2007 January archive at Being Frank

Archive for January, 2007

Jan

Better late?

By Peter the First 8 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I’ve read with some concern about recent moves in parts of the US and UK against different types of clothing in public.

With the relative freedoms we enjoy down here, it’s a good idea to put the debate in perspective: Privacy International is a nonprofit watchdog that observes the intrusion of governments on privacy and freedom of expression around the world. In their most recent rankings, the UK was listed as an “endemic surveillance society”.

Against this backdrop, we can perhaps understand why many people in the UK, and the US, see nothing wrong with dictating what people are allowed to wear, and when.

We can understand, but it’s still a scary concept. Even as Catholics, on this blog, we have trouble agreeing on which clothing suits our understanding of modesty, or celebrates the beauty of God’s creations… for governments to dictate not just on normal clothing, but on religious attire, then, is more than questionable.

Jan

Annulments and Annoyances in the Roman Curia…

By Agnes Day 2 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

In recent times I have often been troubled by the ease at which Catholics could obtain marriage annulments from their local tribunal or from Rome, especially marriages that have lasted 20 or more years.

I also, have often been surprised that good Catholic people think that the Church has the power to break the sacrament of marriage. This idea is a misunderstanding of what an annulment is. An annulment is a judgment by the Church that the sacrament never existed – that there never was a marriage between the 2 people involved, because they didn’t have the proper requirements for valid marriage.

The Church does not have the power to break a marriage. A marriage is indissoluble.

The Church can only judge if the marriage was valid or not.

So, already, one can see, if the Church gets that judgment wrong in it’s process, we’ve got a bit of a problem.

Added to this, is the introduction of new principles to the modern judgment process in these times….for example ”affective immaturity?”

How can anyone really make an accurate judgment, 30 years on, about whether a person was “immature” when they entered the marriage? Not only that, just being immature doesn’t invalidate a sacrament…one enters very sticky territory by using such vague principles…

There seem to be many issues and inconsistencies around the current annulment process and judgments.

Recently, the Pope appealed to the judges (of the tribunal) to face the truth about marriage squarely “without allowing yourselves to be seduced by interpretations that entail a break with the tradition of the Church.”

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=48919

Jan

Happy Anniversary!

By James the Least Closed

Categories: Being Frank...

Today is Auckland Anniversary Day, so around half the country gets the day off. Anniversaries play an important role in our lives – they call us to remember the importance of the original event and reflect on its impact on our daily existence.

Take Auckland Anniversary Day as an example – for me it makes me think about how the founding of this city created the place where generations of my family would live and where I would ultimately be born. It is also the city where many of the people I love most in this world happen to reside. So, do I celebrate this day? Absolutely – by not going in to work!

There are other anniversaries which we all celebrate, right? We don’t get days off for all of them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reflect on the original events that we are making note of. Our birthdays pop in to mind, as does Christmas and Easter. I like the fact that there are some days in the year when we are united in bringing the focus towards one event in the past. I like the fact that we do look back, somewhat wistfully, and recognise the importance of what has gone before us.

Obviously anniversaries only come once a year, but if you’d like to introduce some anniversaries for those days when you don’t have one of your own, how about the feast days of the Saints. If Christmas makes you reflect on Christ’s birth, and your friend’s birthday makes you think about how important s/he has been in your life, then why can’t the feast day of St Gildas the Wise make you focus on his story and what he did for God? Or, if he’s not your cup of tea, there are many other Saints that share today as a feast day. If you think you and your siblings have troubles, spare a thought for Saint Sarbelius and St Barbea, who were brother and sister and were put to death for converting to the Faith after being tortured with red hot irons!

Anyway, Happy Anniversary Auckland, Happy Birthday to all those with birthdays today, and Happy Feast Day to Saints Sarbelius, Barbea and Gildas the Wise.

Jan

She’ll be Right

By eyeWitness Closed

Categories: Being Frank...

New Zealand seems to be known for its “real men don’t cry’, “she’ll be right” attitude. But does this have a link to the fact New Zealand has one of the highest suicide rates in the world?

Suicide is the most unnatural thing – it goes against the natural instinct of a human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It contradicts love for yourself and your neighbour. What a sad state of affairs we are in when so many people resort to this.

Recently my mother was shocked to find out one of her friends was severely depressed and she didn’t know a thing about it. Her friend said to her that everyone around her seemed to have such perfect families and lives, and she felt like her family was constantly struggling to stay on good terms.

This led me to think that families often seem perfect from the outside, but I would claim that they rarely are. Of course when there are visitors looking in a family attempts to be on its best behaviour. Who really knows what lies beneath the surface in a family? I wonder how many other people simply never tell anyone how they feel, or seek out any support.

I know that depression and suicidal thoughts are caused by many factors, but a lack of support must certainly be one of them. Wouldn’t it be beneficial if people shared more of what they really feel and are with others? It can be uncomfortable to talk deeply about feelings, but how can we support each other if we pretend everything is always alright and attempt to cope on our own?

