So, You Have an Opinion about the Pope ... ?

Everyone and his brother (not to mention sister, mother and distant cousin) has an opinion about the pope.  These opinions are usually based in an inaccurate media image and fairly ignorant. So ...

Just Mind Your Own Business!

A point of constant annoyance to me has been that so many people who have a strong opinion of the pope are not Catholic, do not intend to become Catholic and really couldn't care less about what the Catholic Church teaches.

My first reaction was this; if you're not Catholic, not going to become Catholic, and not about to start following the teachings of the pope, what on earth makes you think you're entitled to an opinion?  It's unlikely that I would hold any opinion one way or another of the priests, pastors, gurus, television personalities, shamans, guides or leaders of your religion.

Or, on the other hand, why waste your time? Why not spend your time reading up on someone who offers teachings you may choose to believe?  There are, after all, so many religious leaders out there that you could probably find one you like and just leave us Catholics to opine about our pope; we have enough extremes within the Catholic Church, and we don't really need to add more to the mix.

But Wait, It Probably is Your Business!

Then I thought about my reaction a little more.  Is it only really Catholics who have a right to an opinion about the pope? Or do we even have special right that our opinion somehow counts for more?

Probably not.

Let's think about what Catholics claim about his position:

He is Christ's vicar on earth.  A vicar is a representative or deputy, someone who has been left in charge with due authority.

This means not only that as "supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful," he "has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church," but also that he has "supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls."

If you are a Christian - you are a follower of Christ - we believe that the pope has "full, supreme and universal power over" you as a part of the Church and is your supreme teacher.

Whether you are a follower of Christ or not, we believe that the pope has
"supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of" your soul.

These are pretty bold statements; we don't put any condition on them such as "if you call yourself Catholic," etc. or even soften them with words like "we consider."  We aren't really offering an option.

So, if I am correct about this, it seems that whether I like it or not, you are probably entitled to an opinion about the man that holds such a position.

(Now, I hope that if you hold an opinion about Pope Francis, whether you are Catholic or not, whether you would ever join the Catholic Church or not, that you would take the time to read what he says and writes more in depth and more carefully than the sloppy media representations.  They are worthwhile teachings that I believe could help anyone.)

(By the way, Happy Feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr.)

The Beautiful Face of Mary

The traditions that depict the ancient saints according to various events of their life and attributes of their person are beautiful - and it is just as beautiful that there is variety in the different cultures and traditions within the depiction of the same saint.  Even Christ has a very broad variety of depictions in sacred images.

The Virgin Mary is no exception to this.  I have seen icons of our mother's beautiful face in so many styles and traditions - Byzantine, Japanese, Ethiopian, Renaissance and even Inuit, to name just a few.

Yet, in the case of the Virgin Mary, the most saintly of all saints, we have a special gift that we do not have for any other ancient saint; we have an exact image of her face.

From almost 500 years ago, we have this event:

'the peasant Juan Diego saw at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City, a vision of a girl of fifteen or sixteen years of age, surrounded by light. It was the early morning of December 9, 1531 (celebrated as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Spanish Empire). Speaking to him in Nahuatl, his language, the girl asked that a church be built at that site in her honor; from her words, Juan Diego recognized the girl as the Virgin Mary. Diego told his story to the Spanish Archbishop of Mexico City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill, and ask the "lady" for a miraculous sign to prove her identity. The first sign was the Virgin's healing Juan's uncle. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill.

Although December was very late in the growing season for flowers to bloom, Juan Diego found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, on the normally barren hilltop. The Virgin arranged these in his peasant tilma cloak. When Juan Diego opened his cloak before Bishop Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and in their place on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted there.' (from Wikipedia.)

One of the most miraculous parts of this image is that it remains in its original form, on the original cloth.  This is not an artist's rendition, an age-old tradition of depiction, nor someone's attempt to replicate what they saw in a vision; it is an image of the Virgin Mary directly imprinted on a cloth.

Basically, this means we know what her face looked like, at least in her early/mid teens when she bore Christ.  And as we know from Revelations chapter 12, in this apparition she is pregnant with Christ. (The image on the cloth is that described in that chapter.)

Recently I have been looking at this image and reproductions of it closely.  I am amazed by how beautiful her face is.  Yes, the image is aged, but it is not so hard to look past that.

