Posted on 07/20/2010 7:29:01 AM PDT by NYer
The final meltdown of Mel Gibson has come at a convenient time for Catholic-baiters in the media. The guy threatens violence against women, he’s a racist and he’s a CATHOLIC! Here’s Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, stooping almost as low as Gibson:
Received wisdom is that Gibson cannot recover from this. But one course is still open to him. If ever priesthood beckoned a man, it is surely now. At least he apparently saves his violence for adult females.
And if you don’t understand that last dig, let me point you to Times columnist Caitlin Moran, who explained on Thursday that the Catholic Church “f**** kids”.
The slurs against Catholics being put about liberal journalists aren’t far removed from Protocols territory, if you ask me. But dragging Gibson into this rancid rhetoric doesn’t work, for a simple reason.
He’s not a Catholic.
In fact, Mel Gibson is in some respects the opposite of a Catholic, since one of the themes of his fake Catholicism is that the Pope isn’t the Pope. Admittedly, Mel’s own theology tends to morph like a shape-shifting lizard, depending on how hung over he is, but in so far as he’s anything he’s a sedevacantist like his father, Hutton Gibson.
Sedevacantists regard the Second Vatican Council as so obviously evil that it must have been the work of Satan, and therefore the Pope who called it and his successors aren’t really Popes. Gibson Senior once reportedly described John Paul II as “Garrulous Karolus the Koran kisser” and has put about the notion that the last real Pope was secretly elected at the 1958 conclave but forced to resign in favour of anti-pope John XIII. But then old man Gibson never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like; hence his well-documented Holocaust and 9/11 revisionism.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
I remember that scene. A little artsy for my taste, if you know what I mean. But, there is still a bit to go from there. Such as the removal of the body from the cross, with the Pieta-like posing, and at the very end the resurrection with the Lord walking from the tomb into the light, which you can see through the wounds in his hands.
It’s a real puzzle, isn’t it? A man with worldly success and beautiful children and a faithful wife, a man who actually achieved something memorable and lasting, with more money than some small countries...
And he STILL messed it up.
All men are fallen (although I actually thought he knew that.)
He did.
He is in turmoil. The booze brings it out. The anger brings it out. His lifestyle reveals it. I'm hoping the Holy Spirit is drawing him to the Lord. I've always admired his willingness to do movies that Hollywood wouldn't touch.
The RC's should send him a memo that he's not one of them. We would be happy to have him. We would get him in the Word and he would probably be okay.
AMEN! The more, the merrier! 8~)
Agreed. Just look at Paul. He was RAGING against Christians. Arresting, beating, torturing and having them killed.
Then BLAM.
God said “ I can use you now Paul. You’re going to be a great testament of my power, that I’ll use you, one who persecutes me, to spread word of me and begin to build my church!”
Mel, Prayers up buddy. Get your affairs in order. Gods probably got a big use for you coming up.
INTERESTING.
I suspect, unless he happened to be wallowing in guilt for some reason,
He’d be quite surprised to find out he’s NOT Roman Catholic.
Besides . . . where’s all this hubris about ONCE RC, ALWAYS RC????
Oh, right, except when not.
I had a similar feeling for months.
Finally relented and saw it . . . to honor Him who Lived it . . .
I thought it depicted well . . . though still not as vividly as He must have felt it . . . the price He paid . . . as well as a movie could depict it.
Yet, I often go longer declining to play my audio Bible of major portions of the Gospels because it grieves me so to hear yet again how He was treated . . . for me.
So, what’s the scoop on “Inception”?
Trailer looks good.
I haven’t seen it but am planning to this week.
Reviews are somewhat mixed. The majority are good reviews that say it is deep and original and thought-provoking like the first “Matrix.
Negative reviews say the film is ultra-confusing, confusing and confusing.
Time will tell. It’s earning a solid box office, but its budget was $200,000,000. I think the trailers were great. The visuals look terrific. But nothing’s changed in a century where movies are concerned — it’s story, story, story.
I liked Momento but Nolan’s Batman left me cold. I hope it is as good as some say. It’s nice when a movie surprises us. And I’m liking DiCaprio a lot after the Departed and Shutter Island.
Ebert is still the best reviewer around (although he doesn’t seem to dislike anything these days.) But his reviews are always literate and generally accurate. He loved Inception.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100714/REVIEWS/100719997/1023
Let’s compare notes when we both see it.
