March 2008 Archives

The Triduum starts. Tonight, we celebrate the life of Jesus Christ, the priesthood and Eucharist He established and the command He gives us to serve all.

Lent ends before Evening Prayer, which is only said by those who do not participate in the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper tonight. While Lent is over, it doesn't mean go and do whatever you gave up for Lent. Wait until after the Vigil :-).

More to come later, but the Diocese of Austin officially has Chrism and the other sacred oils to be used this weekend and for the rest of the year.

ZENIT is reporting that Knights of Columbus founder Fr. Michael McGivney has been deemed "Venerable" by the Catholic Church. The decree, authorized by Pope Benedict XVI and published on Saturday, recognizes the heroic virtue of Fr. McGivney and moves up one step closer to the highest honor of the Church—sainthood.

Fr. McGivney, in the 1800's, seeing the plight of widows and children after the death of the husband, founded the Knights of Columbus as a fraternal order for Catholic men so that they can join together, enhance their spirituality and their faith, and very importantly, assist in the financial security of their families. The Knights of Columbus' insurance is one of the highest-rated products in the country and the Knights give billions of dollars to charity for everything from scholarships (one of them helped to finance my freshman year at UT) to the technical equipment and uplink to transmit papal events from the Vatican to the world.

As a card-carrying member, it gives me great pleasure to know that such a group of men exist.

I'll put a value judgment on people in town for SXSW. They appear to have no idea how to drive in a city that is unfamiliar to them. SXSW takes over part of downtown Austin for a week with music, movies and conference events at all times of the day and night, except a few hours in the wee of night.

Last night, I was driving home from work along Guadalupe Street at 10 pm. Usually people are starting to go out around that time, traffic would decent, but most importantly, it is a rather thoughtless drive. Stay in the middle lane, pay attention to the lights and nothing weird will come your way.

Not during SXSW. I almost hit a crowd of people after they walked into the intersection against the light with traffic heading toward them at 40 MPH. The next block, a car had stopped in the second lane from the left waiting for the two lanes to the right could clear so he could make a right hand turn, cutting off two lanes of traffic.

This continued most of my way home. I love SXSW, but don't try to drive. Just walk or take a pedicab.

You read the headline correct. The St. John's Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois has announced the opening of their St. John's Institute of Catholic Thought's School of Theology. The Institute of Catholic Thought has appears to be offering for-credit undergraduate and graduate coursework that is listed as part of a University of Illinois program, but they have recently been granted degree-granting authority by the State of Illinois to award Masters of Theological Studies and Masters of Arts in Theology.

Wow!

Years ago, The University of Texas at Austin had a similar program to the UI program that the Institute of Catholic Thought has previously offered for-credit course work. The Texas Bible Chair, as it was known, offered for-credit classes from a perspective of the Disciples of Christ, but other denominations also offered for-credit classes through the arrangement, including the Catholic faith through the work of the Paulist Fathers. In 1985 and 1987, the Attorney General for the State of Texas, Jim Mattox, offered two opinions, JM-352 and JM-711 that led to the end of the arrangement. Basically, Mattox stated his opinion that constitutionally a state university could not have a member of the faculty to be selected or his/her position to be funded, in whole or in part, by a religious institution.

Students wanted to take courses by instructors who had the support of their respective faith traditions, but those instructors could not be chosen, or approved, by a faith tradition. The University, likewise, can not offer credit for a course not taught by a faculty member. The Attorney General did say, however, that the courses themselves were not unconstitutional and in fact, The University of Texas at Austin still allows such courses to count as electives for Liberal Arts degrees.

Back to the St. John's Catholic Newman Center, this is a huge step forward for them and for that region of the country. They will be the first Catholic graduate program in 150-mile radius; before now, individuals had to go to Chicago or South Bend, IN for advanced Catholic theological coursework.

At the University Catholic Center, we are in the beginning stages of our religious education program. Currently, we're offering Catholicism 101, a non-credit sequence of courses designed to bridge the gap between what was taught in parish religious education classes during the student's younger years and a college-level understanding of the basics of the faith. Ideally, this program would have four semesters worth of course work and additionally expand to more advanced discussion on particular aspects of the Catholic Church.

Thankfully, we have a number of options for graduate-level religious education in the Austin-area, including the Diocese of Austin's distance program with St. Mary's University of San Antonio.

