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Published: February 16, 2010
“New twist on Lent”
California’s bishops suggest: “Reduce your carbon footprint”
In its latest Public Policy Insights newsletter, emailed to subscribers on Feb. 12, the Catholic Legislative Network is recommending a new way to observe Lent, which begins tomorrow. The newsletter is produced by the California Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the state’s bishops.
 “As the Lenten season arrives, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has provided Catholics, schools and organizations with more tools and resources for its annual Catholic Climate Covenant,” says the newsletter. “The Coalition was formed three and a half years ago to help implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) 2001 initiative ‘Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.’ Launched last year, the Covenant revolves around the St. Francis Pledge, which correlates five key actions -- pray, learn, assess, act and advocate -- to the issues of the environment and poverty.”
According to the newsletter, “the Archdiocese of Washington's Environmental Outreach Committee has created a particularly useful new tool: a calendar that lists 40 carbon-fasting measures individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint.” The newsletter provides a link to the full calendar.
The calendar contains suggestion for each of the 40 days of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, with “Remove one light bulb from your home and live without the light for the next 40 days.” Other suggestions include, “Turn down your thermostat by at least one degree;” “Check windows and doors for a draft…” “Making travel plans? Consider getting there without flying;” “Check the tire pressure of your car today;” “Learn about mountaintop removal mining;” “Show reverence for life and for the Earth today by obeying the speed limit…”
The bishops’ newsletter cited Daniel Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, as saying the calendar is "another way to care for creation and aid the poor… it's challenging, asks for sacrifices and to be more mindful of patterns of consumption. It's a new twist on Lent."
To see the ‘Carbon Fast Calendar’ in its entirety, Click Here.
Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 6:09 AM By Canisius
Ah the rotting fruit of Vatican II
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:01 AM By Eric
Is Al Gore part of the CCC? Show reverence for the Earth? The only thing missing is the CCC refering to this planet as Holy Mother Earth. Care for our environment yes-become a tree hugging, bunny loving liberal-no way. It seems some in the Church have bought the man made global warming lie and have chosen Lent to spread the lie under the pretext of a Lenten sacrifice.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:03 AM By Robert Lockwood
How absurd for any Catholic orginization to be worried about carbon footprint - which is absurd in itself - no wonder our Church is in such a sorry state. With leadership like this there won't be any followers.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:06 AM By JLS
Sounds like they're trying to make up for the Gallileo incident. One fallacy: The speed limit ... so, it's slow down so that more cars are idling and puffing and congesting the roads ... not the best way to reduce car emissions, unless more traffic lanes are built, like maybe five times as many. But hey that'll put lots of people to work. The govt can borrow more money from China and Qatar and pull the US out of debt. It's sort of like the bishops' call for more taxes for a health plan without increasing the number of doctors by at least a factor of two. One more example of why the chanceries need to fire 90% of their workers.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:35 AM By Roberta Genini
I shudder to think that Christ's apostles squander their authority on stuff and nonsense. To try to reduce one's carbon footprint implies a belief in man-made global warming, more discredited every day, and confuses as to what is faith and what opinion of the moment. To reduce pollution is another matter: Clean air, water and food are obviously true human goods.
Dear Bishops, please get with it. You look foolish when you slavishly follow the world....especially the world that's so "last month." Please, please, dear Bishops, look at what everyone else is talking about....the great Climate-Gate U-Turn as reported in the UK Daily Mail on Feb.15.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:11 AM By JimAroo
Hey guys - now that wheels have come off the global warming hoax let's join the cause.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:12 AM By Mary
We need bread, Bishops, not stones.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 9:28 AM By Otto
One more indication our bishops are running for secular offices, it seems, since they have assumed their goals and abandoned their spiritual ones.
It's much easier to speak out with blustery indignation in favor of any of the secular hoaxes than in favor of the Lord's Truth.
Join the cool-aide party,...:)
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 9:57 AM By Observant
I'll reduce my carbon footprint by putting those ashes to productive use on my forehead.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 10:04 AM By Bud
This is way too much for me to read without laughing. Better yet to emphasize the fact that most Catholics in the US are too spoiled and fat as well as self indulgent. Why downplay the purpose of Lent as a preparatory season for the Resurrection.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 10:09 AM By RR
Now, I've seen it all. What a farce and a big joke!
