I Was Asked

Roman Numerals

2007-02-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Roman Numerals.

This afternoon I had the TV on the channel for the Super Bowl football game. The official title for the game was "Super Bowl XLI".

"XLI" - - That means: 41. I got to wondering about roman numerals so I went to my computer and brought up the Wikipedia article for Roman Numerals. Wow, what an interesting article. Not only does the article indicate how the character symbols are supposed to be used but it mentions how the symbols have changed their usage through the centuries.

Again, I found the article very interesting. If you would like to read it you can find it at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals

Near the end of the article is a link to an article titled "Roman arithmetic". That, too, I found interesting since I've always wondered how you could do math using roman numerals.

What is the roman numeral for the number 4?
Most commonly it is IV. But in times past IIII was also used.

Even today it is very common for clocks using roman numerals to use IIII for the four o'clock hour instead if IV. Why? The above article offers some interesting explanations.

Son Pilots Jet

2007-01-01T14:10:00.000-07:00

My oldest son, John, recently had a thrilling experience. He got to fly in the co-pilot's seat on a jet aircraft, a Cessna Citation CJ3.

The flight was a reward for special work he had done at his college, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

John flew in the co-pilot's seat, the front right seat. In the pilot seat (left front seat) was Phil Boyer, the president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).

John got to pilot the jet aircraft enroute from the Prescott airport to the Winslow, Arizona, airport. Then John got to land the jet airplane himself at Winslow.

John is now in his fourth year of college at Embry-Riddle in the professional pilot program. Next May he will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Science.

I also have a private pilot's license and I thoroughly enjoy flying airplanes. I don't fly very often because it is quite expensive. Fortunately, John has had wonderful opportunities in aviation. He attended a high school with an aviation focus and got his private pilot license (paid for by the school system) a few weeks before he got his high school diploma. He also got to attend two summer camps at Embry-Riddle before applying for admission.

I also belong to an organization named the National Association of Priest Pilots (NAPP). We have priest members who do all kinds of things in aviation. There are priests in Africa flying planes to support medical missions, priests in New Mexico who fly medical supplies into Mexico, priests who are certified flight instuctors (and train some of those medical missionaries), we even have priests who are commercial airline transport pilots, and priests in Alaska who weekly fly to small towns for church services.

Here is the priest pilots web site:
www.priestpilots.org

Here is a picture of the priest pilots annual meeting at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association headquarters building in 2005 (can you find me?):
Flying Padres visit AOPA

I am really proud of my son John (and somewhat jealous!).

Misspelled Words

2006-08-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Today I came accross a list of the top ten most misspelled city names (apparently only U.S. cities are on this list). Of course, my city is on the list.

1. Pittsburgh
2. Tucson
3. Cincinnati
4. Albuquerque
5. Culpeper
6. Asheville
7. Worcester
8. Manhattan
9. Phoenix
10. Niagara Falls

(I note which cities of some of my readers are NOT on that list: Ottawa, Merced, Vancouver, Richmond, San Francisco.)

So then I looked for lists of regular (American) English language words that are commonly misspelled. I found a lot of such lists. Here are two lists.

One list:
1. minuscule
2. millennium
3. embarrassment
4. occurrence
5. accommodate
6. perseverance
7. supersede
8. noticeable
9. harass
10. inoculate

Another list:
1. independent
2. accommodation
3. definitely
4. receive
5. opportunities
6. their
7. occurred
8. information
9. official
10. activities

This site produced the first list and has a lot of interesting comments:
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/error.html

Other common misspellings that I run across as I read blogs are really errors where people don't know the proper usage of certain words.
than vs. then
their vs. there vs. they're
it's vs. its vs. it is
your vs. you're vs. you are
were vs. where
I vs. me
to vs. too
are vs. our

Now for the gender-specific vs. politically correct (!):
policeman vs. police officer
fireman vs. fire fighter
mailman vs. letter carrier
actress vs. actor

This could go on and on (and I am sure some commenters will add their favorite spelling gripes - - please do! Canadians and UK'ers are excused!!!!)

Kid, heat, car keys - DANGER

2006-08-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who works at a daycare center e-mailed me with an interesting account of something that happened there yesterday. I told her that I would post it on my blog for the "whole world" to read as a public service announcement.

Today at work, a woman came and picked up her sixteen-month-old, carried the child (holding her car keys) to the car, strapped her into her carseat, and, hoping to avoid a tantrum until the last possible second, let the child continue holding the car keys while she got herself into the car, intending to reach back and retrieve them after sitting down and buckling her own seatbelt.

In the split second between the mother shutting the back door and opening the front door, the child pushed the "lock" button on the remote. The heat index here today was something like 110 deg F. (43 deg. C.).

The mother at first tried to get the child to unlock the door, but the little girl laughed and threw the keys onto the floor. The mom ran back to the building, and we called 911. It took five minutes for the police to respond, and then they said that due to some kind of civil-liberties b.s. from our buddy Dubya, they were not allowed to have "Slim Jims" anymore. They didn't want to break the window except as a last resort, because they were afraid of injuring the baby with flying glass. They wanted to wait for the fire department to arrive; apparently the fire department still has "Slim Jims." It took another five minutes for the fire department to get there. They tried the "Slim Jim." No luck. They tried a very long, fluorescent plastic thingy, which didn't work either. The director of the center ran inside to look for a hammer, because we were all starting to think about those ads that say how your dog can die in a hot car in something like fifteen minutes, even WITH the window cracked (the windows of the car in question were fully closed; fortunately the woman had parked in the shade, but it was still f#@*%+# HOT). I have a rescue hammer in my minivan, and mentioned that, and we were just on our way to get it when, after nearly ten minutes of trying, the fire department guys were able to pop the lock on one of the doors and get the baby (who was sweating profusely and not all that happy, but fully alert and apparently none the worse for wear) out of the vehicle. Fortunately, our staff R.N. and L.P.N., and a parent who is a doctor were all standing by; they took the child inside and put ice packs under her armpits, and gave her a bottle of Pedialyte. Everybody neglected the front desk and swarmed into the nursing center sniffling and cursing the useless police and our idiot president, and assuring the distraught mother that we had all, countless times, done pretty much the same thing.

Never again. My kids aren't touching my car keys until they are old enough to drive. Maybe not even then. And don't you let yours, either.

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Life Experiences Meme

2006-07-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Life Experiences Meme

Bold the ones you've done..

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink (I counted heads first!)
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (The "hill" had "Mountain" as part of its name -- Phoenix North Mountain.)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise (Too many times!)
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne.
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can (for fun, of course)
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking (every time I've ever danced)
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment (much more than just a moment)
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love (Mary P.'s comment: THAN! It's "THAN", you idiot who wrote this, not "THEN". Sheesh.)
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero (my kids were young, to them Dad was always a hero!)
58. Sung karaoke ("Sung" is debatable)
59. Lounged around in bed all day (being unemployed has its benefits)
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced (So, so, sad.)
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert" (Ask me about "what"!)
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
105. Wrote articles for a large publication (It says "wrote" not "published"!)
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane (My favorite hobby - - but expensive.)
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild (Be sure to have an expert along so that you don't eat poison ones.)
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours (Pneumonia can be a real downer.)
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts (Many, many.)
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident (Technically, not my fault!)
150: Saved someone's life (Yes, it was my job, but what a feeling.)

I am adding some to the list:
151. Been present for the birth of your own child (The most moving moment of my life.)
152. Officially retired from a job
153. Been lifted by a cable and winch up into a rescue helicopter (I used to be the instructor demonstrating it.)
154. Driven an emergency vehicle with flashing lights and siren
155. Eaten rattlesnake (When you live in Arizona...)

Mary P. started this meme.

Wow, there is a story behind every one of those, even the ones not in BOLD.

If you ask I will tell the story(ies).

- - Jerry

Congrats to pre 1980's children

2006-06-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

My sister (born 1965) sent me the following:

===================================================================

CONGRATS TO ALL THE CHILDREN BORN IN THE 30'S, 40'S, 50'S, 60'S &
70'S!!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while
they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't
get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and
when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks
we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special
treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE
actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with
sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS
OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.
And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride
down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into
the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at
all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound,
no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat
rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from
dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks
and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not
put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or
rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem
solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW
TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

(Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!)

Back home

2006-06-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

A week of visiting and traveling has come to an end.

Before this past school year began, my ex-wife moved across the country to Virginia. She took my youngest son, Jason, with her. This was his last year of high school (12th grade).

On Wednesday, June 7th, Jason's high school had their graduation ceremony (in Richmond, Virginia, USA). I was really glad to be there. His mother and I cheered him from the crowd.

Jason turned 18 years old two months ago. Being legally an adult, he decided that after graduation he wanted to move back to my house in Arizona. He has acquired too much stuff to just hop on an airplane, so we rented a U-Haul truck and spent all day Thursday loading up his furniture, TV, computers, and many boxes of other stuff.