Now, this does not diminish or remove the beauty or importance of the rich traditions of images of the Virgin Mary.  Yet, it is simply amazing that we can say that we have this direct image of her.

How Many Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist Does a Catholic Parish Need?

Notice: only 2 Extraordinary Ministers for a huge parish

How many Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist does a Catholic parish need?

The short answer is, in most small to medium parishes, none.

I've been to medium sized parishes in the Mexican countryside where those partaking would rather line up out of the door and have mass go overtime overlapping with the beginning of the next mass (creating the kind of disorganized chaos that is a part of normal life in Mexico anyway) than receive the Eucharist from anyone but the priest.

These same parishes also offer communion under both species by means of intinction (dipping the Body of Christ into the Precious Blood), making it impossible to rush through in any way because of the special care required (and probably offering yet another reason not to have anyone but the priest delivering.)

Even the elderly man using the walker prefers to approach the altar

My wife and I are reminded of this every time we go back to Mexico.  While in Playa del Carmen, there are Extraordinary Ministers, and they do not practice intinction, our home parish here (Our Lady of Guadalupe) demonstrates the point as well.

We estimate that an any given Sunday Mass there are probably between 1000 and 1500 people present (and there are 5 Sunday Masses.)  And how many Extraordinary ministers are there?

2.

The priest is in the middle in front of the altar, and the other 2 (usually the leading nun, and a deacon) are at the front of the side aisles.  No one goes to the back of the church.  Everyone approaches the altar.

I have been to parishes in Canada that have less than 1/10 of that mass attendance.  Yet they have 2 or 3 extraordinary ministers.  One goes to the back of the (very small) church.  I'm not sure why that is considered to be necessary.

The Precious Blood and Body of Christ

(In Mexico there is also no row by row.  It's less organized but it removes the pressure that everyone should go up.  When you do row by row, there's always the chance of that awkward moment when someone ready to go up for communion waits for that person next to them kneeling and praying to go up, and the person coming out of the row behind them also waits for them.  It draws unnecessary attention to the person who doesn't go up for communion, and - in some cases - may pressure them to simply go up.  But that's a side point.)

Mexican Catholicism isn't by any means perfect.  It has its flaws - some of them glaring.  But there are certainly good points we could pick up from them.

A Boat Tour in the Mexican Caribbean

My family and I just spent a wonderful month in Mexico, and I have so many things to write about that I'm not sure where to start.  But for now, I'll just start with something easy - a relaxing and fun boat trip we went on on Saturday.

The trip started just out of Cancun, and took us around Isla Mujeres, a beautiful little island where Mexico's old Caribbean lifestyle can still be seen.

Here are some pictures.

This is the dock where the trip started.  We had breakfast in the larger hut at the back:

The twins, on board:

Getting ready to snorkel:

 The two older sons, watching me snorkel:

This is the view they had.  My oldest son claims he knows which one was me:

After snorkeling, with my lovely wife:

A typical hotel on Isla Mujeres:

A traditional wooden house on the island, in this case converted into a shop; this kind of simple wooden house was typical on the Mexican Caribbean before tourism took off.  Now everything is concrete.  I can imagine that these would stand up to a hurricane too well, but these little homes seem to have been around for a while:

Most homes have images of this sort:

The island's church; nothing "fancy" but the people's devotion and respect is truly beautiful:

 This is the beach where we spent the afternoon:

Some of the docks in the fishermen's district of the island; many of these local fisherman had their dock, home and a little restaurant all next to each other:

Although it's not very clear in this picture, this haphazard home is built of bamboo on a floating island. The island was made of old plastic bottles, covered with plastic and then soil on top:

Dinner at the beach club:

The view of the beach from the beach club:

My oldest son enjoying a dip in the pool:

Back on the boat, one of the crew members (the bartender) caught this barracuda:

This is one of the last pictures from the trip:

After my wife took this picture, the barracuda jumped and got the hook caught in the wrist of the man who caught it.  It was a very large and thick hook (2 1/2 inches or so).  Seeing the accident put her into shock; combined with low blood pressure and the motion of the boat, this was enough to put her out of commission for the next 24 hours!  She spent the night in the hospital.  Thankfully, she is much better now!

The fisherman downplayed the pain, and claimed that this kind of thing was normal for people who live at sea. I saw him as we got off the boat and he was smiling and waving.  I assume that he had removed the hook in a procedure similar to section 2 of this diagram:

In any case, that didn't help my wife very much.  But otherwise the trip was very enjoyable!