His rants on those videos his wife made are not unusual for these problems...people rant as that when drunk and or their disorder is in swing. She knows this and said so ...”you need medication”....not uncommon people with bipolar start feeling better and go off their meds.
No doubt Mels problems are out of control. But the lady knew going into this Mel had these issues...I just think she's been setting him up from the get go. The courts are already seeing this of recent.
Bottom line...Mel needs to go back into treatment AGAIN! He knows it and he also knows he'll continue to loose all he has. It's the plight of those who struggle with alcohol and his disorder. People who partner up with those with these problems are setting themselves up for mistreatment...they should know better.
By those definitions there’s about a dozen, maybe dozen and half, Catholics in the U.S.
For later
Now, if the whole Confirmation education sequence were available in a pre-modern church framework we'd rush to take advantage of it. Going to look into whether the FSSP parish in the next state actually offers that.
including within that a sensitivity to the liturgical rhythm of the church’s life.
What the hell does that mean?
I am Roman Catholic but practice my faith in the Maronite (Eastern) Catholic Church. In all the eastern churches, children are baptized and chrismated at the same time. In some of those churches, children also make First Eucharist on the same day. I just came from a Maronite Baptism. During the Rite of Exorcism, the congregation is told to turn around and face the back of the church, forming a human shield against the catechumen - "Do you reject satan? And all his works? .... In fact, the service begins at the back of the church where the priest greets the parents, godparents and catechumen. A brother and sister were baptized / chrismated today. The entire service is filled with ancient prayers, hymns, psalms and readings. Just beautiful!
The sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are interrelated and all three are required for full Christian initiation. The Christian is born anew by Baptism, strengthened by Confirmation, and receives in the Eucharist the food of eternal life. The Sacraments are supposed to be administered in that order. Only the Latin Church, AFAIK, has changed that order. My daughter, like your girls, was not confirmed until 12th grade (she dropped out in 11th but agreed to complete the program in 12th.) The pastor asked me to teach one of the 11th grade confirmation groups. I was appalled at the program being used. I used the book as a guideline and introduced them to our rich heritage of prayers and the lives of the saints. My group was the only one where all of the kids chose names of saints. It is my understanding that some dioceses are now returning to the previous method of confirming the children in 3rd grade rather than making them wait so long.
An aside: We have a fellow in our area who reminds me of you and Salvation (in terms of your devotion, knowledge, and ability to educate fellow Catholics). He has acted as the server at many of our Latin Masses. Now I am afraid he is leaving the area. What a loss for us! I'm sure your parishes cling to you like Locktite also!
Another personal aside (really aside): A book came out recently about a fairly well-known deceased physicist. Turns out the biography references my brother who was the closest working colleague and "best friend" of this individual for several years.
Though the author (who interviewed my brother in 2008) does an exemplary job throughout most of the work, for some reason he felt the need to include a less-than-flattering description of a certain episode in my brother's past. Seemed gratuitous to me, but unfortunately is probably factual.
Anyway, the physicist who is the subject of the book was an atheist and although brilliant ("Second to Einstein" as my brother describes him), was not the kind of person an observant Catholic would want to spend much time around outside of strict professional involvement. He is widely acknowledged as having been the originator of the "Many Worlds Hypothesis" -- although Bryce DeWitt later coined that term -- which I see as a way to convince people there is no Heaven and Hell (or God and Satan) but rather a never-ending series of parallel universes where all possible outcomes occur. In other words, a handy tool of the devil to weaken Christian beliefs. In fact, it worked with his daughter, who committed suicide expecting to join her deceased father in a "parallel universe".
So, anyway, my Catholic appeal after this long and somewhat sordid personal story is to pray for my brother, who was somewhat influenced by this guy along the way. To what extent I don't know (not close to him and he lives on the other coast), but I strongly suspect he did not emerge spiritually unscathed. The episode I referred to earlier, although not at all uncommon, is not something I am proud of, though it happened decades ago. Really not too keen on having it in print, however! The passage also mentions my dad's name for background (who was an excellent Catholic) so there is no question which family is being talked about. Sorry for the long story. I didn't really proofread this. Prayers for my brother and even the weird physicist and his daughter welcomed.
Ping to a personal story in #158 in case you are interested (you were selected for this ping because there has been some small amount of personal/family interchange in the past lol).
A common trope in science fiction stories for many years, but not something I'd ever considered taking seriously. I'm sorry about the poor publicity for your family, and I'll pray for all of you and the late physicist. My brother pays much more attention to science news than I do.
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