On Friday, June 9th, we climbed into the U-Haul truck and headed out.

The phone call.
On Saturday, June 10th, my cell phone rang and it indicated that the call was coming from my home in Phoenix. Had my other son visited my house? No, it was a Phoenix Police officer. He said that my neighbor had found my house's front door kicked in and the door was open. The police officer said that they had searched the house and no one was there. He said that the place looked a bit ransacked. I told him that was really my fault since the house was really a mess when I left. I asked him if any police officers were injured climbing over all of the messy stuff that I had everywhere. He laughed and said, "No."

I called my oldest son, John, in Prescott, Arizona, where he is going to college and where he is staying for the summer sessions. John immediately headed for Phoenix (about two hours away). When John got to the house he reported that he did not see anything stolen - - TV's, stereo, and several computers were all in place. I called my insurance company and they sent a contractor over to patch up the front door. After that, John loaded the more important computers into his car and went back to Prescott.

Since we were then anxious to get home and see the "mess" at my house, Jason and I drove longer days in order to get home sooner. We did not really have much of a travel plan but since I rarely travel across the country I had hoped to be able to make several stops along the way. Instead we concentrated on distance each day.

Yesterday, June 13th, we arrived back in Arizona. First we stopped in Prescott to pick up the computers from my oldest son. Then we arrived at home. After going through the patched up door we saw that the house looked mostly like I had left it - - a mess. But there was added mess in the bedrooms where all of the dresser drawers had been emptied out. (Looking for hidden money or jewelry? - - No, not in my house!)

We still have not discovered anything taken during the break-in, except, I would swear that there were two 2 Liter bottles of Dr. Pepper in the refrigerator when I left (because that is Jason's favorite drink), but we only found one bottle in the refrigerator when we got here. So I am declaring that the only property taken by the thieves was a bottle of Dr. Pepper. (I actually told that to the insurance claims adjuster this morning. Along with the front door replacement that should be under my $500 insurance deductible.)

The big project for today is to unload the U-Haul truck. Next project: clean up the house!!!!!

Traveling

2006-06-05T18:28:00.001-07:00

For the next two weeks I will be away.

First I will fly to Virginia for my youngest son's high school graduation.

Then,

we will load up a U-Haul truck and move my son back to my house in Phoenix, Arizona. I know that he is looking forward to the excitement of traveling across the country.

We may find an occasional open Wi-Fi access point along the way that my son's laptop can access, but I probably won't be checking blogs or e-mails until after June 15th.

The Da Vinci Code - Movie

2006-05-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

The The Da Vinci Code movie made its debut in American theatres yesterday.

Last night I went and saw the movie. I found it to be interesting entertainment. I have the book but I have not read it yet.

There are many controvertial issues being raised about the movie. At this time I am not going to discuss those issues in detail. I will say that since I am aware of most of those issues, if the movie is seen as fiction that uses true or partial facts as starting points then it is an enjoyable fictional film.

The problem with the movie that is expressed by many opponents is that though the movie (and the book) starts with facts or partial facts it takes liberties with how those facts develop. Even though the development of those should be clearly fictional, the opponents fear that unsophisticated people will be mislead into thinking that the developments described in the movie and book are truthful.

Here are some links to websites that list and discuss the objectionable issues:

DaVinci Outreach at:
http://www.davincioutreach.com/

Cracking The Da Vinci Code at:
http://www.catholic.com/library/cracking_da_vinci_code.asp

If you want to discuss issues in the comments I will be glad to follow up. I am not a scholar in most of the issues that have been raised, but I will research and find answers.

The movie's stars: Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

The picture is from my mother's 80th birthday celebration two weeks ago. In the picture, from left to right, my youngest brother, Tom, in his uniform as Chief of Police, City of Brighton, Michigan, then my Mom, Wanda Wightman, who lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan, then my brother Ron who is a U.S. Air Force master sergeant at Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mount Clemens, Michigan.

For a wondeful Mother's Day post I encourage you to read Haley's post for her mother Mary P.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and to all moms.
- - Jerry

Catholics and Condoms

2006-04-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

I am posting the following news article because my readers have previously expressed concern over the Catholic prohibition of the use of condoms for any reason.

Vatican draft document would approve condoms for married couples with AIDS
Traditional ban on birth control still stands

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

A forthcoming Vatican document is set to state that use of condoms by a married couple, where one partner is infected with HIV/AIDS and the other is not, can be acceptable to prevent the transmission of the disease.

Sources say the document will insist that this position does not mark a break with the church's traditional ban on birth control, expressed in Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. What would be approved is not contraception, they say, but disease prevention.
...

To view John Allen's complete article, which contains several important insights, go to:
National Catholic Reporter
http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn042506.htm

Baptismal Covenant Book

2006-04-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Shameless plug. My ex-wife, Dr. Nancy McLaughlin, has just had her doctoral thesis published as a book. When I first read her thesis I was totally impressed by her work.

Do You Believe? Living the Baptismal Covenant

Below is the information printed on the back cover of the book.

Book Description
The baptismal covenant, empowering all the baptized to minister in the name of Christ, is at the heart of our lives as Christians. But how well do parishes articulate the importance of this call for all their members? What kind of job do parishes do of integrating the covenant into the life and work of the congregation?

In Do You Believe?, author Nancy Ann McLaughlin takes a look at some forty Episcopal parishes around the country to see just what an active, intentional, energized awareness of baptismal ministry looks like. Examining each of the elements of the covenant — from believing in God to continuing the preaching of the apostles — the book offers practical advice for turning words into concrete actions.

This is an excellent book for parish study and reflection, offering ways that individuals and congregations can envision the church — and their own lives — as a dynamic relationship with God.

About the Author
Nancy Ann McLaughlin is a Christian in the Episcopal Denomination and has two sons. She has performed various (but not necessarily church-related) ministries in her fifty years, most recently adjunct professor of New Testament Theology and History and consultant to a young church plant. She has earned both Master of Arts in Theology and Master of Divinity degrees from St. John's Provincial Seminary, as well as Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.

ISBN: 0-8192-2192-9

The Amazon entry for the book is at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0819221929/gwservice

List Price: $14.95 Amazon Price: $9.72

History of the Catholic Church in America

2006-04-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

The history of the Catholic Church in the United States has had many ups and downs. The history of the Catholic Church in the Unites States has many ramifications for the Church through out the world.

I came across a very well written article that recounts the history of the Catholic Church in America (United States). It is a rather long article but I encourage you to read all of the way through it. (Those of you who consider yourselves "Cafeteria Catholics" will find some helpful explanations in this article.) After reading the article please return here and post your comments.

History of the Catholic Church in America by Anthony Padovano:

http://ecumenical-catholic-communion.org/html/am_catholic.html
(Link revised June 14, 2006)

The article describes three phases of the Catholic Church in America. Think about this: how about a new phase that begins now? An author has just written a book where that is exactly what he proposes. It will require action from the people of the Church. I haven't finished reading the book yet so I can't explain it all yet. But a few weeks ago several of us had dinner with that author and he sure made a good case for a new phase. I will provide information on that book and its author soon.

A more recent article by Padovano provides some interesting observations:

Report from Rome by Anthony Padovano:
http://undercover.corpus.org/page.cfm?Web_ID=553

Highway Patrol

2006-04-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new Arizona DPS (Department of Public Safety) Highway Patrol vehicle?

The speeders have been so fast lately that a faster chase vehicle was needed to catch up to them. (DPS is Arizona's equivalent of state police.)

Pilots, remember, below 10,000 ft. the speed limit is 250 knots or you may see this DPS guy saying "Pull over to the side of the airway."

This and other DPS pictures can be seen at http://www.dps.state.az.us

OK, I am sure the picture is just for fun. Jet pilots usually wear helmets. Notice the flashing red light sitting on top of the instrument panel. Also, the DPS pilots get into enough trouble just trying to fly their King Air - - they get blamed for wasting money.

Enjoy (I did not have anything else ready to post.)

Bad Car Day

2006-03-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

Update (May 5, 2006): This morning some guys knocked on my door and asked if the old car was for sale. I explained the bad condition of the car and they offered $700. SOLD!

This picture may look like I am getting my car towed to the repair shop. Quite the opposite. This is coming BACK from the repair shop WITHOUT any repairs.

Apparently the engine is in bad shape. It has been overheating so the head gasket is blown and probably some other bad stuff is ruined. It is a 1996 Pontiac Sunfire.

To fix it they want $3,500 for a new engine. Kelley Blue Book says the car might be worth $1,000 with a working engine. So, it is just not worth it to repair the thing.

Since I am currently unemployed I will not be able to get a loan to purchase another car. Solution: get a job ! I don't have any money for a downpayment since my current savings will probably only get me through one more month of house payment, child support, health insurance, and utilities. Again, solution: get a job.

I do have another "old" vehicle, a 1984 Chevy Suburban but it only gets 11 miles per gallon and right now it probably needs its battery replaced.