It's also worth noting that we were the only couple who brought our kids with us.  The other couples left their kids at home to enjoy a vacation alone.  While I understand that couples do need a break from the kids now and then, our trip was that much better simply because we brought them!  They loved it and so did we.

The Church as a Field Hospital After the Battle

After an outstanding show from the press of twisting and distorting what Pope Francis said in a recent interview, many bloggers and commentators have offered some very nice overviews showing what Pope Francis really said. 

Besides that, all you have to do is read the original completely, and you will see that Pope Francis did not say that abortion was OK, or that criticizing gay marriage is small minded.

Since there are so many good commentaries and rebuttals to the media misconceptions, I won't offer my own, but rather briefly summarize some main points I remember, and then a list of useful blog posts:

• Problems (doctrinal disputes, etc.) should be solved on the most local possible level; a long-time Catholic principal.
• The Church is not just the magisterium.  Lay people offer some very important contributions that theologians cannot, such as popular devotions.
• We shouldn't focus only on abortion, gay marriage, etc. all the time. 
• When we do, the focus should be an example of love, and the hope that those who've sinned in these ways will repent and find forgiveness.
• When this doesn't happen, we must love these people none the less.
• Whether talking about these or other concepts, first comes love for Christ, then out of that love discipline will grow.
• The Church functions best as a "field hospital after the battle;the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity."

None of this implies a change of the Church's teachings on morals or other matters, but I see as a challenge about how we present these to the world, and how we interact with the world.  The final point, the "field hospital" metaphor, is the one which, for me, best summarizes what Pope Francis wants to see, which is a good thing!

Here are some good commentaries to read:

• First thoughts about the Francis Interview 
• Why LifeSiteNews and the New York Times are both wrong about Pope Francis
• Pope Francis’ comments on homosexuality in the Big Interview
• THURSDAY: MSM reports Francis said Church is obsessed about abortion! FRIDAY: Pope Francis talks about abortion! 

A Gospel of Love; Evangelization in Context

This blog post had been brewing in mind for a few weeks now, mostly in reaction to some of my own reactions. Now, just two days ago this interview from Pope Francis came out. (Read it, the original, completely.  It's worth it.  Don't read the mainstream news about it, though.)

So, this is now the perfect timing to repeat that message that our Holy Father is emphasizing so much; in order to evangelize, we must start with Christ's love.  By "evangelize" I mean to spread the Gospel ("Evangelia,") not the shameless proselytizing that we have a tendency to mistake for it.

After that, on top of that and in that context the rest will begin to come into place.

Let Your Voice Be Heard

Having said that it is necessary to take morality for granted from the very beginning.  It is important that people know where we stand.  In my case, inspired by some admirable friends, just this year, after a life of being a "closet" pro-lifer, I decided to "come out" and make my views known publicly, by means of this blog and on my Facebook page.

The Next Step ...

I'm content with this. Now, I feel that I have made it clear that abortion is unquestionably wrong. This is probably a good moment to focus on other points, except in cases where the issue turns up somehow - which happens often enough.  I am ready to begin looking for that next step - that important one - of first showing Christ's love in a very real way.

One thought I had several weeks ago is this; if we do not love the woman who has an abortion, and even the doctor who carries it out, our effort is lost.  And, we can't forget that we must love and pray for the baby; speaking for myself, it's often easy to get lost in the "cause" and forget even this first and most basic point.

What we hope for those who did this horrible act is repentance; what's required of us, even as we tell them what they've done is wrong, is absolute love.

Now to put this into real, concrete action ...

It's Not Just Abortion

If the pope's words from yesterday's interview struck a cord with me it's the fact that there are so many other places where we must take care to act in charity even as we engage others.  For example, in how Christians of different traditions approach each other.

We must share the truth of God's Church with everyone.  Yet, this only helps when others see authentic love along with it.  I think of my own journey to Catholicism; the final, most powerful and decisive step was to see the church's charity in very real action, together with an un-apologizing presentation of the church's teachings, presented in that same love.

However, I don't engage with other Christians with this in mind - i.e. I don't imagine that I will somehow lure them into being confirmed in the Catholic Church.  But charity must be at the heart of it when we engage with each other.  I hope that this intention has come through in true and recognizable charity whenever I have discussed or debated some point. If it hasn't then I ask forgiveness.