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 10:33 AM By JLS
The ideas that come out of the the chancery apparatchiks, ie the fruits of the collection plate, do not speak well for Catholic education today.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 10:52 AM By Mary Jo
Now I am convinced that many of the Bishops in the United States have way too much time on their hands. I have said it once and I will say it again loud and clear: The Bishops in the United States act like CEO's while the Bishops in Nigeria act like Shepherds.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:12 AM By ted
This is not what I would expect as suggestions for self-denial and repentance. It amounts to dancing around a May pole, and borders on pantheism. If that's the best the bishops of California can do, things won't get better for a long, long time.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:23 AM By VirgoPotens
Even if you accept the increasingly shaky "dogma" of global warming....what does that have to do with LENT? Lent isn't a time for healing the earth. We can do that any time. Lent is a time prescribed by the Church for healing and perfecting our own souls. Are we really gonna feel closer to Our Lord's agony, Passion, and death by changing a light bulb? This stupid idea shouldn't be recycled--it should be thrown in a landfill to rot.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:35 AM By DOC MUGWUMP
Ok - we get it. Bishops are concerned with the planet. But then again, so are pro-abortion democrats. So, what about spiritual leadership for the salvation of souls FIRST during the holiest time of the year for Catholics? Putting the planet second behind spiritual growth seems only logical, right? This is why the reactions are so negative to this news. Yes, even Pope Benedict is urging prudent stewardship of our planet. But, launching into Lent like this seems absolutely politically motivated and petty. My goodness, where is the common sense of our bishops and their love for Jesus Christ? Lent is a time to prepare for the gift of Christ to us all and his salvific acts. Putting primary focus on reducing the carbon footprint is rediculously out of touch with our faith and the liturgical calendar. Perhaps this is a simple PR issue and could be remedied by a letter from them putting us back on track and making the focus about Christ and not the temperature of our homes.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:36 AM By Bruce
I suppose we should spend Lent meditating on mother Earth instead of Christ? We could then replace the veneration of the Cross on Good Friday with veneration of Christa, the feminist goddess-savior.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 12:34 PM By John Zakharia
I was shocked that the Bishops have become the body of political correct God then the body of Christ. Remember when Jesus told us about the parable of Lazarus and the rich man? The rich man was too focused on reducing his carbon foot print while the poor man was starving for love. That calender should have containing acts that help the poor and homless, not acts to rub the egos of the rich.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 12:40 PM By JLS
What keeps the heat in is gravity, not carbon. So the real problem is to build more and more anti-gravity machines.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 12:45 PM By junev
All I can say is with leaders such as these the Faithful are in danger of losing their souls. St. Ambrose said "ignorance is no excuse when we have neglected to learn what we are obliged to know". Pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and help this Lenten season. Fast, Abstinence and Penance are what is needed. Be informed about our Faith.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 1:16 PM By CPW
God, please deliver us from liberals! Especially liberal priests and bishops!
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 1:18 PM By Daryl
Augustine wrote: "The outstanding characteristic of Truth is that it does not contradict itself."
Changing truths are not truths at all. What's this "new twist on Lent" business about?
Leave fashionable innovations to women's fashion designers, dance choreographers, and creative fiction writers, please. Our Church leaders should appreciate profoundly that God's Truth is like God Himself: unchanging and eternal, a solid foundation for the house of faith.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:10 PM By Karen Hall
Get rid of evil light bulbs! But that abortion you were planning to have over spring break? Just make sure you ride your bike to it.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:11 PM By Fleeb
yet another reason to run to the closest FSSP chapel...these American dioceses are going nuts!
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:22 PM By BrianSac
Oh Oh and what about all those candles burning in church ?
Just think of the damage from smoke to our lungs,our earth
think of the children Oh the humanity !!!!!!!
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:29 PM By Abeca Christian
The god's of Al Gore have risen! God help us. We need salvation not this!
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:34 PM By cnmarrelli
Here’s a better new twist for Lent. Since California is probably the worst killer of preborn babies in all of America, the California Bishops (and the USCCB) should mandate in all parishes that specific intercessory prayers be included at every Mass for an end to the diabolic practice of abortion-on-demand. The footprints of our slaughtered preborn citizens are the ones that have a right to leave their mark on our good earth; but they are being virtually neglected. Isn’t it obvious that the American Catholic Church Bishops need a renewed infusion of the Holy Spirit? For the last 30 years I’ve asked myself, how is it possible for abortion to have endured for so long when it’s so gut-wrenchingly inhumane, so intellectually repugnant, and so repulsive to our senses? I believe the answer is that too many Catholic Church leaders, Catholic Institutions, and many parishes, have become so politicized, so secularized, and so religiously correct, they send mixed messages to Catholics with the consequence of confusing them into becoming pro-choice. It’s time for a new, all out, effort to awaken Catholics to the fact that 4-D ultrasound has revealed the drama of nature's miracle in the womb; the fetus can be seen to yawn, cry, or blink. It has become visibly undeniable to the world of science, legal scholars, politicians, and to parents that a female zygote, embryo, fetus, or baby in the womb, stands on her own right, her own dignity, and is equal and is no less human than the mother who carries her. St. Thomas tells us that a sin of omission is on the same level as a sin of commission. Where is our Church leadership on this most foundational issue of life? I suggest we build a shrine in California using the DeVito statue, “Mary, Mother of the Life Within” and simultaneously launch a new offensive against the murder of our preborn citizens.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:06 PM By WOODY GUIDRY
CATHOLIC CALIFORNIANS REPENT! Too long have you criticized the actions or inactions of your bishops! Your FLAWED PRESUMPTION that your clerics are sinful is now revealed by their obvious state of mental incompetency. They can sin only insofar as they are aware of the effects of their actions. The legal legislative label is Separation of Brains and Bishops.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:19 PM By Abeca Christian
WOODY GUIDRY ?? What was that all about?
