Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

Even B XVI has an iPod now….

The gift – a 2GB model – was given to recognise the pontiff’s first visit to the radio station’s headquarters. It was the station’s 75th anniversary.

As well as a number of Vatican Radio shows, the iPod contains music by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.

Awesome…so if I download that playlist, does that get me some graces? I love Beethoven but Stranvinsky seems a bit post-modern for this pope…maybe I’m reading too much into it.

The Buffalo News has this interesting piece….whatever happened to priestly obedience?

In a rare public dissent, 19 Catholic priests have denounced the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage and allowing homosexuals into the priesthood.
The clerics signed an open letter that ran last Sunday in Montreal’s La Presse newspaper.

The priests said the church was invoking “natural law” to make its case against homosexuality, arguing that slavery was also once considered “natural.”

“What we are saying is that human nature is constantly evolving,” Claude Lemieux, one of the signatories, told the Associated Press by phone Tuesday. “We believe this position is closer to that which is shared by our parishioners.”

The letter questions whether the church has “the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life.”

“In these matters,” the letter says, “the official teaching of the church has shown itself more than once to be wrong.”

The letter was in response to the position against gay marriage by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Recent guidelines of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education also restated opposition to the ordination of priests with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies.” But the Vatican said there would be no crackdown on gays who are already ordained.

Canada last year legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, a move many clerics of all religions opposed.

There are roughly 13 million Catholics in Canada, about 43 percent of the population, and nearly half live in the French-speaking province of Quebec. In 2004, Quebec legalized gay marriage.

I mean, if you can’t get the clergy to oppose something that is clearly against everything they claim to profess and believe….who can you look to?

From the 3/3 USA Today …liberal daydreaming? I’m wont to think so….

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday he will consider increasing women’s “institutional” role in the church but reiterated that they would remain barred from the priesthood, Italian news agencies reported.
The pontiff made the comments in response to a question by a clergyman during an audience with Rome’s parish priests, the Apcom and ANSA agencies said.

Benedict said he would begin reflecting on the possibility of giving “institutional” recognition to women after noting that women’s “charisma” had always played an important role in the church, the agencies said.

He mentioned Mother Teresa and Saint Catherine of Siena, among others, and did not say what type of institutional roles he had in mind.

Mother Teresa started her international order in the Indian city of Calcutta in 1950 and became a global icon of humanitarian causes before her death in 1997. Saint Catherine, who lived in the 14th century, cared for the sick and was consulted by the Vatican about the affairs of the Church.

Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, unequivocally backed a male-only priesthood, arguing that Jesus chose men as his apostles.

In one of his few concessions, the late pontiff formally permitted women to serve at the altar, approving a practice that was already widespread in the United States and western Europe.

Just saw the movie Walk the Line on DVD, and I’ve got to tell you, probably the second best movie I’ve seen this year ( Cinderella Man and Narnia: LWW are tied for first). But it’s a really close second. Simply a great film, with great acting and the music is awesome. Joaquin Phoenix (as Johnny Cash) and Reese Witherspoon ( as June Carter) perfectly fit their roles and make them three-dimensional characters that you spend the whole movie rooting for as they exchange snappy dialogue, great songs, and memorable screen moments. A few of my favorites: June in the water with Johnny after he tries unsuccessfully to free a tractor; Johnny’s proposal to June on the tour bus; and June’s pivotal role in helping Johnny overcome his addiction to pills. While both of them sing and act admirable, I’ve got to say that I enjoyed Witherspoon’s performance on a deeper level–she had so many aspects of personality to probe and a variety of different facets of her acting personality to use, from June’s comedy routines in the beginning of the film to the determination and affection she shows John as she sticks by him through his recovery.