A few weeks ago I also posted about my reaction to certain disrespectful proselytizers.  While I don't take back that reaction in general, especially the point of defending those who need it, I take back the tone of "fighting back."  These are people who are attacking God's Church and more than anything, whenever possible, they need to see His love.  Can I step in to defend another person who needs it and yet reply in compassion and love?  That is my challenge.

The Challenge

When it comes to reform, everyone loves to see big visible and large shifts in structure, sweeping changes, etc.  Both those in and outside the Catholic Church, those of all stripes, are hoping to see the Curia turned on it's head and given a kick in the ass.  Yet, I don't think this is going to happen.  It's not going to happen because Pope Francis knows that those kinds of changes make a lot of noise, but don't in themselves bring about the deeper change necessary.

He reminds us: "You can have large projects and implement them by means of a few of the smallest things."  In this case, part of these "smallest things" is the simple act of reminding ourselves to approach others in Christ's love.  This will be the true reform of the Catholic Church, and - guess what?

No one will notice.

Those looking for the "big things" will be upset that the Curia still looks the same as last year, and that we haven't sold St. Peter's Basilica to feed Africa.  The only ones who will notice will be those simple human beings right next to us whose only contact with the Church is what they see in us.

Who is the Virgin Mary?

"This is how it is with Mary: If you want to know who she is, you ask theologians; if you want to know how to love her, you have to ask the people." 

- Pope Francis

Why I Love Mexico

Two days ago I wrote a short piece sharing my opinion of people who tell you you should've used birth control when they find out you have four children. (In case you didn't read it, and you couldn't guess, it's not a good opinion.)

What I wrote two days ago didn't just pop into my head out of nowhere, and it didn't just turn up out of an entire year of "mixed" reactions to my babies.

A week and a half ago, I arrived in Mexico again with my family, this time on a work trip. (My last one, since I am less than a week away from finishing this job.  The last 2 weeks will be a vacation.)

An Unpleasant Welcome

Upon our arrival to Playa del Carmen, we were greeted with the usual visuals of Mexico; dirt and garbage in the streets, mangy street dogs, half-built homes, graffiti-covered walls, children playing with trash in filthy parks ...

The list could go on.  Home, sweet, home?  Well, not quite.

Den of Sinners

Then comes the visible immorality of Mexican culture. 

Like everywhere, marital infidelity abounds; and here, intentions along these lines are made all to visibly obvious, as are the relationships themselves.  A married taxi driver has his "companion" joining him in the passenger's seat, who is almost certainly not his wife, men cheating on their wives is chronic. (First hand stories.)

Dishonesty is endemic.  Just today, my commadre's daughter told me how a store worker stole her cellphone from a fitting room, and then called her a "bitch" when she tried (successfully) to reclaim it. (Commadre = godmother of my son.)  People here "find" other people's things and assume that this sequence of fortunes means that people have lost all rights to their belongings, even if they "find" those things in someone else's front patio.

Just two examples of so many.

At this point, I would like to talk about how I actually like the fact that in Mexico sin, immorality, dishonesty, etc. all look like exactly what they are - but that belongs to a different post.

Loving People

So far, I'm guessing I haven't inspired many would-be expats to make the leap, abandon their home and move to Mexico.

But in spite of all its problems and unpleasant sights (which I would argue are not actually bigger, but simply more visible) there's something about Mexico - even the dirtiest most unsightly places - that captures my heart:

Mexicans have a deep love for being with other people.  The don't need to share common interests, understand each other, have something to do together or have anything else that we would consider fundamental to a "healthy relationship;" the love of another person and the joy felt in seeing another person is enough.

Seeing and feeling a joy for human life is something that surpasses many other comforts and conveniences in life.

Viva Mexico!

Happy Independence Day Mexico, my second homeland!

To love another ....

 Having lived in a few (Western) nations, I will be so bold as to claim that I have identified two things that are universal (among many others I'm sure.) One is the love of human life. Unfortunately, alongside of that love is the hatred of human life.

When you tell people that you have four children and their first response is "you should've used a condom" or (in the case of the mother) "So, you've had your tubes tied now, haven't you?" they're basically telling you that the world, or at least your family, would be better off without your most recent children.

In the past 2 weeks, these exact ideas have been told to me and my wife more often than I would like to say.