Nieces' 1st birthday

2006-03-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

My two nieces, twins of my sister Sharon, had their first birthday this week.
Update: I finally got to see my nieces in person. Now I have added names to the pictures below.

In this picture Jessica and Allison are less than a month old:

The twins, Happy 1st Birthday, this week:
This is Jessica:

This is Allison:

Site Meter

2006-03-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, readers.

I have not had a new post for a week now. The name of this site is I Was Asked, so I have been asked to write about some topics and I am currently preparing those posts but they take a bit of research so that I am sure that I am giving you truthful facts.

The last post about HAMBURGERS was effectively a delurking post. I did see comments from all of my regular readers and a couple of new readers. Mary P. got me thinking about alternatives to hamburgers and several of you pointed out that home cooked burgers are the best.

About a month ago I added Site Meter to this blog site. Site Meter tracks who accesses this site and what web page they were on that provided the link to this site. It also shows who reached this site through search engines and what key words were used in the search.

I have not spent much time analyzing what pages people reached this site from but I do find that almost every time I make a first time comment on someone else's site I get someone who "checks out" this site by clicking on my comment.

The most interesting thing I have found is the searches that find my site, in particular the words that were searched on that yielded my site.

Here is a list of search engines that people used during the past week:

google.com
search.msn.com
google.co.uk
google.com.ph   (( Philippines ))
search.peoplepc.com
google.com.au   ((Australia))
search.blogger.com
blogsearch.google.com

Here is a list of key words that were used for searches during the past week (comments in double parentheses ((...)) are my comments):

moral punishments of abortion
roman catholic priests get married?
diocese phoenix priest medical retirement age   ((I don't know the answer to that one.))
canon law age to make choices
catholic church doctrine and ectopic pregnancy
rhythm method of calculation   ((Oh, I hope this person read about NFP instead of Rhythm.))
cannon law on priest not being married   ((BOOM! cannon vs canon law))
palmer method cursive
'moral evil'
pictures of unbaptized infants   ((Now what was this person really looking for?))
paying for birthcontrol pills
moral evil
catholic church barrier methods contraception
church vs. abortion
cursive writting
abortion and catholics
catholic emergency baptism
married priest
about sterilization in relation to catholic beliefs
dante the devine comedy and jesus
abortion-moral issue
priest who leave to get married
catholics believe limbo is
dispensation from celibacy
archdiocese of detroit
rules episcopal priest marriage
married priest

OK, well I found those search topics interesting. Obviously I have been writing about things that people are interested in, but I credit you readers with asking for those topics.

Happy blog reading. More soon.

Hamburgers

2006-02-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

I am going to break from my series of religious topics and try something totally different.

Where do you find the best tasting HAMBURGER ?

(Now this actually may be a religious topic to some people!)

I live in Phoenix, Arizona, which is now the fifth largest city in the United States. We have a lot of places to get hamburgers. I do have a favorite spot. Recently one of the local TV stations did a segment on this topic and they took my suggestion and actually video taped me munching on a gorgeous burger. (I will check to see if the link to the video is still alive.)

So, in the comments please list your favorite hamburger place. If you do not eat hamburgers then you may suggest your favorite alternative and the rest of us may want to give that a try.

Here is my list in a rough order of preference:
The Original Hamburger Works, Phoenix, Arizona, The Big One (with bacon added)
Burger King, Whopper
Burger King, Angus Steak Burger
McDonalds, Big N' Tasty
Wendy's, Double Stack
Carl's Jr., Famous Star
Jack in the Box, Jumbo Jack
Elias Brother's Big Boy, Onion Burger (Detroit, Michigan area)
Taco Bell, Bell Burger (no longer available)
Arby's, Super Roast Beef (they don't sell burgers, so next best thing)

I have not tried them but I hear that these are great:
Omaha Steaks Burgers

An interesting "History of Hamburgers" can be found at:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HamburgerHistory.htm

So, what and where is your favorite hamburger?

Religious topic: Baptism, Post #2

2006-02-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

In my previous post "Religious topic: Baptism, At What Age?" I focused on the purposes of baptism and how various churches focused on different aspects of the purposes. I also showed that because of those different focuses the ages for baptism vary among churches because those different purposes emphasis different ages.

I am writing a second post on the subject of the age for baptism because the comments of my readers indicate some serious concerns.

Most of the commenters are concerned that people to be baptized should be old enough to make a conscious decision on their own, understand clearly what they are choosing, and make a commitment to living that religious choice.

The issue of being born as sinners and the need to have a conversion from sinful ways to God's ways was mentioned. Because of the need for conversion, commenters believed that the age for baptism needed to be old enough for persons to make a conscious decision about such a conversion.

Those beliefs in sinfulness and conversion are also held by most of the Christian churches and in those churches their procedures and ceremonies for adult baptism emphasize those issues.

The churches that emphasis baptism at early childhood ages look at baptism as being a way for the person to grow up already in a church that has turned away from the sinful nature of human beings. Those churches indicate that children baptized so early must continue to be educated in their faith so that as they grow they will accept the understandings of what baptism is all about and be able to live in those ways. Those churches also accept baptism as adults and young adults.

Also pointed out by commenters was the Christian belief that Jesus' passion, death and resurrection have already provided salvation for everyone. Most Christian churches believe that and also believe that individuals, through baptism, accept and are bought into Jesus' salvation.

There are some people who believe that Jesus' salvific acts were once for all and that people do not really have to do anything (like baptism or join a church) in order to be saved - - they are already saved by Jesus' actions. Most, but not all, churches believe that unbaptized people who live a good moral life can achieve salvation and go to heaven upon their deaths.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (section 1213) says:
"Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."

Religious topic: Baptism, At What Age?

2006-02-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

Baptism: At What Age?

The question of at what age should people normally be baptized has come up in relation to the topic that recently I was asked about limbo.

In order to discuss this we first need to talk about what the purpose of baptism is. We will also find that we need to discuss what sin is.

For most churches the main reason for baptism is for entry into God's salvation. That concept usually includes entry into a church community, acceptance of God and/or Jesus Christ as one's savior, forgiveness of past sins, a new beginning, and the opportunity of everlasting life in heaven. Note that different religions put varying degrees of emphasis on the purposes that I just listed.

Some churches that emphasize baptism as a way to be saved and allow for entry into heaven promote baptism at very early ages, sometimes as soon as possible after birth.

Other churches emphasize the conversion aspects of baptism of changing one's life from previous sinful ways to a new way of living with God or Jesus. Those churches commonly promote baptism for people of mature age or fully into adulthood.

Sin, in the Catholic way of thinking, is an act by which a person turns away or blocks their relationship with God. In order to commit sin a person must have a knowledge that their action is harmful or evil. An unchurched person may not easily realize that their own evil acts interfere with their relationship with God but as people do grow and mature they should at least learn the difference between good and evil acts.

As children grow and mature, at what age are they able to distinguish between good and evil? That is a difficult question. Children can distinguish between right and wrong very early. But it is only much later that they can make the connection where a wrong act is also an evil act. For example, a young child may not want to eat peas and then picks them up and throws them across the room. Most parents will be able to instill the concept of right and wrong regarding such an act at a very early age. But is it an evil act? For a young child certainly not. Later when the child gets much older such an act might indeed be an evil act though as the child gets older the behavior of the act may change to possibly shouting some rather inappropriate words instead of throwing things. Catholic theologians have often used the age of six or seven for when a child is probably old enough to know when they are choosing between good and evil.

Why do I bring up the concept of at what age can a person understand evil and sin? The reason is that for most churches one of the reasons for baptism is for the forgiveness of past sins and for a conversion or a new beginning of turning away from sinning. For a person to understand such a conversion from sin would seem to require that the person be old enough to understand the concepts of evil and sin.

Because the different churches focus on differing aspects of the reasons for baptism and because those differing aspects have more meaning at different ages of persons, therefore there is no overall agreement among churches as to what age a person should be baptized.

Likewise many people, irrespective of their church affiliation, believe that personal choice is important and therefore they often believe that a person's religious choice should be made at an age when a person is old enough to make such important decisions. Those people tend to object to the baptism of infants and children who are too young to make such choices on their own.

I did find a study that was interesting. It studied college students. It counted students who were previously baptized and whether or not they were still faithful members of their churches at college age. The study also looked at what age the students had been when they were first baptized. The interesting finding of the study was that those who were baptized before the age of 12 were much more likely to drop their involvement with church. Those findings support the concept that I described above of at what age can a child understands the concepts of evil and sin. The person who presented the study results instead of relating the results to the age of understanding of sin instead related that reason to the age at which children become capable of the concepts of abstract reasoning. I believe that the two concepts (understanding of sin and abstract reasoning) are quite interrelated.

From my experience as a Catholic, a church which promotes the baptism of infants, my general observations are that unless a person baptized as an infant continues involvement in church because of their family they tend to be more likely to drop out in later life.

Also from my experience people who choose to join the church from college age or later do so with a firm intention and are more committed to church membership and participation in future years. Likewise persons baptized as infants who for some reason come to a church for a new beginning and purpose also are more committed.