I wasn’t a Cash fan before this film, so I didn’t know any of the music, but I loved the songs they chose for the film, and the singing was great. I was also impressed that Phoenix and Witherspoon both learned their characters’ instruments (the guitar and autoharp, respectively) well enough to play them in the film. The script is poignant, witty, funny, and always moving, and there is a strong sense of direction and story guiding this film, which makes the story flow well without feeling rushed or chopped up or directionless, like so many biopics (see last year’s The Aviator for a prime example of directionless). It is an absolute crock that this film wasn’t nominated for best picture, because it is truly the best (or second best) American film made this year. Lat time I checked, I thought that was important criteria for best picture nominees. But I guess this year the Academy overlooked all the films that made audiences feel good about themselves and society and chose the films that do the opposite. Oh well. I’m pretty confident Witherspoon will win for her role in Walk the Line and it will be very well-deserved.

OK, again, this is not a specifically Catholic post, but what the heck. I’ve made this cake for Christmas parties and birthday parties and people are always asking for the recipe so I though I’d post it here for any and all to print and try at their leisure. I can’t take credit for it…it’s from Anne Byrn’s book The Cake Doctor , which you can find at any bookstore and is definitely worth getting. Enjoy the recipe!

One note: this is an easy cake to make but you need at least an hour and twenty minutes because the cake has to cool for 40, and then the icing has to set somewhere cold for 20. It only cooks for about 25 minutes. So set aside ample time ( a lesson I still have to learn when making this!). And you’ve got to make the frosting–it’s easy and adds so much to the cake’s flavor.

SNICKERDOODLE CAKE

–solid vegetable shortening (crisco) for pan (you can also use an unflavored non-stick spray, but the flour will be harder to set)
–Flour for dusting the pans
–1 package (18.5) plain white cake mix (NO PUDDING ADDED MIXES–your cake will be way too wet)
–1 c. whole milk
–8. tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
–3 large eggs
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
–2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
–Cinnamon buttercream frosting (recipe follows)

1. Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Generously grease 2 9″ round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening and dust with flour. Shake out excess flour and put pans aside.

2. Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the over side by side.

3. Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 27-29 minutes. Remove from pans and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Then run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, then invert again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. (You can also use a plate for this if you only have one cooling rack). Allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes.

4. Make the buttercream frosting. (I’ve found the frosting spreads much better if you make it 5-10 minutes before the cakes are done cooling so it doesn’t have time to harder)

5. Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, ontop of the first and frost the top and sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes.

6. Place the cake, uncovered, in the fridge (or cold garage!) until the frosting sets, 20 minutes. Cover with waxed paper and store in fridge for up to 1 week. Can be frozen for up to 6 months, but thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.

CINNAMON BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Makes 3 1/2 cups, enough for a 2 or 3 layer cake. 5 mins. . prep

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3 3/4 confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons milk (you can add another tablespoon if the frosting is too thick)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy (30 seconds). Stop the machine and add confectioners’ sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Blend on low speed until the sugar is incorporated (about 1 minute). Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy (1 minute). Blend in up to one tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

2. Use to frost the top and sides of a cake of your choice.

for plain buttercream frosting, omit the cinnamon and add another teaspoon vanilla

Went to Ash Wednesday Mass yesterday, partially because I always do, and partially because I had to sing. I managed to get 95% through my first day of fasting (I didn’t have to before my surgery b/c I had to sort of eat all the time in order to keep on weight) but I fudged it after Mass and had some chocolate. hey, what do you want? It was my first time really doing it. And I didn’t have any meat or eat beetween meals.

The Mas was nice–my favorite part was the homily, when our pastor said, “Today is not a holiday. Sunday was a holiday. Yet there are more people here tonight then there will be on Sunday all month.” Ahh, truth from the pulpit.

I haven’t really decided what to give up for Lent yet…I’m moving so it’s not like I can totally give up buying things, which is sort of what I was thinking about. But I thinking I’m going to try to start wokring on being more “fiscally responsible”–I still haven’t quite figured out what exactly that means but I’m working on it. I’ve got 40 days. I’ve also started more bible reading, so that should count for something.

Bleg: are all Fridays of Lent fast and abstinence, or just no meat? I can’t find it in my books, which is shocking. Any clarification would be awesome.