Catholic Hotdish

What’s O’Green Day? It’s what you call St. Patrick’s Day when you live in a world that I’ll never understand.

Political Correctness Run Amok: School Replaces St. Patrick’s Day With ‘O’ Green Day’

This looks like valuable way to spend an afternoon in Lent.

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St. Michael Catholic Church

Tajci to sing at St. Michael in St. Michael

Nope.

Let’s set aside the fact that the statistic has absolutely no relevance to the contraception mandate debate. It’s an unsettling number and most hearing it will recognize that something is wrong. I can’t think of the last time that 98% of anyone did anything.

The original White House statement was this:

According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, most women, including 98 percent of Catholic women, have used contraception – Cecilia Munoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council

Which naturally degraded to statements like this:

98 percent of Catholic women, I am told by all of you (reporters), use birth control to determine the size and timing of their families. So again its a women’s health issue. – House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Just a quick glance at the people walking into Mass will tell you that can’t be true.

After looking at the study used to come up with this statement (brought to us by the Planned Parenthood-spawned Guttmacher Institute) you can say the following:

Of women who consider themselves Catholic, who are sexually active (in the past three months),  fall into the 15 – 44 age group, and are not pregnant, not postpartum, not trying to achieve pregnancy or not having sex, 98% have at least one time in their lives used contraception.

Washington Post Blogs:

The claim that 98 percent of Catholic women use contraception: a media foul

Have 98 percent of Catholic women used contraceptives? Not quite.

LifeSiteNews:

White House claim that 98% of Catholic women use contraception a ‘damned lie’: Lutheran author

If you enjoyed the extra day today you can thank Pope Gregory XIII who reformed the Julian Calendar in 1582 mainly because it really messed with where Easter landed. That and the vernal equinox kept creeping backwards. The new calendar came to be known as the Gregorian calendar for obvious reasons. Leap years are explained by the United States Naval Observatory in this way:

Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100; the centurial years that are exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years. For example, the year 1900 is not a leap year; the year 2000 is a leap year.

And thus the extra day today. Which I spent a large portion of with a shovel in my hand.

At the time of this posting Google’s trending list of words most searched is as follows:

1.    kombucha tea
2.    ash wednesday
3.    brady quinn
4.    lent
5.    fat tuesday
6.    chris brown and rihanna
7.    king cake
8.    lint

Five of the top eight are Lent related. If you count “lint” which I am really hoping is just a function of typing too fast. It would ruin my day if millions of souls were going online to search out how to more prayerfully enter into “lint”.

Google’s customers are clearly interested in Ash Wednesday and Lent today. Google’s doodle? The 155th birthday of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the discoverer of electromagnetic waves (see picture above).

It was a great blog controversy when the search giant chose Earth Day over Good Friday last year so I don’t think anyone expected them to put together a doodle of sack cloth, ash and fish today. But pulling out a 155th birthday anniversary of a little-know scientist feels like a stretch. Perhaps to have something in place to avoid the more obvious Christian holiday? This in spite of the millions of searches for Lent and other Lent-related topics. Mr. Hertz, with the help of the doodle, didn’t crack the top 20.

I have no standing whatsoever to tell Google how to run it’s business but I think the question is worth asking. What do you think?

“Is Google purposely avoiding Christian holidays?” Or maybe the better question is “Why is Google avoiding Christian holidays?”

Image licensed under Creative Commons license.

Brother Michael Collins, DeLaSalle High School president, dies 1,386

Red Bull Crashed Ice to burst from Cathedral steps 776

HHS move amounts to ‘to hell with you,’ bishop says as protests mount 683

Hill-Murray School raises $17,000 for Jack Jablonski 619

Slide show: Crashed Ice finale at Cathedral of St. Paul 617

Digital Edition – January 19, 2012 558

Governor listened, takes Basilica site off Viking playing field 453

Catholic schools take marketing big-time 344

Glory to God in the highest, and — prepare for new words 278

Praying, marching for life in St. Paul 254

Image licensed under Creative Commons license.

Father Bernard Reiser, longtime Epiphany pastor, dies 3,014

Our Lady of Guadalupe 1,204

Red Bull Crashed Ice to burst from Cathedral steps 926

Archbishop issues prayer for marriage 528

Pray with family and friends on Gaudete Sunday 501

Fourth Sunday of Advent begins end of waiting 499

Gather around the Advent wreath to pray with family and friends 427

Archdiocese announces official parish mergers, clergy assignments and a retirement 396

Readers share their greatest Christmas blessings 369

Bringing a musical role model to my attention 344

From a very young age I have always loved Nativity scenes. I had my own as a child that featured small wood-carved painted figures that I set up and took down through Advents past. One can be found on display in my dining room year round and somewhere in storage is a classic crèche that has been in the family for years and is safely waiting for a slightly less rambunctious household in which to be displayed. Maybe next year.

The beauty of the Nativity story told in statuary was something that I didn’t think could be done wrong. And then I came across this blog…

27 worst nativity sets: the annual, growing list!

Truth be told, there is one in the collection that I kind of like (Hint – It’s not the one made of meat).

If you have pictures of beautiful crèches out there to offset these, please link them in the comments.

Image licensed under Creative Commons license.

Readers were most interested in Advent stories as we prepare for Christmas.

An Advent lesson courtesy of quarterback Tim Tebow 1,575

Gather around the Advent wreath to pray with family and friends 1,323

Pray with family and friends on Gaudete Sunday 696

Fourth Sunday of Advent begins end of waiting 399

Vatican today — December 7, 2011 368

New Roman Missal 267

Isaiah: Old Testament prophet for the Advent season 240

Gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit 187

Civil War chaplaincy counted Father Ireland among its ranks 145

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