From previous exchanges with my readers here I expect a greater support for the idea of baptism at a later age when a person can make an informed choice. My church, and many others also, promote the idea that children and infants should be baptized either for their "guaranteed" salvation or for the symbolic act of entry into their church.

Since there is truly disagreement among churches as to the preferred ages for baptism, it should also be pointed out that within those churches there are also internal disagreements as to what age for other church essentials such as the age for communion or Eucharist, the age for confirmation, and the age for confession or reconciliation. There are also disagreements within churches about the ages for marriages but those discussions are usually superseded by civil laws.

Recognizing that infant or child baptism does not lend itself to active church or faith commitment in later life, some churches promote re- baptism later in life as an adult.

The Catholic Church, and many other churches, believe that baptism is a one time thing that effectively changes one's relationship with God. Therefore they do not promote or even permit re-baptism. Instead, sometimes, ministers devise some form of recommitment ceremonies.

New MEME

2006-02-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

L. at Homesick Home has come up with a new MEME. Here are my answers:

1) What was the last thing you prayed for?
I prayed for some people whose situation was mentioned to me in the comments of one of my blog posts.

2) What was the nicest thing you ever did for someone else?
I try to do a lot of nice things for other people but I don't keep track. One that comes to mind: I found an old woman wandering back and forth in front of my house just after sunset. She spoke spanish and I only barely do. It turns out that she got off of the bus at the wrong stop and had no idea how to get back to her daughter's house. We found her daughter's phone number in her purse. Called it and got the address but no one there had a car. I got the police to give her a ride.

3) What do you think about to cheer yourself up when you`re down about something?
I look up at the blue sky and smile. (Here in Phoenix we have a lot of blue sky days.) Then I go out for a walk. (Yes, even in Phoenix's 120 deg F. / 49 deg. C. weather.)

If you read this, in L.'s spirit, consider yourself tagged and write your own answers to these questions. You can put your answers into your own blog or add them to the comments at L.'s post (click here).

Catholic topics: Limbo

2006-02-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

Catholic topics: Limbo

I was asked by one of my readers to discuss the Catholic understanding of limbo.

Limbo is a concept that has been an unofficial part of Roman Catholic theology. The term was also used in various non-church literature and, interestingly, that usage later influnced the theological meanings of the term.

Catholics believe in the concept that each person has a soul. A soul is considered to be the essence of the person. The soul exists within the physical, material person. However the soul is believed to continue living even after the physical body dies.

Catholics believe that after a person dies their soul will go either to heaven or hell. In heaven the soul will experience joy and the presence of God. In hell the soul will be deprived of the presence of God.

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived, died, and rose into heaven. They believe that Jesus opened heaven to those who believed and were baptized.

Theological questions arose about what had happened to all of the souls of people who had lead good lives but who had died before Jesus rose and openned heaven. The belief arose that God would not have sent those good souls to hell so they must have had to wait somewhere until Jesus openned heaven. The concept of limbo was the name given to the waiting place.

Since entry into the Church was through baptism, the theological question arose of what happened to innocent souls, especially children, who died before being baptized. It was believed that God would not send them to hell since they were innocent. The belief arose that God had a place for such innocents but that they would not be granted full access to heaven and the full presence of God. The concept of limbo was the name given to the place where non-baptized innocents would go to.

In literature, Dante's "Devine Comedy" describes the first circle of hell as limbo. Dante described limbo as a place for people's souls who lived lives that were somewhat neutral, that is their lives were neither good nor evil.

Because of Dante's description of limbo as being closer to hell than to heaven, a concept that was carried out in future literary writings, people, including Roman Catholics, came to see limbo as a negative place, out of favor with God.

The term "limbo" has never been officially defined by the Catholic Church in official writings. Most recently a papal document that discussed the death of unbaptized infants (for example through abortion) stated that the Church does not know their fate but the Church trusts in the mercy and love of God.

Because of the negativity that became associated with limbo, Catholic parents often felt pressured to have their children baptized as soon as possible after birth so that if they did die they would go directly into heaven.

The Catholic Church also has a procedure called Emergency Baptism whereby anyone can baptize an infant (or any person) who is in danger of death. Nurses in hospitals would often use Emergency Baptism for newborn infants whose lives were in danger of death when the parent was Catholic.

However some people (Catholics and other Christians) sometimes developed the exagerated fear that infants and people might die prior to being baptized and those people would use the Emergency Baptism procedure on any infant or other persons in hospitals, without permissions of the parents or other individuals.

So, what is the current Church thinking? Again, most recent Church documents that mention the fate of those who die without being baptized indicate that a loving and merciful God will take care of them. A theological commission that has been working on many issues is reported to be planning to recommend to the pope that the concept of limbo be officially ended and state instead that babies who die without baptism go directly to heaven. Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI (16th), indicated in a public statement that he wanted to drop the "theological hypothesis" of limbo which has never been defined as a truth of faith.

So, any dicussion or questions?

Catholics and Abortion: Family Planning and Contraception

2006-02-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

Catholics and Abortion: Family Planning and Contraception
(Number 5 and last in a series)

The term Family Planning is often used synonymously with the term Birth Control. Both terms mean that a man and/or woman are taking steps to either prevent pregnancy or to enhance becoming pregnant. (I put "and/or" there because sometimes it is a one sided effort.)

There are many methods used for family planning or birth control.

Clearly the most effective way and only 100% effective way of preventing pregnancy is sexual abstinence. But ongoing abstinence in a committed marriage relationship is difficult and sometimes blamed for causing marriage breakups when a couple does not get to experience the intimacy of a sexual relationship between each other. However for unmarried people abstinence is the only method approved by the Catholic Church.

The oldest method of birth control is probably coitus interruptus which is a Latin phrase meaning interrupting intercourse whereby the man removes his penis from the woman's vagina just before he reaches orgasm. That method is considered unreliable since it can be very difficult for a man to maintain the necessary self-control.

The Catholic Church fully supports sexual activity and intimacy between a married couple as "noble and worthy" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, no. 49 and Humanae Vitae no. 11). The Church also teaches that each and every marital act of intercourse must be open to the possibility of the creation of human life as a fact of natural law.

Thus the Catholic church also teaches that many methods of contraception would be a violation of natural law and therefore morally evil because they interfere with the natural processes such as condoms, diaphragms, other barrier methods, spermicides, intrauterine devices, chemical methods such as pills, patches, injections, and implants. Likewise the Catholic Church views surgical sterilization methods as being opposed to natural law because they prevent the possibility of conception.

Certainly abortion, as we have already discussed, or any post-conception method the Catholic Church sees as a violation of moral law.

The Catholic Church does, however, accept certain methods of family planning or birth control that use what are called natural methods. The Catholic Church recognizes that God created human life functions such that not every act of intercourse will produce conception due to ovarian cycles. Because that is a natural cycle the Church believes that taking advantage of that cycle is not an unnatural act.

An early method of birth control that used information about women's' menstrual cycles was the Rhythm Method. Unfortunately the calculation method used allowed for many errors and thus the method was considered quite unreliable. The Catholic Church no longer encourages the Rhythm Method.

A newer method commonly called Natural Family Planning (NFP) uses more precise techniques for each woman to determine when during a woman's cycle she is most likely to be fertile. The approved Catholic method would be to avoid intercourse (abstinence) during that time of fertility. Natural Family Planning does require some training for couples but it can be a very effective method of birth control. Likewise, since the method identifies times of fertility the method can be used as a technique to maximize becoming pregnant. Though the Catholic Church does not approve of artificial contraception using condoms, some couples use Natural Family Planning to identify times during a woman's cycle during which to use condoms versus not using them at "safe" times. (My wife and I used Natural Family Planning very successfully.)

There are some people who claim that since Natural Family Planning uses a thermometer to aid in tracking a woman's cycle that it is not truly natural. However the Catholic Church accepts and promotes the use of Natural Family Planning. In many Catholic dioceses rules require that all couples preparing for marriage take training classes in the method. (My diocese here in Phoenix, Arizona has that requirement.)

The history of the Catholic position about contraceptives had been a bit shakey. Officially, the Catholic Church has never really varied in its objection to contraceptives. However in the 1960's many Catholic theologians responding to questions in civil legislation about contraceptives insisted that it was a private matter to be left to each persons' decision of conscience. Though that argument has great weight in relation to civil law, in relation the Catholic Church view of moral and natural law the Church rejects that reasoning.

During the mid-1960's the Catholic Church decided to reexamine the whole subject of birth control. A commission was established. There were a lot of meetings and inputs from many theologians. Many of those theologians concluded that the commission would eventually recommend allowing certain contraceptive methods including the pill. Many of those theologians encouraged Catholics to consider that option and to use their consciences to decide against official Church teachings. The commission eventually did make recommendations to the pope which included relaxing some prohibitions. However Pope Paul VI released his encyclical Humanae Vitae (Latin for "Human Life") where he did not make any changes and specifically restated the Catholic beliefs.

