feminine-genius

Terminate the distractions

This timeless piece (which means I got to it over a year late) shows the similarities between Jews and Christians in holding onto the essence of ritual without getting swept away in the push for etertainment and "relevance."

My son William was recently invited to his friend Josh's bar mitzva. William had never been to a bar mitzva before, and he's still talking about it. The invitation was a video tape of Josh, dressed like the Terminator and doing an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression: "Come to my bar mitzva, or else!"

When I dropped William off at the five-star hotel ballroom, everything was decorated to look like metal. There were robots standing guard with blinking eyes and moving arms; destroyed tanks and cars strewn about (rented from a movie prop house); and inflatable jungle gyms and slides, all in camouflage colors. There was even a life-sized Arnold Schwarzenegger cutout for guests to sign.

After the aliya latorah, Josh made his grand entrance on a "T2" motorcycle - his bar mitzva gift from his parents! Following the motzi, a live rock band played modern techno music. Josh did a really cool robot dance. During the traditional candlelighting ceremony, Josh lit 13 candles with a butane lighter shaped like a Terminator rifle. My son wished he could take it home with him.

Many of our children--goyim though they be--are invited to bar (and bat) mitzvas in middle school, which provide interesting views into modern (more liberal) Jewish life. They usually emerge after hours of fun with trinkets, personalised clothes, shades, and heaps of party favours--all of which makes the actual ritual itself bearable. (Some families allow their kids to skip the synagogue and go directly to the party, which is mistifying.)

It is reminiscent of our attempts to make the sacraments "fun" or worse, lavishly competitive. There are even those who will postpone the sacraments until enough money is saved for the right reception or until the bride can fit into a slinky dress (post-partem). In Equador, a family I met didn't baptise their daughter, knowing they couldn't afford the chickens necessary to feed the extended family, so they were going to wait for another child and hope to manage a two-fer.

The short-term goal, for parents, is often to make rituals fit into our lives with minimal spiritual discomfort, although the irony is that the mundane trials become even more traumatic.  After planning her own son's bar mitzvah began to reach crisis mode, the mother

made a dash for my bookshelf to retrieve my dog-eared copy of the Book of Jewish Values to see what the ever wise and rational Rabbi Joseph Telushkin might have to say about the situation. He didn't let me down.

"Out of the desire not to appear cheap or unloving to their children, many... Jews feel forced to spend far more on [bar mitzva] parties than they can or want to," he writes. "Furthermore lavish parties often end up diminishing, sometimes even eliminating, the religious significance of the bar mitzva. For many of the celebrants, what counts is the 'bar,' not the mitzva."

What we desperately need, says Telushkin, are some "wealthy moral heroes... prominent, affluent Jews in our largest Jewish communities - to throw a simple bar or bat mitzva celebration, one in which the party is very pleasant and celebratory, but not lavish." In doing so, he holds, "the good they would do for their fellow Jews would be almost incalculable."

Thank you Rabbi Telushkin! The same goes for Christian weddings, where the warantees on the piles of gifts often outlast the actual unions. Kids may enjoy Terminator rifle candle lighters, but the flame itself is often overpowered by the schtick. Mothers--as keepers of the flame and builders of culture--would do well to be the moral heroes and teach children that ritual is often meant to be sacrifice. If it is pleasing to God, then He'll provide the reward, not Arnold.

"Rogue women"

Indeed, I've been caught, and plead guilty. The anniversary initiative DignityofWomen was discovered by Matthew Bigelow, a writer for U.S. Catholic and it fit into his article on how Catholics are using the internet these days.

When Genevieve Kineke and a group of lay-women decided this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope John Paul II's document on the dignity of women, she needed to get the word out. A mailing list, however, never even occurred to her.

"Someone had said, 'Are we going to get a mailing list?' No, we don't use paper and stamps anymore, we just don't. We're an Internet generation," Kineke says.

Soon thereafter Kineke, an author and speaker on Catholic femininity, launched dignityofwomen.com, a website with contact information, an online version of the document, and updates on her movement to commemorate the 20th anniversary. Soon an e-mail listserv used by Kineke and her colleagues was aflame with rumors about this "lay group."

Who were these rabble rousers, promoting awareness of a Vatican document without any formal ties to the church? Were they qualified to speak on it?

"So many writers are used to the chain of command and say, 'You guys are coloring outside of the lines,' and 'Who are we to have the website?' " Kineke says. "It just looked like a bunch of rogue women."