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:30 PM By WOODY GUIDRY
ABECA, that was all about my need for you to pray for me! I think if I keep getting carried away by my own ingenuity, they may carry me all the way.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:52 PM By JLS
Woody, you're on a roll, man. But there is hope in the air.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:56 PM By Peter
Can we all at least be honest and agree that "Climate Change" is the left's code word for "Socialism?" I mean, c'mon folks, lets have a bit of ideological honesty here.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:59 PM By John
May I ask what Daniel Misleh's salary is and who appointed him as executive director of this organization. Perhaps when parishioners discover what their donations are going towards and how they're paid, they'll withhold.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:59 PM By Tom
Promoting the global warning hoaks by the radical liberal bishops is simply a way to appease their God, Obama. They want national health, abortion funding or not. Our moeny from the pews supports their pro abortion, homosexuality, and the illegal immigrants, we have to pay for. The culture of corruption in the White House extends in many wants to the USCCB. This is not opion, but proof.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 4:06 PM By Ed
“Don’t let your light shine before men, turn it off, save the energy.” (CA Bishops)
Hey, what’s going on? Where is evangelization? Where is catechesis? We have Catholics who know little to nothing of their faith, a pagan society going to hell in a hand-basket, and the priority of these bishops is global warming, immigration, and maybe throw in a little liturgical dancing.
Bishops of old were urgently driven to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing was more important to them, not even their lives. Can you imagine Saint Paul preaching, “For I decided to know nothing among you except global warming.” (St. Gore’s 1 Corinthians, 2:2)
Why be Catholic? You can get this mess of pottage down at the local chapter of Green Peace.
Pray, and I mean PRAY, that the Holy Father sends us Holy Bishops.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 4:56 PM By Geri
I had read Fr. Thomas Euteneuer's Spirit and Life installation entitled, "Don't Waste Lent." I quote, "I say conversion and not "personal improvement"...focus on the goal...go for true conversion of heart...”
Then I got the post concerning "carbon footprint" from our Archdiocese. Wow, from the sublime to the ridiculous!
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 5:46 PM By Anne T.
Stay at home moms and grandmothers have been doing all of this for years. Yet our society encourages women to work outside the home, so they can "break the glass ceiling" for diversity's sake and others can meet their "quota". Go figure! We can't have it both ways for everyone.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 5:51 PM By JLS
The stuff that makes for unhealthy smog is nitrogen, oxygen and sub 10 micron particles (regardless of what they're made of). All that carbon does is combine with these elements and fall back into the earth as natural minerals. Plants breathe in carbon and give us oxygen, while the carbon is transformed into food. Old tires have lots of carbon, but they all get dumped on some farmer's back lot so it is not a problem, or ground up and turned into road surfaces or food for the Marine Corps. Carbon is a good thing, as is all of creation; however, the idolheads would have us believe that some natural things are evil. Before we know it they'll convince many that even we are evil and plants are good.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 5:54 PM By marcum
eco-catholics and their new golden calf
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:31 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Some of those Global Warming nuts will be speaking at the annual dissent fest, the Archdiocese of Lost Angels Religious Education Congress, and they will be speaking to the teachers of your children! Come and join CRCOA as we prayerfully demonstrate against this Congress on March 20th at the Anaheim Convention Center.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:00 PM By simone_dubois
We used to call climate change weather. Oh my. These guys are great snake oil salesman from al gore on down. There have been times in earth's history where the CO2 was ten times higher than it is now, amazingly the planet was not destroyed. The basic physics is that temperature drives CO2, CO2 does NOT drive temperature. Oh sorry, our school system has failed, "Math is hard". Stuff and nonsense is right Roberta. The weather has always changed because its well, WEATHER. Thanks but I'm stickin' to the time honored prescriptions for lent, prayer, penance, sacrafrice, fast and abstinance. Some can only be driven out with prayer and fasting, afterall.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:31 PM By JLS
East of the Rockies they're having global cooling, and west of the continental divide there, we are having global warming. Seriously, call to mind the photos of polar bears swimming or sitting on a small piece of ice in seeming vast nowhere? If you were there, you'd think the end was at hand, but the polar bears live there and like it; otherwise they'd move. Besides, the less ice, the more easy to grab the fish. That is why there are more polar bears ... they are designed to increase population in times of less ice and more water, and is why they plague villages ... to seek new friends and playmates, eat children, and chase ecologists.