After the pope issued that encyclical many of the theologians who had essentially staked their reputations on the fact that they expected the Church to change its rules found themselves with problems. Some of them went on to promote the use of contraceptives and encouraging people to make decisions of their own consciences which might oppose the official Catholic teachings. Much confusion was caused among Catholics. To this day their is still much confusion as evidenced by the number of Catholics who studies have shown continue to use contraceptives.

Let me take a moment to discuss the idea of conscience. The Catholic Church believes in the primacy of conscience. That is, a person must always act following their own conscience. Each person has a responsibility to have well formed conscience. However the Church insists that people need to pay attention to the Church's teachings when forming their consciences as a moral obligation.

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I have enjoyed writing this series about the Catholic church`s stance on abortion. I am glad that "I was asked" to do it. Though at times I have had to pause and reflect and even stop to catch my breath as I've read comments and e-mails from my readers whose lives and the lives of people dear to them have been touched by this serious issue. I have taken time to pause and pray.

I want to quote here one my reader's comments because she stated it so well. Mary P. wrote:
"This is a fascinating discussion in the abstract. It is tremendously painful in the reality. I ache for those frightened woman; I cry for their unborn children; I rage at those who deny the tragedy of this event, even though I believe there are times when it is necessary - essential even. Even then, it's such a sad, sad thing."

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References and more information:

Wikipedia article on Birth Control:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control

Pope Paul VI encyclical HUMANAE VITAE:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/
documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

Planned Parenthood's history of birth control. Not just a history of the organization but also a good history of developments of birth control methods and legislation.
http://www.plannedparenthood.com/pp2/portal/files/portal/
medicalinfo/birthcontrol/pp-history.xml

What is Natural Family Planning by Phoenix Natural Family Planning Center:
http://www.phxnfp.org/Pages/intro1.html

Catechism of the Catholic Church:
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/

Pastoral Constitution: On The Church in the Modern World:
http://www.rc.net/rcchurch/vatican2/gaudium.ets

Your comments and questions are welcome.
If more issues are raised I will continue this series or begin a new series.

Catholics and Abortion: Moral Evil and Punishment

2006-01-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Catholics and Abortion: Moral Evil and Punishment
(Number 4 in a series)

In a prevous post I described the Catholic Church's position that abortion is a grave moral evil.

Notice: This post contains information about excommunication. Readers have asked for more information about the Catholic Church and excommunication. I am planning a post specifically about excommunication (not limited to just the abortion issue) and also about reception of the sacrament of Eucharist/Communion. That will be posted about middle to late March, 2006. If you have a specific interest or concern please add a comment below or send me an e-mail.

The Catholic Church considers a moral evil as an evil or wrong that is caused by a human choice. A physical evil is the Church's term for natural events such as hurricanes, lightning, or disease.

A grave moral evil (also called a mortal sin) is a complete turning away from God through an act done by human choice.

By Catholic definition, a grave moral evil (or mortal sin) requires full knowledge and complete consent. It requires that the person performing the act knows that the act is evil and knows that the evil is opposed to God. Though ignorance can diminish the graveness of an evil act but no one is considered ignorant of the principles of moral law. Murder is consided so basic in moral law that no amount of ignorance would be a total excuse.

Since the Catholic Church considers abortion to be an act of murder, abortion is therefore considered to be a gravely moral evil act.

So, what authority does the Catholic Church have over people who participate in abortions? Though it considers all who participate in abortion to have committed a grave moral evil, the Church really only has authority over its own members and punishments can only involve church related sanctions.

The Catholic Church has an internal set of laws called the Code of Canon Law. The individual laws are called canons. The canons have evolved through the centuries, last totally revised in 1983. The canons are numbered 1 through 1752.

Canon 1398 states, "A person who procures a successful abortion incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication."

The Latin term "latae sententiae" means that the punishment takes effect automatically because it is stated in the law. The Church also has a system of courts and trials, which for other offenses can impose lesser punishments or even excommunication for serious offenses.

Excommunication is the Church's most severe penalty (or censure) which removes a person from membership in the Church and prescribes that a person may not participate in any Church activities or sacraments.

What about people who assist in abortions such as doctors, nurses, clinic staff, friends who assist the woman in any way to achieve an abortion? Canon 1329 says that such accomplices, though not named in the law, are subject to the same automatic penalty attached to the offense, thus excommunication.

But who accomplices are can be difficult to determine. If a person contributes money to an organization that provides abortions is that person an accomplice? That determination would be based on the intention of the person and of their knowledge of the facts (an issue that I will address below). For example, if a person contributes money to Planned Parenthood would they be automatically excommunicated. It would depend on the intention. Planned Parenthood does other thing besides provide access to abortions. If the intention of the contribution was to support their other efforts then excommunication for abortion would not apply. (Though contributions to Planned Parenthood to support their contraceptive efforts might qualify as an accomplice in another area that the Church has rules against, those rules do not automatically incur excommunication.)

Another Church canon, number 1323, lists several reasons by which someone would not be "subject to a penalty when they have violated a law." Some of those reasons are: a person under 16 years old, a person who was forced into an act, a person who was unaware of violating a law. That last one is important: for a penalty such as excommunication to apply, the person, at the time of the act of offense, must have known that they were violating a Church law.

Can the penalty of excommunication be forgiven or remitted? Yes. The penalty of excommunication for abortion is not reserved to the Pope, so it can be forgiven or remitted by the bishop where the offense took place or the bishop where the person lives. Also, if a person is in danger of death then any priest can absolve any censure (Canon 976).

Your comments and questions are welcome.
Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you would like to make private comments or ask about anything.

Catholics and Abortion: Civil Laws

2006-01-22T03:05:00.000-07:00

Catholics and Abortion: Civil Laws
(Number 3 in a series)

This post is out of order from my original plan but it fits to address these issues now based on the issues and questions being raised by commenters to this blog.

The Catholic Church has no power to legislate civil laws anywhere in the world (except within the Vatican city-state).

The Catholic Church makes rules for its own members. I will cover that issue in a separate post.

The Catholic Church believes in advocacy for just civil laws. The Church encourages it members to apply the morality which they have learned through the Church to laws of their civil society.

According to the Church's own theology its role must be based on the Gospel messages. For example this passage from the Gospel of John (13:34-35): "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

From that, showing "love for another" can mean promoting just laws.

Almost all human societies have seen the necessity to have laws prohibiting and punishing acts of murder. Certainly the Catholic Church would promote such civil laws when new territories are formed and need to create their initial codes of law. Not much controversy there.

Since the Catholic Church believes that abortion is indeed murder of a human life, it should be expected that the Catholic Church would promote laws to criminalize acts of abortion.

The difference with the issue of anti-abortion laws is that people on both sides of the issue have had such very strong opinions, feelings, and emotions.

Normally the Catholic Church promotes that its members take active involvement in civil legislative matters to promote their moral values. Sometimes the Catholic Church as a church will issue public statements, even public appeals. However, in the issue of anti-abortion legislative support Church leaders themselves, including priests and bishops, have actively gotten involved in promoting their positions claiming that they are representatives of the Catholic Church. Again, as a church they have no authority in relation to civil laws except as private citizens.

Situations involving children cause people to become very emotionally involved. Since the Catholic position on abortion claims that abortion affects a human life, a very small human life. The emotions that it evokes in some people are similar to a harmful act upon a small child. Thus Catholics involved in promoting anti-abortion legislation often get very emotional. One commenter to this blog pointed out that they also may get very angry. I would say that such anger is itself contrary to the teachings of the Church.

I was going to make a separate post about fanatics. But some Catholics (and even non-Catholics) promoting anti-abortion laws have gone much further in violating Catholic principals. Some have resorted to violence and even themselves committing murder claiming to support their cause for just laws. Such acts should are not in accord with the teachings and beliefs of the Catholic Church.

Though the Catholic Church does not support murder, it does permit killing under certain circumstances, such as immediate defense of self or another person and in just wars. Though the definitions of those permitted cases can be rather technical, none of them approach justifying the use of violence or murder to support the promotion of anti-abortion legislation.

However, based on the belief that violence or killing might be permitted to defend oneself or another person in imminent danger, it might be possible to understand how some Catholics would take action against an abortion clinic or staff in the belief that they are attempting to prevent murder. I am not justifying those actions but I am pointing to how they might feel justified and feel that they are following Catholic teaching.

Now, my next post is planned be about the Catholic Church's implications of what is meant by "grave moral evil." It will also deal with how the Catholic Church attempts to punish its own members who violate its principals regarding abortion.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

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Legal stuff:

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. ( http://www.usccb.org/nab/permissions.shtml )

Catholics and Abortion: vs Pro-Choice

2006-01-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Catholics and Abortion: vs Pro-Choice.
(Number 2 in a series)

After an egg and sperm unite at conception to begin a new life the entity is sometimes given different names: zygote, embryo, and fetus. People disagree on at exactly what point each descriptive name should be used. However, the Catholic view is that human life began at the time of initial conception.