That is hatred of human life.

While there are far too many of such hateful people, fortunately there are still many more who love human beings.  They see baby twins and play with them; they bubble over in joy about how cute they are.

Or, on the other hand, they might talk about which one might be a better boss, and which one might be a better boss and which one might be a better salesman.  Others may notice which one likes to get dirty and which one likes to stay clean. Some may kiss them, others may give them a blessing.

Not once does it occur to these people how the existence of these beautiful twins could've been prevented. Why? Because they love people, and human life gives them joy.

In the same past few weeks - especially in the past two days - these and many other such wonderful things have happened when people see our twins, thankfully far more than the kind of comment mentioned above.


The joy of seeing an infant is the joy of seeing new life brought into this world and at its very root the deepest love for humans.

The next time you see a baby, let it bring joy to your heart, and not a Godless, inhuman wish that the baby's life would've been prevented.

When Cowards Attack - A Warning to Would-be Proselytizers

I have no problems with a good argument about religion.  (I tend to loose most of mine, but that's another story.) A one-on-one discussion or even argument on even ground between two people who have both chosen to "draw their swords" and duel is fine.  After all, we shouldn't shy away from defending and promoting what we believe.

However, I have a bone to pick.

There are some Christians, and people of similar beliefs, out there who are cowards.  They choose a person who:

• is not interested in arguing
• is not used to arguing
• is not good at arguing
• is always very nice and respectful to everyone
• who feels pretty bad about arguing and being berated
• has not initiated a discussion on religion

When they are alone with this person, or with a few others so they can gang up on this person, they rip a layer off of them. The do not give them a chance to speak, they do not respect their beliefs, and they just pound on them verbally.

And these people are spineless, gutless, good-for-nothing cowards.

They are often very nice people on the surface. For example, the last person I met like this was a "kind" old Mennonite lady (I think she was Mennonite - it was at least a similar denomination.)  I can tell you, though, her heart is rotten at its core.

Now, I'm not talking about myself when I talk about the people who get picked on.  I can hold my ground, or at least handle defeat if I can't.  If I get pummelled in an argument, well, it's probably my own fault, since I probably started it.  But I'm talking about other people who are far kinder, gentler and more loving than myself.

And how do I know these "attackers" are cowards?  Well, if another person walks into the room that may defend the person they are attacking, they shut up.  They stop. Suddenly they're nice again, only sneaking a few "nice" passive attacks hidden behind sly poison like "I'll pray for you that you'll understand" - lie as venomous as Satan himself.

Some Advice

So, now I've told you who I'm talking about. If you're someone who knows me and you're reading this blog, you're probably not one of these people.  As I said, I'm not talking about fair arguments, or even heated arguments; I'm talking about cowards who attack others who can't defend themselves.

Advice: if you know someone like this, perhaps at your church, or someone of similar beliefs, perhaps you don't shut them up because you think they're defending the Truth; they're on your side - on Truth's side - after all, even if they're a bit abbrasive, right?

Wrong. Shut them up.  Tell them that they are cowards and that they ought to be ashamed of themselves.  If they don't stop, stop associating with them.  Be a real man (or a real woman, if such is the case) and defend the person they attack.  Even if you don't agree with the religion of the person they are attacking, you don't have to defend the religion.  You just have to defend the person.

"Look, you're being an asshole.  Shut up and leave this poor person alone.  You can talk about God a lot, but why don't you try showing His love?"

That simple.

Don't put people you love and care about into the pain coming into contact with them because you don't want to offend an asshole.

Let me make this plainly clear; even if they understand the greatest mysteries of the Faith and God, and know the truth better than any human alive, if they are such dogs to treat another person like this, then they do not have the love of God in them.

Now for my warning ...

So, even though it's unlikely that anyone like this who I know will read this blog, let me put my warning out there:

I will no longer tolerate this.  Until now, I've been of the opinion that if I don't see it, I can't say anything.  But as I said, these cowards shut up when another person walks into the room.  No more.  If I find out this has happened, and I am anywhere near such a person, I will go back to them and put them in their place.  I will ensure that they feel like the dirty scum they are - they will feel a hundred times worse than the person they were picking on.

What Pope Francis Said about Homosexuality ...