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Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:14 PM By Abeca Christian
WOODY GUIDRY okie dokie, I'll pray for you. God bless you. Pray for me too, we all need prayer.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:38 AM By peter wilson
If I hadn't read this article for myself. I just wouldn't have believed it to be possible to put this much stupidity under a mitre.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:57 AM By lisamom
This obviously was started before all of the outrage toward the scientists who lied about global warming. The thing that I find curious is that this seems to go directly against the church supporting illegal immigration. Have they seen all of the garbage that is left in the desert by illegals. Of course this Lenten sacrifice would not apply to them. This is what happens when one jumps on a band wagon of a current mania. One looses site of the real goal of penance, prayers, preparation of our hearts to meet Jesus at the cross. I think a better practice to the goal of making our footprint smaller is just to stop consuming so much. Do without second helpings, extra clothes and stuff that fills up our shelves, closets and garages.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:16 AM By Conway Patrick Burke
Lent is a time to get our hearts ready to Celebrate the Great Solemnity of The Resurrection of the Lord. It is a time to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is not a time to promote the wacky agenda of Al Gore. This is rediculous!
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:12 AM By Abeca Christian
I would hope that throughout the whole year we strive to turn away from sin. Lent is for those who forget from time to time to turn away from sin and a tune up per say for spiritual growth and reflection.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:13 AM By JLS
I wonder if they got it from the British bishops. I caught some mention while scanning a news site, but didn't read the report ... seemed to say that this earth worship for Lent started in that bastion of Catholicism, England, which elevates homosexuality and prefers to go along to get along when the ghost of Henry VIII rears its head. Maybe Old Hank wants mother earth to comfort him more warmly, and is frightening those bishops into putting their juju to work to make him a royal global grave.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:50 AM By ginger
This "calendar" was in the pews at the 7am Mass today. Having been used to receiving spiritual suggestions every other year it was quite a shock to read that on the 2nd of March I should put reminders on my switch plates and purchase motion sensors from ShopIPL.org. I went to that website and the CEO and founder is a big time contributor to the Democratic Party.....what a surprise! followed all the sites and most are very similar. Very political for the Pews! called the archdiocese of DC and still waiting for a call back from the communications department.
The calendar claims to be adapted from Tearfund.org (which is in the UK) and greenmychurch.com (No Catholic churches mentioned on that site) go figure....
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:40 AM By Matt
This absurd thinking has to stop. Leave politics and your own personal opinion out of our church! There is no global warming. Reduce our carbon footprint? What next population contol? What happened to go forth and multiply?
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:41 AM By gert
Ridiculous. The bishops are as lost as the main stream media on this one.
"Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who seeks finds; and to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your children ask for bread, will give them a stone? Or if they ask for a fish, will them a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him."
Give us bread, not stones.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:46 AM By Anthony
This is ridiculous. I am Catholic and the faith I follow does not try to impose these type of ideas. This bishop should be ashamed of himself for even writing something of this nature. I doubt the holy father would approve of one of his bishops misusing the church and it's beliefs to preach this type of ideas. I am embarrassed to to see my church even associated with these type of ideas. Maybe if this bishop and the Catholic bishops would stick to teaching our faith we would all live in a better and safer place.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:47 AM By andrew s.
The church is getting involve in matters of state instead of matters of our souls. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." The church should stay focus on their mission... This year I have heard more political babble from our church than ever before. It saddens me and my family.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:06 PM By Ski Ven
I'm kind of late to this party. It is apparent to me that many of the Church's leaders are well educated. Yes, very well educated indeed.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:09 PM By VLHayes
This is not the Catholic Religion I converted to from the Lutheran faith. You are so misplaced in your ideas about what Lent is supposed to represent. Everyone is in favor of conservation, etc., but please you are supposed to be the bastion of and for eternal life. Talk about sin - the Ten Commandments - how Jesus suffered and died for our sins, etc. Just because you were duped by Al Gore, et al., please don't turn it into a Catholic lent event.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:32 PM By mike
This in not the way to prepare for lent. If this is the way of the catholic church its scarey to be catholic.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:52 PM By Colleen Saenz
The Devil is grinning as he sees the believers slip on the know-it-all, control-it-all ideas of man.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:12 PM By JGG
Again, Californians make themselves leaders in irrelevance and irreverence as they falsely believe that they're on the cutting edge of reality.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:12 PM By t.o.m.