Those who disagree with the Catholic viewpoint place the beginning of human life, sometimes called the beginning of personhood, at later points. Many claim that the new life is not a human person until after the live birth takes place. Others claim that human life cannot be claimed until the life reaches a development point where it could survive on its own outside of the mother. The term viable is used to describe that point and occurs somewhere between 22 to 25 weeks into a pregnancy.

Those who disagree with the Catholic viewpoint of when life begins often allow that the termination of pregnancy by abortion prior to the point that life begins (prior to birth or prior to viability) is a personal decision of the mother.

Since the Catholic Church believes that life begins from conception therefore a mother who permits abortion at any point would be considered to have committed a grave moral evil.

The Catholic Church does take into account peoples' intentions. However the Catholic Church's view is that in a moral action the end does not justify the means. Thus if a woman did not want kill a small life but merely wanted to end a pregnancy, in the Catholic view, the act of killing cannot be denied and thus it would be a grave moral evil.

Thus the Catholic Church does not accept the following reasons for terminating pregnancy: family planning (unwanted pregnancy), rape, incest, fetal deformity, and mother's health (with some exceptions).

There are some instances regarding a mother's health where the Catholic Church allows that the death of the embryo may occur without being a moral evil. Such cases are usually where surgical intervention to preserve a mother's health will inadvertently cause loss of the embryo such as in the cases of ectopic pregnancy where a fertilized egg implants and begins growing anywhere outside of the uterus.

So, as one of our readers asked: "Does the embryo`s right to life trump the rights of a woman over her body?" In the Catholic view, yes, the rights of the new life must be respected and protected; an abortion would be a grave moral evil.

Stay tuned, next post will be about the Catholic Church's implications of what is meant by "grave moral evil."

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Catholics and Abortion: Basics

2006-01-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

Catholics and Abortion: Basics.
(Number 1 in a series)

"I was asked" to do a post about the Catholic church`s stance on abortion.

Of course, for many people, this is a controversial topic. My effort here will be to state and explain the official Catholic perspective. My intention is not really to debate the topic but to try to come to an understanding what the Catholic position is and why they think that way.

There are related topics. In this first post I will just state the Catholic basic position. I want to separate out several of the other topics for future blog posts.
- how does Catholic position contradict pro-choice
- how does the Catholic Church punish its own members (like excommunication)
- if Catholics have a certain belief, why are they pushing for laws to force their beliefs onto others
- Catholic views on family planning and contraception
- Catholic and anti-abortion fanatics

The Catholic position begins with the statement that human life must be respected and protected. This concept encompasses all things that might harm a human life such as murder, assault, etc.

The Catholic belief is that from the moment of conception that the tiny being is human life and thus must be respected and protected.

Therefore the Catholic Church believes abortion to cause the death of a human life and thus to be a gravely moral evil.

Almost all civilizations and cultures consider harming human life by murder to be a serious wrong.

The most debated part of the Catholic view is the Church's assertion that human life begins at the moment of conception. Other people insist that human life actually begins at later times, possibly as late as the birth moment.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Cursive Writing

2006-01-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, I heard a news item on the radio today. Cursive writing is no longer being taught in many U.S. schools.

Here is a link (click here) to an article in the American-Statesman.
(If the page asks you to login, close the page, then click here again.)

Here are some quotes from the article:

"Today, written communication is increasingly being replaced by computer messages. And, while adding computer proficiency requirements, school districts across Texas and the nation are de-emphasizing cursive writing in elementary school training. In higher grades, teachers are seeing less work done in cursive and more in block lettering or on computer printouts."

"Furthermore, some teachers say that with the pressure to help students pass high-stakes achievement tests, they don't have time or classroom resources to ensure that students master all aspects of handwriting."

"Traditional penmanship, like calligraphy before it, is fast becoming a lost art."

I must confess that about 30 years ago I quit writing in cursive. My handwriting was so hard to read. If I have to write something out by hand I always print.

When I send someone a note through the postal mail I either print the note by hand or I type it on the computer, print it out, and sign it by hand. I do sometimes feel embarrassed using the computer in that way.

Here is a sample of my cursive handwriting (no laughing please!):

If you want to learn or teach cursive, here is an interesting link:
Handwriting For Kids

Maybe I am just thinking that if I had to suffer through learning cursive then so should my kids. My kids: well, at ages 20 and 17 I am quite aware that they failed to learn cursive. In fact, if my younger son ever writes using anything that does not have a built in spell checker then he is doomed.

What do you think about the demise of cursive writing?

Reason for Christmas

2006-01-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

Reason for Christmas.

Since some of you encouraged me to begin this blog, I have also started to spend time reading blogs written by other people. I had no idea that there were so many blogs out there!

I found an interesting post that gives a story that tries to explain why there is a Christmas; that is, why would the all powerful God need to come to earth in human form.

See: http://www.CatholicPillowFight.com/blog218.html

It makes a very good point.

Now the bigger discussion: God came to us as Jesus. Now what?

Love one another

2005-12-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

===========================================

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to
eternal life.

- Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

===========================================

"I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."

- Gospel of John, Chapter 13, Verses 34-35

===========================================

Living as a Married Priest

2005-12-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Living as a Married Priest.

In my last post I explained a lot of the rules regarding Catholic priests who get married.

There has always been a negative stigma for priests who leave active ministry and then get married. Often families and friends are embarrased and even angry. Thus most priests who got married, with or without church approved dispensations, have kept it quiet.

When I got married my family was kind of supportive. However they all lived in Michigan and my wife and I were in Arizona. When we did go back to visit my family was great with us. Most of them had actually met Nancy, my wife, years earlier when we were classmates.

My first son was born ten months before we got married. Families love little babies so there never were any real issues with my family (except that they probably questioned why an active priest had a child!). The day my son was born I called my mother to tell her and her words were, "I am not exactly sure how I should feel." So, I told her to be happy. From the innumerable number of gifts that my mother has sent to my two boys on every possible occassion, I am sure that she is really happy about these two grandchildren.

For the first thirteen years of my marriage I kind of lived like being a married priest was something to hide. I never told my neighbors. Eventually whereever I worked people would find out that I was a priest. That often would lead to interesting and personal discussions about many issues.

A few weeks after I started working at the city government job the city's financial officer came into our department office, he recognized me, then he went into my director's office and asked why he had hired "my priest." I had prepared the financial officer and his bride-to-be for marriage and I had officiated at their wedding.

During those first thirteen years of marriage we did not do much about church. We rarely went to church.

Though I was the computer guy, my wife learned a lot about computers. She helped out at my children's school and set up their computer lab. Someone there mentioned to her that a nearby high school was having trouble getting a computer teacher for the coming year. So, Nancy checked it out and she got the job teaching basic word processing. The problem: it was a Catholic high school. She worked there the whole year but she was constantly afraid that someone would find out that she was married to a priest. I did not find out until halfway through the year that the high school's priest chaplain was a friend of mine and he knew all along who Nancy was, but he never told the administration.

I might not have made this clear in my history post, but Nancy attended the same graduate seminary that I did. She completed all of the courses. Like me she has a Master of Divinity degree. In other words, if the Catholic church ordained women priests, she has already completed all of the training!

During the fourteenth year of our marriage, Nancy decided that she wanted to get involved in something having to do with church again. She did not feel that she could do that within the Catholic church so she searched out other churches and she found a nearby Episcopal Church parish. She found herself fitting in really well with the people there. Then she asked me to start attending. At first I was hesitant because I was not familiar with that church (except that I knew that many Catholic priests after they got married joined Episcopal churches as priests because the Episcopal church allowed their priests to be married).

Eventually I started occassionally attending Sunday services at the nearby Episcopal parish church. If someone walked in off of the street they probably could not tell an Episcopal mass from a Catholic mass (unless they looked really close). In other words I was almost at home at the Episcopal church. But I was a Catholic priest and people at that church got to know that I was a Catholic priest. To them that was fine; almost half of the Episcopalians were former Catholics. Once someone from the Episcopal church called me and asked me to visit one of their people in the hospital because both Episcopal priests were out of town (and the person was in the Catholic hospital). I did make the visit, of course.

So, for the past five years I have attended that nearby Episcopal church on occassional Sundays. I have continued even though my wife divorceed me four years ago. It is a great place to worship.

There are some organized groups of married priests. Though I had been members of those groups for many years, only in the past two years have I attended meetings and gotten to know the stories of some of those guys.