There's a lot of hype in the news today about how Pope Francis is beginning to "change the Church's teaching" on homosexuality.  Let's see what Pope Francis really said:

QUESTION: I would like to ask permission to pose a rather delicate question.  Another image that went around the world is that of Monsignor Ricca and the news about his personal life.  I would like to know, your Holiness, what will be done about this question.  How should one deal with this question and how does your Holiness wish to deal with the whole question of the gay lobby?

FRANCIS: Regarding the matter of Monsignor Ricca, I did what Canon Law required and did the required investigation.  And from the investigation, we did not find anything corresponding to the accusations against him.  We found none of that.  That is the answer.  But I would like to add one more thing to this: I see that so many times in the Church, apart from this case and also in this case, one  looks for the “sins of youth,” for example, is it not thus?, And then these things are published.  These things are not crimes.  The crimes are something else: child abuse is a crime.  But sins, if a person, or secular priest or a nun, has committed a sin and then that person experienced conversion, the Lord forgives and when the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets and this is very important for our lives.  When we go to confession and we truly say “I have sinned in this matter,” the Lord forgets and we do not have the right to not forget because we run the risk that the Lord will not forget our sins, eh?  This is a danger.  This is what is important: a theology of sin.  So many times I think of St. Peter: he committed one of the worst sins denying Christ.  And with this sin they made him Pope.  We must think about fact often.

But returning to your question more concretely: in this case [Ricca] I did the required investigation and we found nothing.  That is the first question.  Then you spoke of the gay lobby.  Agh… so much is written about the gay lobby.  I have yet to find on a Vatican identity card the word gay.  They say there are some gay people here.  I think that when we encounter a gay person, we must make the distinction between the fact of a person being gay and the fact of a lobby, because lobbies are not good.  They are bad.  If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge that person?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this point beautifully but says, wait a moment, how does it say, it says, these persons must never be marginalized and “they must be integrated into society.”

The problem is not that one has this tendency; no, we must be brothers, this is the first matter.  There is another problem, another one: the problem is to form a lobby of those who have this tendency, a lobby of the greedy people, a lobby of politicians, a lobby of Masons, so many lobbies.  This is the most serious problem for me. And thank you so much for doing this question. Thank you very much!

(credit for text: Fr. John Zuhlsdorf)

Let's just review the main points of what Pope Francis said:

• Homosexual acts are sins.
• If someone who previously committed such sins "experiences conversion" and confesses that sin, the Lord will forgive it.
• We must forget the sin after that.
• It is wrong to go digging up sins from a person's past to tarnish their name, even if those sins were real. (standard Catholic teaching - the sin is called "detraction" and, like homosexual acts, is a mortal sin)
• We must love and accept people who have a homosexual tendency (my note: whether they are active or not, or have repented or not)
• Experiencing such a tendency is not a problem
• Forming "lobbies" is a "serious problem" (I would assume this includes gay pride and activist groups.)

Now compare to what the Church's teachings have been on the matter:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,¹⁴¹ tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."¹⁴² They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

(CCC 2357-9, my emphasis)

Pope Francis is simply reiterating what the Church has already been teaching.  He advocates love and compassion, but is very direct in identifying sin and the need for repentance, as well as the Gracious result of that repentance.

So far it looks like the Pope is Catholic.  What a surprise.

Saloon Brawls Should be Safe, Legal and Rare

In the complete absence of saloon brawls or the like, men have been faced to turn to video games; this has caused the dangerous illusion that they are really capable of winning a brawl, or recovering from one quickly.

Even worse, many men don't even have video games and are left searching for alternative expressions of masculinity, like smoking pipes or shaving old-fashioned razor blades; needless to say, both are life-threateningly dangerous.

To help remedy this urgent situation of masculine health, I propose the following:

Saloon brawls should be safe, legal and rare.

Safe - Paramedics should be on hand to remove men who can no longer get up on their own and give them adequate medical treatment.  Missing teeth or broken arms should not qualify for this service, since those suffering from these injuries can still walk home and take care of themselves.

A saloon brawl video game

Legal - Current laws have made impossible for men to initiate or even seek out local brawls;  such activity would surely bring jail time and legal action.  Our laws must be changed to reflect this basic necessity and right for masculine well-being; a man should not have to fear being jailed or a criminal record simply for breaking a wooden chair over another man's head.