I just read this article over the phone to my 97 year old Mom. She said its no wonder that California is near bankruptcy with this kind of logic and intelligence that would follow lies and deceit
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:31 PM By CAS
Bishops heed your own Lenten advice - Cut out the hot air.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:45 PM By JLS
JGG, which reality are you referring to?
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:46 PM By JLS
Is it being turned from a Lent event into a lint event, by shredding the sheep?
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:47 PM By Kevin
I agree with almost all the comments that this is dumb, dumb, dumb, but I think it is unfair and misleading to say it comes from "the bishops." The Catholic Legislative Network is the source.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:10 PM By JLS
Does the Catholic Legislative Network get funding from the bishops? Is it something that Catholic TV, The Vortex, or Lifesite News would lump in with the USCCB funding of anti-Catholic operations such as abortionism and gayism agitpropists?
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:15 PM By David
Ah. The Bishops reduce their credulity another step. How will we know when to follow them when they produce rubbish like this? My first reaction to anything published by more than one bishop is to ignore it. That's sad.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:16 PM By Ron Parent (Canada)
That the California bishops entertained such lame idea is an tragic. In my world, Lent has three chief observances: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. In lieu of removing a light bulb, maybe a Catholic could pray Ligouri's Stations of the Cross on Fridays. In lieu of checking tyre pressure, maybe a Catholic could go to confession. In lieu of learning about mountain top removal mining, maybe a Catholic could lecture the wayward Jesuits to return to their original charism of defending and propagating the faith. The bishops who supported this asinine bunk once again prove that California is the largest open air insane asylum in the world.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:18 PM By Dennis
Are you out of your MINDS! Your new twist on Lent is TWISTED!! So, This is how we thank JESUS for saving us, we turn off a LIGHT!! get REAL PEOPLE. You need to PRAY for YOUR SALVATION!!
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:35 PM By Seen everything now!
We have officially become an earth centered church and are no longer a Christ Centered Church. If American Catholics are truly focused on saving God's Creation, they would first save the unborn who are the least among us and His most precious creation. Nothing else matters if we cannont protect those little ones. May God have mercy on us all.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:10 PM By JLS
Earth Day is just following Easter this year. Maybe the bishops have a plan to combine the two.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:39 PM By Lisa
Great. Having Oprah and the pop culture cabal pitching faux eco-spirituality is one thing. This is beyond disappointing. It is kind of funny though. I mean, a Catholic Lenten calendar with the Holy Saturday admonition to consider greening your final arrangements? Tragic? Funny? I gotta say it made me laugh. I'll cry later.
Get thee to the church of what's happening now.... toot sweet. In the meantime I'll say a prayer of thanks for my wonderful Bishop and pastor.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 4:52 PM By Nick
Manmade global warming is a religion and Al Gore is the religion's "god." As a catholic, the act of worshipping this religion would make me a polytheist.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 4:59 PM By Anne T.
Lisa, Cal Thomas, the conservative writer, says "The Church of What's Happening Now" is losing so many members they are desperate. Perhaps we could send them a few of our Californian and transplant dissidents. That should make them all happy and us too. Cal Thomas is an Anglican of the more orthodox variety, by the way. Also, I do did not mean to badmouth all the women, such as Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, who "broke the glass ceiling". But, of course, the radical feminists do not count her.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:12 PM By Emma
this blog due to this particular article made the rush limbaugh radio program this morning. it was so very embarrassing that this stupidity made it on national airwaves. whats horrifying is that the cal conference guy who came out with this stuff actually suggested one day our sacrifice could be checking tire pressure along with equally stupid other stuff...
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:39 PM By RR
Emma: I heard this today on the Rush Limbaugh radio program. I, too, was so totally embarrassed for the Church. It's shameful!
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:06 PM By dmcd
I guess I must live on a different planet. The anger and venom implied or expressed in these previous blogs leads me to wonder of what are we afraid. Since Vatican II we have not been encouraged to replace personal sacrifice in preparation for the Triduum, but amplify the ways we can add to such things as not eating candy or meat, or not going to movies, or saying a rosary a day or praying the Stations of the Cross. Remember those time honored encouragements. I didn't hear the Bishops saying to throw those overboard, but to add to them the sacrifice of our material self gratification, aka the Burger King herisy. Why are the anger and presumption?
