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Sunday, July 20, 2014

45th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

If you're old enough, you remem- ber where you were and what you were doing. I was almost 13 and living in Emmaus, Pa. Just before the start of 8th grade. It was a good summer, and I was on a softball time. All through the 60s when Gemini/Apollo were being launched, everyone near a TV watched launches and recoveries and splash downs.

All throughout the decade inventions were being made which spilled over into general technology and oh-so-many payoffs then and in the years to come down to this day. Christmastime of 68 we had Apollo 8 circle the moon, and the astronauts read from Genesis. No political correctness then. No fear of "offending the Muslims."

I remember watching during daytime when the Eagle landed, then Neil and Buzz settled down for some shut-eye, as the rest of us giddily waited, I myself can remember climbing a tree in the back yard, until night time when Neil stepped on the moon. What a feeling of pride of accomplishment as a nation. And how humble that crew was in the coming years.

Years later I worked at General Dynamics where they produced the Atlas Centaur. (and the Tomahawk Cruise missile project, which I was then on) I remember one of my bosses telling me that "back in the day" people would work their regular tasks on their defense projects, then often stay, unpaid, to collaborate with colleagues who were working atlas tasks. I'd walk through the huge bigger than aircraft hanger building in which I worked, past where they built components, and felt a sense of awe in those engineers who'd gone before us. The boss also told me (I was new then) that engineers could no longer do that, help their buddies out because of the way you had to track labor. No "freebies" if you weren't assigned. It's criminal what Comrade Zero has done with NASA. Now it's a "Muslim outreach project." The hell with that. At any rate. Where where you, and what are your memories. Because if you were old enough, you know where you were and what you were doing?

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Pope Benedict on Clarity (and does Pope Francis cut it?)

Today I had come across Pope Benedict's remarks given in 2006 re: Simon and Jude.  In light of on-going discussions in the Catholic community regards the need for church teachings to be clear, I was somewhat amused but gratified to find these remarks by Pope Benedict.

"Today we are no longer in the habit of using such controversial language, which nevertheless tells us something important: That in all the existing temptations, with all the currents of modern life, we must preserve the identity of our faith. Of course the path of indulgence and dialogue, which the Second Vatican Council has felicitously undertaken, will surely be continued with firm constancy. But this path of dialogue, so necessary, must not make us forget the duty to rethink and to witness always with as much force the guiding lines of our Christian identity that cannot be given up."

"It is important to keep very present that this, our identity is not to be toyed with on a simply cultural plane or on a superficial level, but requires strength, clarity and courage given the contradictions of the world in which we live."

Given the present occupant of the Chair of Peter, and his propensity to give unrecorded remarks to Italian atheist journalists with agendas, and flippant remarks such as "who am I to judge" I would say Pope Francis is falling well short of the mark regards "clarity."  In fact, rather than using "strength and courage" he seems to be pandering to the very people to which the letter of Jude was aimed.  One wonders if Pope Francis has read Jude lately.  

Discuss.

Friday, July 18, 2014

For Mac


Mac, this one is for you.  Hope the corn hasn't grown too high.   The kitties should have no trouble negotiating it either, as I assume "blond" isn't "catching."

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

St. Edmund Campion still gets around

Okay, Blessed Blake of Brighton has guilted me into blogging again with his recent muse regards Where Have All The Bloggers gone. Well, I'm not so long past that I can't come out of hiatus. This past Sunday at mass there was a relic of St. Edmund Campion prominently placed in the sanctuary and there was an opportunity to venerate it. St. Edmund was one of the most prominent English martyrs of the reformation.
The relic is being toured around by the Knights of St. Columba, Thames River Valley, Portsmouth Province and you may have an opportunity to view it. Here is the schedule for this 2014 pilgrimage. The tour ends with Mass at Tyburn Convent, close to Marble Arch on July 27th. I understand this is where this particular relic is normally kept. Visiting priests may arrange to say mass at the convent chapel. The nuns there are dedicated to "Eucharistic Adoration for the glory of God and prayer for the needs of the whole human family."
The Tyburn nuns are within a very short distance of spot of the Tyburn Gallows. Some 105 Catholic martyrs, including Campion, where executed here. It is said that over 50,000 people were executed on those gallows. The first person executed was in 1196 the last in 1783. Overall there were some 350 Catholic martyrs for the faith in England.
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