbot said that he was up late recording and heard some odd popping noises before noticing a glow in the windows of his hermitage home facing the chapel. He and his wife, Viola, ran to the chapel and found the hoses insufficient to fight the fire, already reaching high into the sky. Talbot said he pounded and screamed at the doors of the other hermitages. Some in the community went into the fire in an attempt to save valuables. Talbot said the smoke was thick and blinding and that all he could see was “black.” When it became clear that the battle was lost, the brothers, sisters and families of the community watched the buildings burn while waiting for the fire department. Talbot says that the fire department put all of their resources into aggressively fighting the fire, but could not save the building. The wood construction contributed to the speed of the fire which burned the chapel to the ground in an hour.
At the wish of the community, Talbot’s Canadian Tour will continue as planned beginning in Great Falls, Montana with a number of stops in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Tour dates and information may be found at his website, http://www.johnmichaeltalbot.com. Founder, Spiritual Father and General Minister of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity since 1980, Talbot credits monastic life in the community as key for the Christian worship songs he writes and records.
While the damage is covered by insurance, donations are helping bridge the financial gap as the community awaits, reorganizes and prepares to rebuild, “this time in stone,” says Talbot. Little Portion Hermitage is located in Berryville, in the Ozark Mountains in Northwest Arkansas. For more information about the community, see http://www.littleportion.org .
[From a Christian Newswire press release]
The “invisible” homeless
Workers at a local homeless shelter spread throughout the city recently to count the homeless—you know, the hordes who only show up (at least on the media’s radar) when a Republican is in the White House— but they hit a slight snag.
BEVERLY - They looked in the woods by Dane Street Beach, in the lobby of the post office on Rantoul Street, even inside a Dumpster on the waterfront.
Staff members from the River House shelter spent two hours last night searching for homeless people around the city as part of a statewide “street count” of the homeless.
The search came up empty, but shelter director Kate Benashski said that should not be interpreted as a sign that homelessness is not a problem in the city.
Typical. Who are you going to believe? Them or your lying eyes? I’m not saying there isn’t a single homeless person in Beverly, but they way they tell it, what should be good news is just hidden bad news. It always is.
Airline pilot cries, screams, wants to see “Lost” season premiere
Here’s a weird one: The co-pilot of an Air Canada flight had a crying, screaming emotional breakdown over the Atlantic.
Yelling, crying and invoking God, the co-pilot of an Air Canada flight from Toronto to London had to be forcibly removed from the cockpit of his jetliner after suffering an emotional collapse as the plane flew over the Atlantic.
Shackled by the wrists and ankles, the shoeless first officer had to be restrained by crew members with the help of a traveller who was a member of the Canadian Forces.
Apparently, he kept yelling, “Leave Britney alone!” (And did he take off his own shoes or did they do it for him?)
“When they tried to put his shoes on later, for example, he swore and threatened people. ... He was ... very, very distressed.”
Looks like he took his own shoes off. Sounds like Isabella sometimes.
“At no time was safety compromised,” Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said.
Well, except for that brief time when he was still at the controls and started his freakout. But after that everything was peachy.
Only in Salem
This would only happen in Salem. Two Wiccans have been arrested for mutilating raccoon corpses and leaving gthem on the doorsteps of two fortunetellers who they felt were charlatans. Yeah, pot, kettle, black.
Now the lone witness, a former roommate, had his apartment broken into and ransacked.
The lead witness in Salem’s raccoon mutilation case returned home yesterday afternoon to find his apartment ransacked, with valuables - including his crystal balls - gone.
You know what they say: People with crystal balls shouldn’t throw stones.
P.S. I love the fact that in this article, we get the equivalent of the “religion of peace” meme, but about Wicca this time.
“There’s probably some internal issues within the Wiccan community,” Sean Wynne [the lawyer for one of the suspects] said. “I can tell you that based on research, that the Wiccan community does not condone any blood sacrifice or the harming of anyone else. I would say this is probably not related to that. There may be a bastardization of it.”
Sure thing. Right.
links for 2007-06-11
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Bush’s gift to the Pope was a 10 Commandments walking stick made by a formerly homeless Texas man.
links for 2007-06-10
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Much ado about nothing. A leaked document of an archdiocesan planning group looks at “what if” scenarios. Newspaper gets a copy and makes a big deal out of it. Usual suspects (i.e. Council of Parish) explodes with their usual complaints.
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In a time with fewer items being mailed and rates rising, customer service is getting slower, not faster.
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While most Mass. public schools are closed on Good Friday, one has decided to hold classes. Maybe they could have used one of the “teacher in-service” days instead.