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:11 PM By JLS
What does global warming and pur-gore-atory have in common? I don't know. And what does rushing to limbo have to do with the tire pressure blog? I don't know. What do radical feminazis have in common with women? Gender.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:15 PM By Walt
Here is Minnesota, we should just turn off the furnaces in our chuch's, think how much less co2 we would produce.
When our Parish Priest starts preaching about Global Warming, that will be the day I walk out with my check book.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:24 PM By Bob
I think that this idea has a certain wingnut craziness to it. On the other hand, given all the negative responses it generated, maybe it has meaning for us and is something we should consider as we go without candy, etc.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:49 PM By JLS
Hey, bob, speak for yourself; all I am required to do is not eat meat today and on a few fridays. Do you gobble up lots of candy most of the days of the year? Why? And if so, why would you then drop it for Lent? I've planted about tenthousand trees, and I did that one sapling at a time by hand in a month back in the day. So, I guess I've covered the bases, maybe, huh? Or, bob, is there more, something I'm missing?
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:35 PM By Jeff
Pope Paul VI was correct, Satan's smoke is inside the Church.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:57 PM By WOODY GUIDRY
PAINFUL MEMORY of the excommunication of Father Joseph Feeny, in 1953 I believe, reminds me of the major disruption in the whole Church, really, over something of great doctrinal importance. Whatever the reason for it these days, we lay people feel pretty free to have a carnival over silly things which are not of serious importance. In spite of the publicity, there are not a great many American Catholics who question seriously, today, the authority of the Church (in my opinion re sexual matters for the main part)-although we may have personal irritation at the efforts to fight the Church by using secular government against it. My observation is that it's sort of innocent fun, and might be useful, too, to Church officials who are looking for novelty. Nobody is going to have to confess that their tires were improperly inflated or that they may have used more electricity than was absolutely necessary, etc. It comes to mind that sometimes these Rube Goldberg type theories just might finally stimulate new ideas for a changing world that we can all accept readily as really useful to the Church. How many great inventions came about after many failures? I think something new and MEANINGFUL is certainly possible for our Church, but not this time.
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:54 PM By Janet
THERE IS NO GLOBAL WARM OR MAN MADE CLIMATE CHANGE... DO YOU NOT BELIEVE IN GOD?. DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT MAN HAS POWER OVER GOD?? CHRIST IS THE CENTER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, NOT AL GORE...!!!! YOU TAKE LIGHT BULBS OUT OF YOUR LAMPS, YOU BUY CARBON CREDITS AND LEAVE THE HOLY CHURCH AND OUR ROSARIES TO US... I WILL PRAY FOR YOU....
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Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:10 PM By FHKJ
God Bless the Bishops of California for this very worthy suggestion. It is congruent with Franciscan values and spirituality.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:00 AM By Bill Powell
I agree with dmcd. The anger expressed in these comments seems way overboard. Read this report on St. Patrick's cathedral selling crucifixes that were made in sweatshops, by workers getting paid less than half of China's legal minimum wage, who had to work over 100 hours a week: Next time you walk into a Catholic gift store, you may think twice about all these sacramentals which are stamped MADE IN CHINA. Climate change may be debatable, but sweatshops, and poisoning the water and air, are not. There are many references to rosaries in these comments, but actual rosaries, not to mention light bulbs and electricity, don't just come out of nowhere. We may indeed have to confess that many of our "ordinary" consumption patterns rest on pollution and sweatshops. Perhaps the responses were would have been different had the calendar focused on pollution and sweatshops, rather than climate change, but the overall tone seems to be: don't tell me that any "normal" things I do could possibly be sinful.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:15 AM By Paul Jones
Pitiful ignorance of basic data about carbon data and Christian doctrine.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:19 AM By JLS
The pollution and sweatshop items are caused by politicians who pay off the chancery apparatchiks who tell the bishops that all is well, and the politicians then send the factories offshore, and put out the lightbulbs of millions of their voters.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:05 AM By Abeca Christian
This is embarrassing if it made headlines. It is no wonder when Non-Catholic Christians ask me what church I go to and when I say I am Catholic, they cringe and seem negative, I can't blame them, they are only judging my faith for what they think it is not for what it truly is.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 3:18 PM By Emma
Mr. Powell, I am not angry, I am thoroughly embarrased and disgusted. How horrible it is that a Catholic (who obviously has too much time on his hands) would dumb down lent to the "greening" of it. It is simply ridiculous and should be ridiculed. Can you seriously imagine, sir, that our blessed Lord, sweat blood in agony in the garden, had a crown of thorns pressed down onto his precious head, was scourged and the flesh ripped from his body, lost copious amounts of blood befoer carring His cross up to calvary so that He could be nailed to it, hang their suffering, while He was mocked and dice were rolled for his garments and be pierced in the side all so we could pay more attention to the air pressure in our tires? The comparison is utterly ridiculous. The "greening" of lent wasn't about assault on human dignity in sweatshops or pollution. You attempt to change the story. I am not talking about what you could do for lent but what this guy suggests is appropriate for lenten focus. The murder of preborn children created in the image and likeness of God, act`s of abomination, human slavery and traficking to name a few come to the top of my list. I know these things, so prominent in our day and world, truly offend our Lord and place thorns in our Lady's heart. The angel at Fatima said to make reparation for offenses against the Sacred Heart Of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. No where did the angel say "go forth and check tire pressure as this will please our Lord who is much offended by the lack of tire pressure".