Well, I'd prefer to think of us as "inspired," but that's a matter of taste. Some events are spilling well into next year, so it's not too late to consider reading the document, sharing it with others, and putting together "days of reflection." I did enjoy talking to this young writer, lo these many months ago. I know that much of the hierarchy still looks at most internet-based apostolates with suspicion, which is perhaps prudent. Caveat emptor (but you can always trust me, heh!)

Stumbled on this

I didn't realise that New Oxford Review had some kind words for the book.

Here is a much-needed book -- a beautiful meditation on "authentic femininity" for our times. Genevieve Kineke sees women today as the chief victims of a culture steeped in "sexual heresies." Yet women also have the power to change things: they can offer the world "authentic femininity and take charge of transforming the culture." For a woman's love, her "primordial intimacy with the human person," is far more important in the scheme of things than worldly power.

Thank you, sweet Anne, for the generous review. For those interested in reading it with a group of women, a study guide is available upon request.

Life, liberty, and pursuit of ...?

This Independence Day, much is made of "freedom," although it is widely misunderstood to mean "license;" licence to do whatever we want, instead of the proper definition which means an unencumbered ability to choose the good. Below, someone took issue with the license brought about by radical feminism, which has entrenched in our citizens the mindset of the sexual left.

Witness, the measures of "safety" which we undertake in order to guarantee such license.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released a report based on new documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. The adverse reactions include 10 deaths since September, 2007. (The total number of death reports is at least 18 and as many as 20.) The FDA also produced 140 “serious” reports (27 of which were categorized as “life threatening”), 10 spontaneous abortions and six cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome – all since January 2008.

Freedom leads to joy and tranquility of spirit. License leads to anaphylactic shock, foaming at mouth, grand mal convulsion, coma, paralysis, infertility, and the human papillomavirus (itself leading to cervical cancer and death). Consider this version of freedom:

• girls must be free to be sexually active
• guys must be free to be sexually active
• promiscuity leads to STD's
• abstinence impacts "freedom"
• avoiding STD's thus necessitates injections
• quick answers short-circuits testing protocols
• dangerous drugs are marketed, even mandated
• "freedom" brings a body count that population takes in stride.

Any questions? Is it possible that we've misunderstood freedom?

[You'll note after the report, a comment from a mother who still misunderstands both the nature of freedom and the risk she takes when guaranteeing her daughters license to engage in promiscuity. Will the children turn around and vent their rage at their parents one day for their toxic inheritance?]

A chivalrous man

I was saddened to read of the death of Jesse Helms, who--fittingly-- passed on to His Maker early this morning.

"We'll never forget how he battled, especially during those first lonely years, to protect our liberties, preserve our family values and keep America strong. There he was, standing day after day to a government Goliath, crying out like a voice in the wilderness," former President Ronald Reagan said in a 1983 speech. "Bit by bit, he became more than a lonely crusader. He grew into a lionhearted leader of a great and growing army."

Many political observers credit Helms' support for catapulting Reagan to the presidency in 1980 and accelerating the conservative agenda – cutting taxes at home, fighting communism abroad and opposing many government social programs – at the national level. He also served as Reagan's right flank for years, allowing the president to make political compromises as needed. "(I decided to) stay to the right of the president's right and make it easier for Reagan to be Reagan," Helms wrote in his memoir.

We all owe him a debt of gratitude. It will take courage for someone to take up this mantle--and yet in the time since his retirement in 2002, there has been no singular replacement. RIP, from an appreciative bystander.

Two points

Father Zed has done an excellent job fisking an article by the NCReporter, about the consequences for a Woman Religious who attempted ordination in the diocese of Saint Louis. The piece combines some facts with some reactions, creating a typically biased piece which is long on feelings and short on doctrine. (Father's comments are in red.)

Sister of Charity Louise Lears, forced out of all church ministerial roles [Ummm… she attempted ordination – for crying out loud!  Can you say "excommunication"?] by Saint Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, is described by friends and colleagues in near saintly terms.

They call her a bright, energetic, compassionate and faith-filled woman. They see her as a creative, generous and selfless person, a highly effective parish minister. They say she is first rate teacher and preacher. They view her as a person guided by the gospels including an unwavering commitment to justice and the local poor.  [Do they see her as a contumacious excommunicate and probably a heretic?]

These seemingly universal accolades, however, were not enough to save Lears from a severe interdict by Burke who banished her from all Saint Louis church ministries last week.