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Bush’s gift to the Pope was a 10 Commandments walking stick made by a formerly homeless Texas man.
links for 2007-06-09
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Al Gore doesn’t need media coverage; A certain sci-fi author exposes more climate-change illogic; computer models are no good at predicting future climate; the multitude of climate-change skeptic scientists changes a climate-change proponent’s mind; and m
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links for 2007-06-08
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All iPhone. All the time.
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They act as if embryonic stem cells were the only choice until now, ignoring the fact that adult and cord-blood cells have provided many treatments while embryonic cells have provided exactly none.
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Font of bad liturgical music, Oregon Catholic Press, is expanding by acquisition. Oh joy.
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“Who’s a virgin when they get married?” “Um, I was.” Doesn’t Gisele’s question sound somewhat self-serving. So glad we don’t turn to supermodels for our theology.
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Repeals parental notification law and continues the assault on parents’ rights and freedom of girls from bullying by men who take advantage of them.
links for 2007-06-07
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I guess Tom Brady won’t be taking his new girlfriend to an audience with the Pope like he did with his old girlfriend. Of course, seeing that he knocked up the old girlfriend and dumped her… Tom, how low you have fallen. Gisele may be pretty on the outs
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Archdiocese releases secret documents on priest sexual abuse - OregonLive.com: Breaking News Updates
Another big document dump, this time from Portland, Oregon.
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Boston College neighbors worry about dorms on archdiocese chancery property, complain about boorish behavior from students. Response from students: You knew we were immature drunks when you moved in so don’t complain.
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Hollywood maker of faith-based, values-based “spiritainment” movies, TV, commercials wants to build $150 million production studio in Massachusetts.
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Pro-life media campaign to put pro-life commercials on TV. Set up and run by 2007 Franciscan University graduate when he was in high school. Amazing!
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This sounds familiar. Diogenes had blogged about him before.
links for 2007-06-06
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The official association for Bl. Pier Giorgio’s cause for canonization, run by his niece Wanda Gawronska.
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Sort of like my scripts to copy my iPhotos to a server so that Melanie can access them even my laptop is not at home.
Agitating Salem witch at the center of controversy again
Christian Day is at it again. Day is a self-styled witch who runs an annual fair in Salem around Halloween. Apparently some of the fortune-tellers in town don’t like the fact that he’s bringing in out-of-town charlatans to fleece the gullible out of their money by purporting to tell their future. That’s their racket. So they asked the Salem City Council not to hand out licenses (yes, fortune-tellers must be licensed, if you can believe it; preventing fraud and all that) to Day’s out-of-towners.
So now the Salem fortune-tellers claim somebody dismembered some raccoons and left them on their doorsteps. Day says he is shocked, shocked! that anyone would do such a thing. He called it “absolutely disgusting.”
Yeah, right.
I’ve head dealings with Day.
“Puppets”
In 2004, a “vampire” group planned to hold a Vampire & Victims Ball at the Salem Knights of Columbus Hall complete with bondage and bloodletting and blasphemy of the Cross. Day sent me an email under false pretenses, to get the local Catholics riled up against it. It wasn’t that he was concerned about the offense to Christians. He was angry that the “vampires,” his competitors, got the hall and he didn’t. So he used me and you to accomplish his ends. That it also coincided with my own values didn’t matter to him a whit.
In his email to me on 10/18/04 he wrote:
I waited, and now the Knights of Columbus has served my purposes by removing an unnecessary mosquito on the skin of my own events by taking out the Vampire and Victims Ball, which had been causing us such consternation. I thank you for being my puppets. You played your role well.
In a later email dated 12/11/05 he wrote:
And people wonder why Christianity gets such a bad rap these days. It’s because everyone knows how quickly it’s adherents are willing to lie for their cause.
As opposed to the witches, I guess.
Fomenting intolerance
Salem Halloween witches fortune-tellersDire warnings, but is anyone asking the hard questions
Let’s grant that, as the article says, New England’s winters are milder and less snowy than they were 31 years ago. Let’s grant that this is due to a global climate change. My question is this: Why 31 years? Why do they trace back to 1965 and 1970 for the baseline? What was the climate like 100 years ago? 200 years ago? 1,000? 10,000? Was it even warmer? Colder? What caused those shifts?
This is the primary issue of the whole climate change debate for me. Is global climate change a result of human action and even if it is, which I’m not ready to concede yet, can it even be reversed by legislative decree?