Rare - It would be unreasonable to think that the local tavern could carry the costs of a brawl every Friday evening.  Besides the inconvenience of closing for several days for repairs, it would drive up the prices of beer.  Brawls should allowed to happen often enough that any man choosing to participate could easily do so in his lifetime without having travel far or wait till he is too old to do so; yet they should be rare enough so the local taverns can recover and absorb expenses easily.  Men initiating tavern brawls too frequently in the same place would be expected to cover the expenses.  Those who are fond of brawls are free to find a different tavern or bar each week.

Some would argue that this last point is limiting to a man's right to brawl as he sees fit; men should be free to choose about their own body.  However, the point of this proposal is not to create a free-for-all, but simply to give each man the choice to participate in a tavern brawl should they feel that need, rather than having to turn to sad situations of video games, smoking or shaving with dangerously sharp objects.

Blogging by E-mail?

I'm getting close to perfecting my program set-up for my Acer One Netbook - something that would be simply an impossible dream in Windows.

Next step?

Find a good way to edit blogs.  Blogger's composition screen uses up so much space for menu items, settings and (unnecessary) Google options that it leaves less than 1/4 of the screen at the bottom left for actually writing. That makes it hard to edit, see what I've typed and work with images.

So, here goes my test with blogging by e-mail.

This is test #3:

#1 - Google Docs, failed
#2 - was an e-mail trial and didn't get the images right

Now, I got myself more screen space for composition in my e-mail program (Thunderbird) and I think I figured out the image thing.  Let's see ...

Xubuntu and The Perfect Programs for Me

Some of my new programs in Application Finder

Last post, I talked about how I made Xubuntu visually ideal for a netbook; it already functions perfectly.  Today, I'm just going to give a list of programs I added.  You'll notice they're mostly office items; for multimedia I just use the internet browser (Youtube for videos and Grooveshark for music.)

System and running utilities:

Synapse - Yesterday, I described this neat tool - the perfect combination of a menu and a program, document and folder search, as well as a bunch of other stuff.

Synaptic - Not to be confused with Synapse above, this program installs and removes programs. It has a simpler user interface than the default Ubuntu Software Center, but is faster, more flexible, and better at cleaning up removed programs.

Deja Dup (backup) - This backs up files onto a hard drive or cloud drive (like Google Drive or Dropbox.) The first back up took about 30 minutes, and after that about 10.

Gnome Disk Utility - This formats and creates partitions on disks. It also checks basic disk health and temperature.

Java (open jdk java 7) - LibreOffice needs this.

Firewall (ufw & gufw) – They say Linux doesn't usually need security software. Just in case.

Unebootin (create boot USBs) - This allows you to put any Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions on a USB, either to test run from the USB or to install on another computer. I used it for that second laptop, and just to have fun testing out other operating systems for netbooks.

Skype sign in on my desktop

Office & internet:

LibreOffice – This is a complete office suite, like Microsoft Office, but free. I hid the Standard menu since I use ctrl-s to save. I only have the formatting menu, again saving vertical space.

Chrome - Although I've reconciled with Firefox, in the end Chrome is still slightly faster. It also saves all my browser settings to my gmail account so I can use them on any computer. No bookmark toolbar or menus, only the tabs on top.

Skype - I use it for work. They don't let you open your user from other programs.

Adobe reader - The PDF reader included doesn't work for secured PDFs.

Cheese – This program takes pictures and videos from the webcam. Mostly for fun with the kids. (It also sinstalls Brasero, Nautilus and several other programs with it that are useless to me; so I removed them.)

Because of these additions, I could also eliminate: AbiWord , Gnumeric , Document Viewer , Firefoxy and Xchat . Firefox is fine, but I don't need 2. Xchat is redundant since besides Skype, Thunderbird also includes a chat option that can integrate Google Talk and Facebook chat.

Xubuntu: How to Adapt it for a Netbook's Small Screen

Chrome full-screen, with my adapted main panel to the left

I love minis – usually called “netbooks” in the normal world. In fact, I've come to like them so much, I would probably buy one even if I could afford a full-sized laptop.

But there's only one problem; as Isaid on Tuesday, most operating systems are not made for them. Either you get too much squished into the screen and everything's tiny, or the operating system eats up too much memory for these light-performance machines, or – most often – both.

Yesterday, we saw some nice options in the other Ubuntu variations for netbook-specific desktops that I've actually tried. There are other Linux-based systems also that look nice from the screenshots I've seen.