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 6:17 PM By JLS
FHKJ, evidently the "franciscan values" you refer to are a modern concoction. Haven't you read the real stuff about St Francis, or studied some actual Franciscan saints. There is a huge difference between the powder puff imitators and the real Franciscans.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 6:21 PM By JLS
I keep my tire pressure just at the point where I can easily chirp the tires, which are very large ones, on my gas guzzler, just to remind the greenies that they are not alone in the world.
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Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:34 PM By Dave N.
Seems like the bishops would have bigger fish to fry, so to speak.
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 7:43 AM By Ski Ven
I have a tire that has a slow leak, so I periodically check the pressure and add more air when necessary. Since I have a manly V-8, my tires chirp too easily. I have to be careful when I hit the gas just in case the po-pos are around.
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 3:16 PM By marie
I think as Catholics we should care for the earth and our natural resources as God's creation. We should be good stewards of what he has given us. However, the Bishops must now adjust their thinking with the fact that much of the Climate Data was manipulated for the agenda of a few. Things that could come from jumping on such a band wagon are Cap and Trade legislation which will harm the average family and the poor and limited use of our natural resources. The green agenda is not well thought out and there will be a great deal of money put to things that won't work. Those jobs may disappear, but the money spent will be added to our deficit. This again will hurt our famalies. I don't think it is the roll of our Bishops to involve themselves in this type of politics. They should speak loudly regarding the protection of the unborn, and the sanctity of human life for the elderly, and care of the poor. Unproven Climate Change is not something to be involved in.
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 3:32 PM By scott
The most shameful part is the use of the term 'covenant' in this nonsense.
How cheaply they sell God's terms.
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 5:21 PM By Mark from PA
Abeca Christian, nobody ever cringes and seems negative when I tell them that I am Catholic. I have actually had people ask me questions about my faith. Some of the people in my office value my opinions when it comes to questions about the Catholic Church. People respect me for my faith.
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 6:06 PM By JLS
Ski Ven, that leak covers you for your Lenten penance. BTW, my rig is a straight six but I can chirp all four going into second or third. I saw on youtube a humvee go straight up a vertical 6 foot wall and put its front tires over the top; it then backed down without dropping. I have yet to try that ... maybe in the parish parking lot. The po-pos? Back in the day I was running my blown sbc deuce coupe about 95 on Hwy 1 one night and suddenly a cop on a bike pulls in behind with lights aflashin'. I shuv it down into 3rd and put the pedal to the metal. After a no clutch powershift into 4th, I look in the mirror; all I could see was a cloud of dust off the side of the hwy. I pulled into a small cafe and parked in the shadows around back. After a while a cop comes in through the door, covered with dust, all torn up with minor abrasions visible through the torn uniform. He limps over and sits at the counter next to me. After a while he relaxes, so I turn and ask him what the hey happened. He says he was chasing an old car and the thing pulled away so fast he thought his motorcycle had stopped, so he dismounted to check it. I bought him a beer.
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 6:30 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
David,
Re.: "How will we know when to follow them when they produce rubbish like this?", I once asked a very holy priest whoes cause is now being promoted a very similar question. He, without hesitation, replied "you only follow those Bishops who are obedient to the Holy Father". Hope this helps.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
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Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 11:17 PM By Emma
JLS and Ski Ven, LOL, thanks, but what is chirpping your tires?
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Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 7:38 AM By The Truth Hurts
Emma? Great post! Although, Our Lord just might be offended that there is not enough pressure to early retire some of these wayward Bishops.