Maybe we need to forget the mindset that it is embarrassing to have problems, or ‘touchy feely’ to share our feelings. Part of ‘love your neighbour’ must surely be taking the time to support them, know them, and understand them.

Jan

Put your faith where your mouth is…

By The Dumb Ox 2 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but a new website has been established so that people can publicly renounce the Trinity, and God’s salvation.

The website is called “The Blasphemy Challenge” and it features videos that can only be described as truly frightening.

It works like this – the blasphemy challenge is the brainchild of a group calling itself “The Rational Response Squad USA”.

They appear to be your typical secular humanist group, who are passionate adherents to the religious doctrine of atheism.

Being clever atheists (that is definitely an oxymoron!) they have decided that they will take their religious adherence to the next logical level by allowing people to join them in making a public commitment to renounce the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and thus reject the possibility of His eternal salvation of them.

In return for submitting a video people are sent a free copy of the DVD “The God who wasn’t there”.

This DVD is yet another poorly reasoned, historically inaccurate, illogical presentation that attacks Christian belief and history with laughable “scholarship”, pseudo intellectualism and some really serious philosophical errors.

Basically it’s anti-Christianism for kindergarten kids (actually that’s an insult to the intelligence of kindergarten kids!).

Newsweek stated that this DVD “Irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed”.

Now any person who tries to claim that Jesus Christ never actually existed is either nuts, very stupid or both.

Forget about religious belief for two seconds; there is absolutely no historical doubt that Jesus Christ was a real man who actually walked this earth 2000 years ago.

Not only do we have eyewitness accounts from the Gospels, but we have independent non-Christian sources like Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, Josephus, Tacitus, etc who all record the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.

Claiming that Jesus never existed is like claiming that the Holocaust never happened, or that Steve Irwin never existed – it’s absolutely ludicrous.

Anyway, I watched the videos that people had submitted to the website and I felt a great sadness for them, so I have decided that Being Frank is a good place to take some positive action about this issue.

The reality is that the people involved in this website, and those who have submitted videos, have taken definite steps that will likely result in the eternal death of their soul.

This is a serious issue and we should be concerned enough about it to actually take some action.

I ask you to join me in praying the prayer below once a day, for the next month, especially for all those involved in this website and for those who have submitted their videos.

This prayer was given by the angel who appeared to the Children at Fatima, and when Our Lady appeared to the Children she said “Let this prayer be echoed all over the world.”

It’s a simple prayer that takes 2 minutes to pray.

The Fatima Prayers

MY GOD, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love Thee!
I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love Thee.

Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – I adore thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.

Are you prepared to sacrifice 2 minutes a day for the sake of someone else’s soul?

I am.

Jan

Manman to the rescue!

By Methuselah's Beard 1 Comment

Categories: Being Frank...

After a quiet period over the holidays, it’s good to see some heated debate on the blog once again! Peace and quiet is overrated sometimes.

At the moment I think I’m in the process of gettin hooked on a new show on tv – ‘Heroes’. I’m so hooked that I don’t even know if i spelt that right…

I’ve always liked my superheroes. Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Ironman, Wonderman, Manman… There’s alwyas something inherently cool about being able to fly or shoot beams out of your eyes. Well I think so anyway.

I remember over the holidays there was a news story about a real life hero in New York. For those that didn’t catch it, a guy had a seizure and fell on to the subway tracks as a train was approaching. A total stranger jumped down onto the tracks, dragged the guy into the gap between the rails, then lay on top of him while the train passed above them. Both of them got out ok.

Imagine doing that for a total stranger! I sometimes wonder how I would react in a situation where someone was in need. Maybe not a life or death situation, but just sometime when someone needs a hero. Would I jump in? Would I just wait to see if anyone else will do anything? Would self preservation kick in?

It’s hard to know. So until the time comes, I’ll just keep on being a young professional who can secretly shoot beams out of his calculator…. (shhhh it’s a secret).

Jan

Cover thyself up!

By The Captain 105 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

This isn’t a new topic, but I just had “words” with a colleague at work and it’s got me all fired up about it.

I’m going to Parachute this weekend and in today’s TimeOut the organiser is quoted as saying men should keep their shirts on, and women should avoid bikini tops.

“We just say ‘look, if you’re walking round with very little clothes on then you’re going to cause people to be tempted’. And it’s about respect for other people…”

I have no problem with a festival organiser imposing a dress code. I have a HUGE problem with the argument that YOU need to watch how YOU dress in case YOU tempt someone else, who apparently can’t control themselves.

There is temptation everywhere we turn. Since when did it become a female’s responsibility to ensure they don’t tempt men, who according to this argument are animals who can’t – and shouldn’t have to – control themselves. That’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

It’s not getting others to remove temptation from in front of us, it’s up to us to figure out which temptations we can’t resist – then ensure WE don’t put OURSELVES in front of them.

Yuck, yuck, yuck. This whole argument makes me angry. Men and women are human beings – not animals – made through the love of our Heavenly Father. It’s up to us, as individuals, to ensure we continue to behave this way.