Fumbling Toward Grace
** 1 **
This weekend is the collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development at parishes around the country. CCHD gives grants to community based organizations which seek to help the poor help themselves.
In recent months, CCHD has come under attack by some people who claim that the grants have, in the past, erroneously gone to organizations who embrace contraception, abortion, or same sex-marriage, and that this should lead to ALL of CCHD’s work being abolished. Obviously. Because when an organization has a very specific problem in certain areas, the best thing to do is to…disband the entire organization.
Anyway, lest I digress into a rant about CCHD, thereby violating my dictum against talking about Church politics, if you want to know why my husband and I will be giving money to CCHD this weekend, I refer you to this article from the USCCB.
Baltimore, Md., Nov 19, 2009 / 04:21 am (CNA).- The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ subcommittee which oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has defended the program against what he called “outrageous” allegations and claims. He reiterated that the campaign is pro-life and has “zero tolerance” for funding any group that violates Catholic teaching.
Bishop of Biloxi, Mississippi Roger Morin on Tuesday addressed the fall assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on the topic of the CCHD.
He said that some attacks on the campaign are motivated by concern for the poor or for the Church’s teachings. Some critics may not understand the social teachings of the church, while others charge that the bishops are funding groups that are pro-abortion.
“The critics are using this as an opportunity to attack the shepherds of the Church. I reiterate that we are pro-life, from conception to natural death,” Bishop Morin said. read the rest of it here…
To take a page from Forrest’s book: That’s all I have to say about that.
** 2 **
Thanksgiving approaches! It’s less than a week until the big day. So I’m curious; what are your family plans for Thanksgiving and the weekend? Where will you celebrate? What will you eat? and of course, Will you shop on Black Friday??
Atticus and I will be having a family friend of mine for the holiday, and we will all be going to his parents house, along with his sisters’, a boyfriend, and another friend. We will be 9 in all!
I am bringing mashed sweet potatoes with mini marshmallows and toasted pecans, and a carrot cake for dessert.
** 3 **
Tomorrow morning Atticus and I are picking up our turkey. We have on hold, a pastured, free-range turkey from a farm in Bloomington, IN, about an hour away. I recently read, in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about modern turkey production, and vowed that we would never again buy a conventional turkey.
“Of the over 400 million turkeys Americans consume each year, 99% are of one variety: the Broad-Breasted White, a quick fattening monster bred specifically for industrial scale-setting. If a Broad-Breasted White should escape slaughter, it likely wouldn’t live to be a year old: they get so heavy their legs collapse. In mature form, they are incapable of flying, foraging, or mating. That’s right, reproduction. Genes that make turkeys behave like animals are useless to a creature packed wing-to-wing with thousands of others…so those genes have been bred out. Docile lethargy works better and helps them pack on the pounds.” Pg. 90
I’m fairly certain that when God gave dominion over the earth to man, he meant it as a positive thing, and that genetically breeding an animal to literally be able to do nothing but produce excessive amounts of cheap meat for humans, is a gross violation of that stewardship.
Animals do not have human dignity (obviously). But they do have animal dignity, which seems to logically dictate they be able to live as animals ought, with fresh air, and room to run around, forage, and live out their animal natures. Being packed wing-to-wing in bird houses so tiny the animal cannot even turn around, and never steps foot outside in its entire life, is wrong. They only way these animals can reproduce is by means of a human being, whose job title is, Sperm Wrangler. I’ll leave you to think about that one.
With all of that said, Atticus and I are not vegetarians. We like meat, and we do not think it is ethically wrong to eat meat, as long as the animal we eat has had a chance at living as an animal ought.
That’s why we’re going to pay about 40$ for our Thanksgiving turkey, and as we savor it’s hormone-free, delicious meat, we can be thankful, rather than ashamed, about the kind of life “our” turkey lived.
** 4 **
Tomorrow I am also going to watch the Harvard-Yale game with Atticus and some alumni of both schools. Atticus is a Yallie, and he found out about the event via a friend of his dad’s who is also a Yallie (that’s the little nickname for Yale alumni!) Isn’t it silly, but I am a bit nervous. You know, I did not go to an Ivy league school. Will they be able to smell it on me?
Oh dear, I better dig out my pearls. 🙂
** 5 **
Soon! I love the Macy’s Parade; does anyone else?
** 6 **
Also, 1 week from right now, CHRISTMAS MUSIC! My house will be filled with strains of beautiful Advent/Christmas music. *collapses in a heap from excitement*
** 7 **
God Bless you all and check out Conversion Diary for more quick takes!
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