I recall reading that in the mid-19th century here were summers in which it snowed in mid-July? Is that preferable? Yet in the Middle Ages, they had years without winters. In northern Europe, they were able to grow grapes for varieties of wine that only live in southern Europe now.
The primary complaint in the hearing of the U.S. House’s Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held for effect on top of Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire, was that the changes will affect the maple syrup and tourism industries by making New England’s climate more like South Carolina’s. Seems South Carolina doesn’t do too bad for tourism. It’s just different tourism and it stinks if you’re a snow skier, I suppose. They could turn the ski resorts into vineyards and make an East Coast Napa.
Seriously though, has anyone definitively determined that these changes are the result of man’s intervention and not the result of a natural global climate pattern of high and lows?
I’m not going to buy the theory just because someone says there’s a consensus. Yeah, there also used to be a scientific consensus that the world was flat. A lot of people agreeing on something doesn’t make it necessarily so. Never mind that there isn’t a consensus, that there are plenty of good scientists who disagree. Ah, but the global warming zealots say that anyone who strays from their orthodoxy are heretics and not to be trusted. And who are the religious extremists?
Technorati Tags: global climate change | global warming | environment |
Jerry Falwell is dead
The Rev. Jerry Falwell has died after being found unconscious in his office by an aide. Despite his flaws and intemperance and sometimes zealotry, Falwell seemed to me to have service of God and the best interests of the United States at heart in what he did, including the founding of the Moral Majority. And for that he was soundly mocked and derided by the cultural elites of our nation.
I suppose there was a lot we would not have in common, but I suspect in the essentials we did. Now that he sees the full vision of God’s glory and the Truth he beheld only partially on this earth, may he receive God’s mercy in full measure as he faces his judgment.
Technorati Tags: Falwell | obituary | Moral Majority |
Removed from Old Ironsides
The captain of the USS Constitution was removed from command by the Navy yesterday. What do you have to do to lose your superior’s “trust and confidence” in commanding an 18th century warship that leaves the pier once a year to turn around in the harbor?
To compound the mystery, Commander Thomas Graves was due to hand over command to his replacement in July anyway.
The Navy isn’t giving details, but from my perspective it must be the sort of thing that isn’t criminal, but is a serious breach of conduct or ethics. On frontline warships a captain can be relieved for letting his ship fall out of combat readiness or even for the failings of a subordinate. For example, if the officer on duty overnight runs the ship aground while the captain is asleep, the captain still loses his job. The saying is that a captain can delegate authority, but not responsibility. He’s responsible for ensuring that his ship and crew are always operating within required parameters.
Now the Constitution isn’t going to be running aground or failing combat readiness tests, but she is an historic landmark, a national treasure, and an educational establishment. Still, if Graves had let the ship fall behind in one of those areas, I think the Navy would avoid public embarrassment and let him serve out the last two months of his tour.
Old Ironsides is perhaps my favorite attraction in Boston, a city full of historical attractions, which is why this catches my eye.
Technorati Tags: Boston | USS Constitution | Navy | Old Ironsides |
Tomb of Herod the Great found
Archeologists report they have found the tomb of Herod the Great outside of Bethlehem. Herod ruled from 37 BC to 4 BC and was known as a prolific builder: He built palaces and aqueducts, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and most significantly the Temple in Jerusalem, expanding it beyond the original Solomonic dimensions. He also built the massive seaport at Caesarea and a palace at Masada.
Herod’s successor, Herod Antipas, was the Judean ruler to whom Pontius Pilate sent Christ before His crucifixion. The famed Jewish historian who witnessed the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD recorded much about the two Herods.
A Hebrew University team found the grave at Herodion, a stunning volcano-shaped desert fortress 5 miles southeast of Bethlehem. The team was led by Professor Ehud Netzer, who has been researching the site since 1972.
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Herodion, a series of underground tunnels hewn out of a mountain and topped with a magnificent palace complete with bathhouses, is regarded as one of the most astonishing engineering feats of the ancient world.
Herod was descended from the Edomites, a tribe of ancient enemies of the Jews who converted to Judaism in about 120 BC. When Palestine was under Roman rule, Herod’s father became chief minister of Judea. Herod was made governor of Galilee when he was just 25 years old.
After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Herod became a protege of Mark Antony and Caesar’s great-nephew Octavian.
In 39 BC, Herod invaded Judea to win the country back for the Romans and was made king.
The tomb of Herod was another one of the great archeological mysteries of the Holy Land and its discovery is a landmark.
Photos of the dig site are also available.
Technorati Tags: Holy Land | archeology | history | Herod | Israel |