One group, CORPUS (Corps Of Reserve Priests United for Service) I joined while I was in the seminary when I first suspected that I may want to get married. Last year I attended their 30th anniversary meeting. That group has been trying to raise awareness within the church for 30 years that married priests are willing to help the church if the church would just let them. Now that Cardinal Ratzinger has become pope their cause still looks hopeless. (See: http://www.corpus.org/ )

The other married priest group, CITI (Celibacy Is The Issue), while also trying to raise awareness takes the approach that married priests should get involved in doing ministry now. Many priests in the group do marriage preparation and weddings. Some are hospital chaplains. Some have even put together whole parishes. They have been encouraging me to get active doing some kind of ministry. The founder of the group was a marketing person so she developed an alternate name for the group: RentAPriest. (See: http://www.rentapriest.com/ )

There is a local Phoenix group of about six married priests who meet for lunch once a month (wives come, too). One of them advertises heavily and has a wedding ministry that keeps him busy with weddings every Friday and Saturday.

There is another priest group that I used to participate with: NAPP, the National Association of Priest Pilots. Many of the priest pilots are active in ministry related flying activities. Some New Mexico priests fly medical supplies into Mexico. Several priests work for medical missions in Africa where the airplanes are their primary transportation. After I got married I sort dropped out the group - - because I was not a priest in good standing with the Church. About a year and a half ago I accidently ran into the priest pilot who publishes their periodical newsletter. He added me back onto the mailing list. This past summer I went to their annual meeting. I was the only married priest there and I was almost a celebrity, even the one bishop who showed up was friendly to me. Those are good guys.

In summary, during the years that I was married I did not do much as a priest. In retrospect I regret that I was not more involved in ministry activity.

As I look forward, I am getting really interested in being involved in church ministry. If my bishop will let me get back into parish work that will be great. If he does not, then I will have to search out people in need of a ministry leader.

Update notice:
I notice that this page is receiving lots of readers who find this page through search engines for various search words. Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you would like to make private comments or ask about anything.

Married Priest

2005-12-27T01:14:00.000-07:00

Married Priest.

One comment (from L.) that got me to start this blogging was: "I`ve always wondered how Canon Law applied to priests who got married -- I know a few, but have always been too shy to ask!"

Basics: We are talking Roman Catholic Church. Canon law is the Catholic Church's set of internal laws which were most recently totally revised in 1983. The canon laws are numbered and I will include the numbers below.

For the first 1200 years of the Church priests were generally allowed to be married. In fact, 39 popes were married. In the year 1139 the Second Lateran council changed the rules. All existing priest marriages were declared invalid and future priests were required to maintain celibacy.

Celibacy officially means not just not being married it also means not involved in any sexual activity (with females, males, self, animals, etc.).

In our lifetimes the predominant issue has been that many priests have desired to be married. In the past 25 years over 100,000 priests, worldwide, have married.

The Church resists allowing priests to be married. For a priest to legally get married under canon law he must be granted a special dispensation to release him from the rule of celibacy.

However the process to grant the dispensation and the actual wording of the dispensation are problematic. When applying for the dispensation a priest must put together a lot of paperwork. Part of the paperwork almost requires him to say that he never should have been ordained a priest in the first place.

The document that grants dispensation from celibacy, called a rescript, includes wording that says the priest loses rights to the clerical state, loses his office of priest, and is no longer bound by the duties of the clerical state. The priest is then allowed to marry under Church rules.

However, the rescript wording also includes a prohibition of exercising any sacred ministry. Thus the priest may not participate in a parish as a lector/reader, eucharistic minister, or any functions of a deacon or priest.

So, when priests decide to get married do all of them apply for and get the dispensation? No, many do not.

Myself, I did not apply for the dispensation because of the things that I have just described. I could not testify that I never should have been ordained in the first place. I also did not want the restriction that I could not act in any form of church ministry.

In my case then, the canon law that applies is number 1394 which states that a cleric who attempts even a civil marriage incurs an automatic suspension (in Latin that is: latae sententia). So, officially I am suspended.

But the good thing about my approach is that there is another canon, number 1335, which says that my suspension is itself suspended whenever anyone asks for anything sacramental. Thus I can fully function as a priest if anyone asks for anything. For example, if someone or some group wants me to celebrate a mass that would be permitted under canon law.

Using this exception canon, many married priests are involved actively in many ministries from doing weddings, to being hospital chaplains, to operating full parishes.

Myself, I have done very little minsitry since I got married 19 years ago. Since I am now divorced and not married I plan to talk with my bishop to see if he will allow me to work again in parishes. If he does not want to allow that I may look for where my services might be useful and do ministry anyway, since that is legal under Church law and since there is clearly a shortage of priests.

Though the Cathilic Church resists allowing its priests to be married, in the past 20 years the Church has accepted many (about 100 in the U.S.) priests from other churches (like the Episocpal Church) to transfer to the Catholic Church and the Church has allowed them to have their wives and children at their parishes. Of course that situation raises the ire of many good Catholic priests who have followed the rules but still desire the companionship and fulfillment of marriage.

Here I have covered the basics of priests getting married. If you have specific questions please add comments and I will give you more information.

Update notice:
I notice that this page is receiving lots of readers who find this page through search engines for various search words. Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you would like to make private comments or ask about anything.

Family pictures

2005-12-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

I located several pictures of my family. None are real current (those will have to come later, when I take more pictures).

Here are John and Jason seven years ago:

Here is John seven years ago while we were camping in northern Arizona:

John's high school graduation, May, 2003. He is proud of those pilot wings indicating that he got his private pilot license as part of his aviation course:

John went on to college at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. He is in the Professional Pilot program. The next picture is from a stop over during a solo (all by himself) training flight from Prescott to Carlsbad, California, stopping at Phoenix Goodyear airport. His mom, brother, and I met him for the stop over. March, 2004:

Most recent picture of John, July of this year, 2005:

Most recent picture of Jason, July of 2005:

OK, here is one of me. It is a few years old but I am told that I don't look much worse.

Peace and love to all.

- - Jerry

Well, here we go. Starting a new blog.

2005-12-26T14:37:00.006-07:00

Well, here we go. Starting a new blog.

This is my first try at writing a blog. I plan to write about many topics. Some of the ideas will be my own but I look forward to readers' comments suggesting some topics. The fact that I am a Catholic priest who got married has come up as a topic.

History.
Lets start with some history of me and my family. That should lead into many side topics. (Wow, this got way too long. However I am going to post it anyway since it is all me and, well, it is a starting place.)

I was born in Michigan (USA). I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona. How I got to Arizona will be part of the story. My parents and siblings still live in Michigan. Dad is 86 and Mom is 81. One of my brothers is Chief of Police in a small town. My sister who just got married at age 38 now has twin baby girls - - so cute.

When I was in 8th grade I studied for and got an amateur radio (ham radio) license (Novice licence: WN8KUK, General then Advanced: WA8OTG, now, Extra Class: N7ZV). (That electronic interest evolved into my interest in computers.)

Seminary.
I started studying to become a priest early - - in retrospect, too early. I went to a high school seminary in Detroit. I next went to the college seminary but I had trouble with the courses. So I went to a community college and a university where I did better.

I took a course in First Aid and then I took the course to become an instructor. I taught a few First Aid classes to police officers, fire fighters, ambulance crews, and ski patrols. I wondered if I really knew what I was teaching. So I got a summer job with an ambulance company. What an experience - - I found that I knew the basics well, but real life can be really nasty.

Military.
The Vietnam war was going on. My draft lottery number was 30, and the next January I could expect to get drafted. So the previous summer I decided to enlist in the military. After having worked with several former military medics at the ambulance company I decided to join the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. From what I had learned from my friends the Navy offered the best all around training.

In the Navy I took advanced training and became a surgical technician and a field medical technician. My assignments included working in a surgical intensive care unit, assisting surgeons with many kinds of surgeries, being in a Marine Corps combat unit medic (though we never got into live combat), being supervisor of a field hospital's operating room and emergency room, and managing a treatment facility for Vietnamese refugees in California.

While I was in the Navy I convinced myself that when I got out I would go to medical school. Previously in college I had not taken science courses but I figured that I could catch up easily.

During my last year in the Navy I was assigned to a Marine Corps base where my job was kind of boring. Just outside the base was an airport so I went there and took flying lessons. I got my private pilot's license in 1974.

After military.
When I got out of the Navy in 1975 I went back to the university and started preparations for medical school. I also went back to work as an ambulance attendant. I also drove the ambulances and sometimes worked as the dispatcher.

However, within weeks, I had contacted the Archdiocese's vocation director and soon arranged to continue in the seminary's graduate school the next year. I changed my coursework and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology.

Back to seminary.
The following year I started at the major seminary, the graduate school. Because I had not taken the traditional preparation courses, I spent the first semester going out to a Jesuit college in Detroit to make up some courses. Thus I was half a year off in starting from the class of that year.

Seminary training was good. I learned a lot. By now, though, I have forgotten what all I learned so I should probably spend some time going back over my class notes!

The rector of the seminary (rector is like president) saw that we had room in our classes for more students. He began a program to bring in non-priest candidates to take classes on the theory that trained people would be useful in parishes and other church ministries. He included women among the students that he brought in.

While I was in the major seminary I purchased a microcomputer. Something new to the world at that time. I set it up next to my bed and I spent a lot nights learning computer programming. That was a dozen years before the IBM PC came out.