My solution: use an operating system that's light-weight but very customizable, like Xubuntu.

Xubuntu – Lightweight, Visually Pleasant & Flexible

As I pointed out last post, Xubuntu is not visually laid out for netbooks. However, it offers these advantages:

• it is lightweight – it works at lightning speed on my Acer One Aspire
• it looks nice – it's no Windows 7 or Ubuntu, but it's clean and elegantly designed; several other light-weight Linux distributions I tested looked clumsy, or at best very bland – not Xubuntu
• it's very customizable – for the most part, you can make it do what you want, if you know how; a few weeks ago I did not know how, but in the Ubuntu world, Google answers all

So, after being satisfied that Xubuntu was the best balance of rapid performance, features and visual appeal for my netbook and my needs, I set out to optimize it visually for a small screen.

I will start off by simply listing the changes I made with a brief description why. At the bottom I will offer brief instructions about how to make them, if anyone reading this is actually interested in installing Xubuntu on a mini.

The Changes I Made for a Netbook's Small Screen

The basic concept of these changes is to make everything as big as possible without cluttering the screen, and have everything appear full screen:

1. Synapse Searching and Launching – This is the best and fastest search and launch feature I have used. As you type, it auto-completes with suggestions from files, programs and folders, based on what you've used most and recently. Hitting “enter” launches the selection immediately. This is not specifically a netbook customization, but it eliminates 90% of menu use. On a very small screen, menus are a nuisance. It also eliminates the need for quick-launching buttons in the panels (for common programs like word) saving space.

This is what Synapse looks like:

2. Maximus – This simple program makes all windows open automatically maximized. On a netbook, fullscreen is the best way to go.

3. Panel Adaptation - I replaced the top menu panel and bottom quick-launch panel (which by default look pretty much like a simpler version of what you see in Mac) with 2 side panels:

• Left Panel – Start Menu (“Applications”), Synapse, Show-Desktop Icon, Clock, and all indicators and notifications (battery, network, etc.) I increased the size to 60 pixels and made it icons only with no text.
• Right Panel – Shows icons for all open windows; medium icons only (48).
• Auto Hide & Appear – When the panels are not being used, they are hidden. The appear when you move the mouse to the edge of the screen. This means maximized windows are full screen, optimizing the screen space.

  

  both panels with the panel modification menu open: notice the green "S" Synapse icon, top left, 2nd from the top

With Synapse, I found all the quick-launch icons have simply not been necessary. On the whole, the narrow main panel that appears on the bottom for windows and on the top for Xubuntu/Ubuntu is not very useful for netbooks, since it's hard to see and eats up much needed vertical space. As an auto-hide side menu with large icons it takes less space and is easier to see everything quickly.

4. Windows & Themes – The following changes in the Settings Manager work wonders:

• “greybird compact ” theme, which has a very narrow, grey header on all windows (with Maximus, mentioned above, there's an option to make all the headers disappear entirely!)
• default font size - 12
• reduce workspaces to one 1 – the default is 2, but I found I can work with everything in the same workspace; with two I found I kept having to move open windows between them, although it can help to keep the “open window” panel less cluttered.
• desktop icons – only removable devices, like USB sticks or external hard drives; For some reason, Synapse doesn't search for these or their content, so it's nice to have a quick-launch somewhere
• increase menu icon and text size – As I said, Synapse eliminates the need for most menu use, but when I do use the main menu, I don't like to squint; with a size of 28, they are nicely visible, but the entire main menu still fits on the screen; it almost fills it. (This change isn't in the Setting Manager. It requires changing the menu settings file, which is easy, you just have to know how.)

My full screen in the file browser; notice the larger fonts and icons, and the open-window menu on the right

5. Program Zoom – Besides increasing the size of everything in the Xubuntu desktop, I found it more comfortable if I increased the zoom within each program to about 125-140%. In word documents, this still easily fits the entire text onto the screen. On the internet (Firefox or Chrome) I found most pages have all of their main information on 2/3 of the page (either left or right side); the rest is ads or menus. For a few, you have to scroll back and forth, but I haven't found this is common. (See the screenshot at the very top of this post.)

Come to think of it, this post is already too long, so I'm not going to describe how to make these changes step by step. If you need to know how to do any of this, please let me know.

Tomorrow I will share a list of programs I added, that have nothing to do with netbooks, but make life easier for me.