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Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 7:44 AM By JLS
Emma, chirping the tires is something that the eco freaks hate, because it wastes rubber and tears up pavement, plus uses extra fuel. And it also takes a lot of force and power, especially for a heavy vehicle, which means big motor and low fuel economy. Have you ever heard the sound a passenger plane makes when it lands, and its tires hit the pavement? That is the reverse of what cars and trucks do when they chirp their tires, but it sounds the same. When teenage boys first learn to drive, they often see tire chirping as a sign of manhood. I believe that it is thus important to remind the public with occasional chirps. You can go to youtube and try drag racing, but that kind of chirping is called overdoing it on public streets, and also is light years beyond a mere chirp, and is called smoking the tires. Chirping normally is done at low to no speed, and so is not a danger factor, simply an attention getter. Chirping through the gears, however, often means excessive speed, with the danger that goes with it. Even at low speed, a tire chirper might break an axle or pop a tire and flip the vehicle or crash it. So, next time you feel like chirping your tires (mom's cars usually do not have the power to do this, nor do atuomatic transmission cars tend to be able to do it), consider the image you might put in the minds of the neighborhood kids on your street. Bottom line today is that the streets are so crowded with cars that showing off is too risky. I grew up in an era where the objective in driving was to get to the next stoplight as soon as possible; today's traffic is so thick, that this sort of thing rarely is seen anymore. Instead the showoff types buy crotch rockets and do wheelies on the freeways at 120 mph ... which also makes for frequent fliers, and crash and burn events. BTW, my little story above is a joke I've practiced telling, which comes from back in the day.
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Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 7:47 AM By JLS
"...Daniel Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant ...": Covenant or coven? I'd call it a climate coven, as in wiccan. Might they be building a new stonehenge also?
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Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:13 AM By Emma
I have a manual shift, I want to learn to chirp. Sadly, my four cylinder probably wouldn't do it. Thanks JLS, and I enjoyed your story. :)
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Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:45 AM By JLS
Emma, your 4 banger could be made to chirp the tires, but after a few of these chirps you'd take it to a repair shop and the service manager would emit a few really good chirps while listing how much you would be charged for repair. Let's see: New clutch, new u-joints or front axle shafts (depending on which end drives the car), new tires, new motor from over revving, cost of traffic violater school (I have a phd in traffic violater studies from back in the day) -- rental costs to clean ground in rubber off your driveway, hearing aid due to damage from noise because of course you would have also replaced your exhaust system with a performance model which is louder, new seats because the old ones collapsed from the momentary acceleration. Then no doubt you'd be hooked and take your car into a rice burner mod shop, and come out with an 800 hp street racing machine running a nitrous boost; and then you'd want to spend a fortune on a flashy paint job. Emma, just buy a jeep and chirp the dirt offroad! See you in the back country!!! Or if you go performance mad maybe I'll catch you on the dunes or the rocks, or the Baja 1000.
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Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 4:24 PM By knitter
As this will help me become holy and better prepared for the Triduum how?
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Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:08 AM By Emma
Yes, JLS I see your point, if you give a mouse a cookie, she's gonna want some milk. I had a Jeep too, but I got rid of it a couple of years ago. C'est la vie. I'm glad we don't have to fast or abstain from laughter and I thank you for the laughter! Truly! Fruitful lent to you. :)
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Posted Monday, February 22, 2010 8:17 AM By Ski Ven
JLS, I once had a rig with a straight six and a turbo 400 transmission. It was the smallest engine you can find in a heavy Chevy. It did not do so well from a dead stop, but boy that sucker could shift hard! When it would shift after redlining the engine, those tires would chirp (and sometimes squeal) and the vehicle would just jerk forward. The engine had a lot of blow by, so I am sure it was pretty worn out. I would like to see what a V-8 could do with a turbo 400 transmission, but I figure the fuel economy penalty will be too great. I find it to be pretty impressive that you can do all four tires. It must be because you have off road tires and/or a manual transmission. I would not expect a straight six to have that much low end torque. I have some good street tires on mine but I get nervous when I get to a red light or a stop sign and a police car is right behind me. The road is more slippery at red lights and stop signs so it makes it challenging for me to start going without attracting law enforcement attention. I think I could use a little less low end torque. Aye de mi!
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Posted Monday, March 01, 2010 7:55 PM By Brother Sebastian
EPSITLE + John 2.14-17
Douay-Rheims
We must not love the world; but do the will of God..
Most dearly beloved: I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof; but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever.
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Posted Monday, March 01, 2010 9:48 PM By JLS
The world is a tool which can be used for the purpose taught us by the Lord, right?
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Posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 5:17 AM By irene
And we all wonder why there are so many earthquakes, tsunamis, deadly hurricanes - the earth is revolting against us for placing the worship of itself (nature) before the worship of its creator, God. At the crucifixion of Jesus, the Gospel recorded that the earth trembled...it is trembling again.
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Posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 10:14 AM By Mark from PA
Irene, many earthquakes occur across the earth every day. Most of them are minor and not felt. Earthquakes are part of nature. Every once in a while a major earthquake hits. It has nothing to do with how sinful those who are injured or killed in these earthquakes are.
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