The "It's a Calling from God" Trump Card

Guaranteed to be used by those Catholics trying to put a religious spin into their otherwise self-centered and political-based dissent.

Susan Ringler believes she faithfully lived out the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church during her first five decades of life. She manifested it in Paz de Cristo social ministry to the East Valley poor, as a liturgy coordinator at St. Timothy’s parish in Mesa and through ecumenical work.

Until a couple of years ago, she held out hope that lay Catholics and women would gain roles of importance, but the church, she says, has turned hard-line and any dream of eking out more change from Vatican Council II of 40 years ago long faded.

So Ringler joined the independent United Catholic Church, which last Sunday ordained her as a deacon and put her in line to become a priest if she chooses. As a woman, she could hold neither role in the Roman Catholic Church.

"As a Roman Catholic woman, to think that you have a calling to a deeper ministry from God is almost blasphemy, and the guilt associated with that is huge," says the mother of three grown children who trained as a registered nurse. "It took me a long time to realize that my calling was from God." She says the affirmation she received from family, friends and others redoubled her desire to serve more deeply in ministry and assuaged "guilt that comes naturally to Catholics."

Yes, I Was A Member

With all the MSM handwringing over whether SCOTUS nominee John Roberts was ever a member of the Federalist Society I just wanted to make it perfectly clear to the world that not only was I a Federalist Society member, I was the founder of a student chapter at my law school. With that being said, I await the President's call informing me that I will be nominated to replace Justice William Rehnquist on the SCOTUS.

Hey, even in a one in a million chance, there's still a chance.

"Legitimacy"

As pretty much expected, the thoroughly Catholic Ave Maria School of Law received full accreditation from the American Bar Association. (link via Southern Appeal) Insofar as the secular legal profession is concerned, this gives the school a general sense of legitimacy that "non-ABA" schools (like the one yours truly graduated from)lack. Whether this perception is warranted is up for debate, but I did have to laugh at this comment that Ave Maria reportedly made upon receiving the ABA seal of approval: "Achieving ABA accreditation signifies that a particular law school provides a sound legal education of high quality..." Why is this laughable? Because it presumes that the ABA, a profoundly politicized organization that supports the constitutional right to abortion and a host of other left-wing causes, is a credible judge of a sound legal education.

An Out of Whack Culture

I don't know how it is where you live, but you pretty much can't get around the Los Angeles area these days without seeing a billboard advertising a new movie called The 40 Year Old Virgin. As you can probably guess from the "clever" title, the premise of the movie is about a socially awkward 40 year old single guy who has never had sex. The movie is supposed to be a comedy, of course, because in our post-modern culture where men like Hugh Hefner are revered as heroes for making it ok for us to treat each other as self-gratifying objects, guys who haven't "done it" by the time they're out of high school are just, you know, freaky.

Sigh.

On a somwhat related note, Terry Mattingly speculates that the New York Times reporters who made inappropriate inquiries into the sealed adoption records of John Roberts' kids were trying to dig for more than just possible shady dealings. Anti-Catholic stereotypes, anybody?