Women in the seminary classrooms, that was something new. I had not had a lot of experiences with women. I started in a seminary high school where we were discouraged from having female "temptations"! There was one woman classmate in particular that I got close to. I did not understand my feelings at the time, but I now know that I was falling in love with her. Her name was Nancy. About eight years later I married her.

While I was in graduate school I had a terrible problem with headaches. They were often like migraine headaches, almost totally disabling. I had actually had them off and on all of my life. But in graduate school they interfered with my ability to study seriously. After a lot of medical testing we determined that the cause was allergies to molds. We changed my diet and two weeks later I was in a new world.

Eventually I completed my coursework in the major seminary. The next step was to be ordained a deacon and then about six months later be ordained a priest. However I was half a year off from the rest of my class. The Archdiocese of Detroit did not want to have an ordination ceremony for just one person. I essentially had six months of free time. Since I still had trouble with allergies from mold in the air I took the opportunity to visit the U.S. southwest and found that my allergies were much better there. So I approached the Diocese of Phoenix and the bishop said he would be glad to have an ordination ceremony for just one person. So, I arranged to move to Phoenix.

Move to Phoenix.
February of 1981 I moved to Phoenix. The bishop planned my deacon ordination for June and priest ordination for September. Until June he wanted me to work as his driver (he got a kick out of telling people that his driver had been an ambulance driver). I also worked as his master of ceremonies whenever he had any kind of service - - I made sure that everybody knew what to do and I made sure everything went smoothly (even when it didn't). Just before my June deacon ordination I was required to spend a week on a retreat, a week away at a quiet place for prayer and reflection. During that week my bishop had a heart attack and died (though his ambulance driver was not with him when he died, an M.D. was with him but he was unable to help).

We quickly arranged for two other bishops to do my ordinations, one retired and one from New Mexico. So, in June I was ordained a deacon. Nancy, my former classmate, came to Phoenix for the ceremony (my mother was not happy about that). Nancy eventually got a job at a local parish as the adult education religion director.

After I became a deacon I moved to a parish church were I worked, mostly preparing couples for weddings. My ordination as a priest was in that parish on September 12, 1981.

As a priest.
Over the next five years I was in four different parishes with two nasty pastors (I was the assistant priest). The last one almost drove me to quitting but then I was assigned to a remote parish as the administrator. That is a title short of being pastor (so I would not have full protection under church canon law).

A baby?!
About the time that I was assigned to that remote parish we found out that Nancy was pregnant (oh, did I leave out a few details?). I was still dedicated to being a priest but I was going to have to come to grips with the issue of being a responsible parent.

Airplane.
Also, about that time, I purchased a small airplane, an Ercoupe, two seater. It was manufactured in 1946, so it was two years older than me. The remote parish was a two hour drive from Phoenix. The town had an airport and flying time was under one hour. I got an old car and left at a Phoenix airport for transportation when I flew in.

Computers.
While at that parish I got deeper into computers. I had assembled a CP/M computer (go look that up!). I found a program for text layout that produced multiple fonts and I began producing the weekly church paper using the computer. I also did the parish bookkeeping on that computer.

Glorious Life!
My son, John, was born December 20, 1985. I flew into Phoenix that morning and I was present for his birth. For me, that was one of the most important and impressive days of my life - - a miracle from God - - life. It was a Saturday so I had to fly back in time for the 5:00 P.M. weekend mass. For the next eight months I spent my days off with Nancy and my son John. Yes, I was stil working as a priest. The only one in the local Church who knew about the situation was my bishop - - I had told him about the pregnancy after we passed the first trimester (after the initial danger of miscarriages had passed).

The Bishop.
I had problems with my bishop in terms of running the small parish that I had been assigned to. The parish had never had a full time salaried priest before - - they had used fill-in priests from religious orders, so they did not have to pay them. There was not enough money to support a full time priest. The bishop also wanted me to make changes that I believed the people were not ready for. I felt that they needed a time of renewal and reeducation. I fully expected that whenever I moved on there would not be enough priests for them to have a priest so they would have to learn how to carry on on their own.

One day in August 1986 I had an appointment with the bishop. I planned to talk with him about my feelings of wanting to be a responsible parent and how we would deal with that. But the bishop wanted to talk about the parish. He got upset with me taking too long to accomplish what he wanted so he told me to leave the parish before the next weekend.

Wow. We never got to talk about my son. I decided that he had just cleared the way for me to leave active ministry and get married. So, that is what I did. I moved in with Nancy and John. I sent the bishop a letter telling him not to find me another assignment but to consider me to be on a leave of absence. A month later Nancy and I got married in a Superior Court judge's office.

New beginning.
At that time I was out of work. I had a little bit in savings (too much to get free legal help when we suddenly got evicted from a house we were renting, but the lawyer helped me anyway). Nancy had a steady job but she did not make much. Plus her job was the night shift because it payed a 13% differential. I had skills in electronics and computers but no working experience. I found that I could work as a taxi cab driver as an independent driver. The taxi company did not care if I showed up but if I wanted to lease a cab for a day I had to be there at 5:30 A.M. and take my chance. Cab driving did not pay much. After paying the daily lease and paying for gas I got to keep anything else I took in. If I came home with the equivalent of minimum wage, I considered it a good day. But driving that cab was still the most fun job I have ever had. Unfortunately, Phoenix is not a taxi cab city, almost everybody drives their own car.

My house:

Our family vehicles:

I advertised in newspapers and some days I got jobs doing electrical work like adding telephone jacks to homes or offices. One jack installation made me almost as much money as a whole day in the taxi cab (though crawling through hot Phoenix attics had its own challenges).

Good bye airplane.
Without much money, my airplane was gathering dust and I could not foresee having enough money to keep it operational. A friend begged me to sell it to him, so I did. At least I had enough cash to buy a better car.

A job.
My wife worked for a major hospital system's corporate office. She got to know some of the head computer folks. After almost a year of being without a steady job, Nancy had me submit an open application for a computer job. That same day a hospital director submitted a request that matched my application. After an interview I got what I considered a dream job. I was the first PC support person ever hired in that hospital system.

Over eight years I moved from that hospital to the corporate computer department managing all of the computer networks that interconnected all of the hospital system's facilities. I really enjoyed the work - - playing with computers all day long! Well, it was important work. People used those computers to save lives in the hospitals.

Eventually there were some management issues - - managers doing stupid things. A guy who had previously worked along side me had gotten a job with a local city government in their computer department. They were about to make some big changes, things that I was quite familiar with. So, he asked me to apply for a job with their city.

I got that job with the city government. It was a good job. I worked there enjoyably for ten years until December 1st, 2005, when the director fired me. Wow, what a Christmas present.

"I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Darn, I've heard that somewhere before (John 13:34). Oh, I've preached that too!

Skipped a few important things.
What did I leave out?
Wife. Seven years ago she started acting weird. Then she told me she wanted to separate. When I said that I wasn't moving out of the house that I'd been paying on for 14 years, she moved out. But she didn't have a job so she could not get a mortgage. So I co-signed her loan so that she could buy a house. She got a job and in a few months refinanced in order to get my name off of the title to her house (she never gave me key to the house I also owned!).

Divorce (sad).
She then wanted a divorce. She never gave a good reason. Under Arizona law I could not stop her, I could only delay her a bit. Instead of costing us both for expensive lawyers we used Arizona's process for divorce without lawyers. The financial agreement was the hardest part (my house had appreciated and doubled in value; she wanted her half; I would have to sell the house to get the cash; instead I gave her my entire retirement package), but after we solved the financial stuff everything went quickly. We took joint legal custody of the children. So six years ago the divorce was finalized.

Nancy's house was only five miles away from my house (almost across the street from my office where I worked). So the boys did not have much problem with adjustment. They spent about equal time at each house (they each had two bedrooms, one at each house). I bought enough computers so both houses were computerized for the boys to use for homework and fun.

A few months ago Nancy decided to move out of state. Was I too tempting for her to be so near?! She decided to move to Virginia. My younger son would live with her. Our older son is going to college in Arizona, so he would stay with me when not in school.

It is now 2005.
For Christmas this year both boys are with me. We are having a good time (spending too much time playing joint computer games).

Today is Christmas 2005.

I am out of work. I have some savings but starting next week I will start digging deep into that in order to keep our health insurance alive.

I plan to talk with our new bishop soon and see if because I am divorced if he will let me start working in parishes again. Unfortunately full time parish work would not pay enough for me to support my two sons while they are still in school. So I will probably need to get a paying job. I don't know if the bishop would let me work part time (weekends) in parishes since that has generally not been allowed in this country (in Europe "worker priests" have often been allowed).

Well, this is a start at a blog. Hopefully I wasn't too wordy but I felt that some background might be needed to interpret my future discussions.

Blogging future.
Hopefully I will quit writing such detailed history (though I did really leave out a lot).

I will try to write something meaningful to me or others and express my views and concerns. To L. and Granny who really encouraged me to do this: standby!