God bless the folks at St. John's and hopefully many will take advantage of this offering.  

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul of the Chaldeans in Iraq, who was kidnapped late last month, was found dead. No matter your opinion of the American war against Iraq, you have to wonder at the senselessness of his death. A man devoted to prayer and service, of God and of the People of God, killed by people who, I assume, believe God wants violence like this.

No matter how good or great God is and no matter how much respect we must show to the divine, no one is ever justified in taking this type of action in the name of God. The Catholic Church made mistakes a very long time ago regarding violence in the name of Christ, but the Church and society has evolved to realize the stupidity of such thought.

May the soul of Archbishop Rahho, all the souls in purgatory, rest in peace.

VATICAN CITY, 13 MAR 2008 (VIS) - Benedict XVI has sent a telegram to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Iraq, for the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul of the Chaldeans, Iraq, who was kidnapped on 29 February.

In his telegram the Pope expresses his closeness "to the Chaldean Church and to the entire Christian community", reaffirming his "condemnation for an act of inhuman violence which offends the dignity of human beings and seriously damages the cause of the fraternal coexistence of the beloved Iraqi people".

Benedict XVI gives assurances of his prayers for the archbishop "who was kidnapped just after he had completed the Way of the Cross" and invokes the Lord's mercy "that this tragic event may serve to build a future of peace in the martyred land of Iraq".

Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. also released the following declaration today:

"We had all continued to hope and pray for his release, something the Pope had requested on a number of occasions in his appeals.

"Unfortunately the most senseless and unjustified violence continues to be inflicted on the Iraqi people, and especially on the small Christian community to which the Pope and all of us are particularly close in prayer and solidarity at this moment of great suffering.

"It is to be hoped that this tragic event may once more - and more powerfully - underline the responsibility of everyone, and especially of the international community, for the pacification of so troubled a country".

OP/DEATH ARCHBISHOP MOSSUL/LOMBARDI VIS 080313 (270)

Everyone should have a spiritual director.

Today at 6:00 p.m, I'll be heading to the shore of Lady Bird Lake to enjoy some free music from SXSW. Grupo Fantasma will be playing at the Auditorium Shores Stage, a free venue, as part of SXSW 2008. SXSW is quite expensive, but it is the cream of the crop for what it is. If you read any blog that is halfway at all connected to the tech scene, you know everyone was at the SXSW Interactive festival.

I, however, will just be watching videos later and enjoying the free music.

The greatest good is God: Boethius learned and now teaches us not to succumb to fatalism, which extinguishes hope. He teaches us that fate does [not] govern our lives -- Providence does and Providence has a face. You can speak to Providence because Providence is God.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke yesterday about the two ancient Christian writers, Boethius and Cassiodorus.

1500 years after they lived and died, these two witnesses are still guiding us to Christ.

[I think I found a typo in the translation. The English translation from the Vatican does not include the "not" above; I don't believe it makes sense without it.]

Something I stumbled across today, Where's My Cell Phone?, a website that will simply call your phone so you can find it through ringing. A very simple idea and it claims not to remember your number. I haven't used the site myself, but it seems like something useful.

Hey everyone,

I just realized that I never actually announced on this blog that I'm wrapping up new development on "Random Musings" and moving to a new home at "Praying Young". The new site is accessible, like this one was, at brandonkraft.com but the RSS/Atom feed is different.

Random Musings will be kept online in archive status at brandonkraft.com/weblog

Thanks!

Last night, I dined at Uncle Billy's BBQ & Brewery in Austin on Barton Springs Drive along the Restaurant Row for beers and an evening snack (ate a large lunch, so just needed a little to tie me over). The BBQ wasn't too bad—being from Texas, I have a high standard for anything related to BBQ, but the brew was mighty fine.

They have six brews made in-house along a standard list of styles—Amber, Blonde Ale, Hefeweizen, Pale Ale, etc. Brian Peters is the brewer, whose name you may recognize as one of the founders of Austin's Live Oak Brewery.

You can enjoy your beer and BBQ either inside or outside—including a view of a steep hill off of Barton Springs that I saw at least one cyclist eat it while riding down.

Specials include an all-you-can-eat offer on Mondays and $2 pints all-day Tuesday for any of their in-house brews. If you're in the Austin area and can't wait for Thursday's 99-cent Ritas from El Arroyo or are looking for some good local beer, check them out.