He also banned her from receiving any of the Sacraments in the archdiocese.

It was her belief that all church ministries, including women’s ordination, should be open to women. [Which seems to trump what the CHURCH says about the matter.  "I want it this way!"] Curiously, this seems to have been only one of many of her passions and, perhaps, not her central passion, which seems to have been parish work.

There are many good things in his analysis, but I think two comments missing. Since his combox is off (perhaps for his sanity's sake) then I'll provide them here.

1. In making the point that the Church has lost the wide range of gifts that this Sister has provided -- as parish administrator, as college professor, as guide for troubled women, as advocate for victims of brutality, and helper to the homeless, the writer forgets the wider, more obvious point: look how much the Church appreciates the feminine genius in all its manifestations. Even without ordination, there is so much to be done by laity and religious -- and she sounds like a very accomplished, compassionate and busy woman.

2. More importantly, as the above snippet makes clear, ordination was not her "central passion." This is staggering, given that she risked it all to make a point that wasn't even about her true "vocation." A man with a vocation to the priesthood would be consumed by the necessary holocaust of his life -- given in imitation of Christ, sacrificing everything so that he could be true to God's call. The way this is phrased, it sounds like she embraced the premise that women should be ordained, and pursued it to make a point -- going through the motion "in principle." If she cannot see the scandal of her disobedience, then at least can she consider the scandal of pretending a vocation to make a point?

Whatever her angle on the charitable works (and we'll have to assume it was all pure of intention for the greater glory of God) the angle on ordination is coy and political, which is as bad as any theological "misunderstanding" behind it. Wrong and bad, and I'm glad Apb. Burke dealt firmly to safeguard the flock and the sacramental games. May he stand as firmly by these principles in his new post at the Signatura. 

Annoyances

From today's Moment with Mary:

One day Father Oblat was trekking across the high mountains of Lesotho, with a rosary in his hand, visiting the Christians spread here and there scattered throughout the villages. Suddenly, a clap of thunder threw him to the ground. He got up painfully, with the help of his catechist who begged him to turn back. "The demon is annoyed because there is a soul to save," replied the priest. And they continued their route in prayer.

After a good deal of walking on mountain paths, they heard cries coming from a remote village. The good father stopped, "Someone is calling us, let us go there!" he said. The catechist replied, "No, that village is full of witches, it's a trap." But the priest answered, "Perhaps there is a soul to save there. I must go and find out." And the priest set off to the village, followed by his reluctant assistant who seemed to be more dead than alive.

When they arrived, several women surrounded the priest and took him into a hut where a girl about 17 years of age was dying. The women said, "She has been calling for you. She wants to be baptized by a Catholic priest so she can be with the beautiful lady." The father knelt down close to the dying girl who said with great effort, "Are you a Catholic priest?" He replied, "Yes, I am." - "Then baptize me quickly. Please hurry..."

Testimony of a missionary of Lesotho
Published in the magazine "Our Lady of New Time" #6 1982
Told in the Marian Collection 1986 by Brother Albert Pfleger, Marist

Pray for guidance. Sometimes obstacles are to be respected. Sometimes, they indicate that more resolve is needed.

Guess who's turning 30

That would be Louise Joy Brown, first "test-tube" baby, as we called it then. Now, thousands are born annually using IVF. Her parents, having waited nine years for a child, offered these words the day after her birth:

'Louise is, truly, a gift from God,' she told assembled television reporters, her voice breaking with emotion. 'Every woman who has yearned to hold her own child in her arms, and then been flooded with the love that only motherhood brings when that longed for dream comes true, will understand what I mean.'

While recognising the pain and suffering of infertility, we must also consider the cost of IVF: the indignities for the father, and discarded human life, and the child conceived outside the marital embrace. Not to mention the risks:

We have all heard the happy-ever-after stories of countless women for whom IVF has made motherhood a possibility. But what few women realise is that IVF treatment has become increasingly aggressive: so much so that there are very real risks involved.

Take the case of Temilola Akinbolagbe. Just two days after she began fertility treatment she suffered a massive heart attack at a south London Tube station. She was rushed to hospital where, five days later, her life-support machine was switched off. She had been a healthy young woman who had simply yearned for a child. But her body reacted fatally to the drugs she was given to stimulate her ovaries.

Granted, such deaths are rare but the fact is that they do happen. And, worryingly, up to 10 per cent of women, particularly those under 35, react badly to the hormonal drugs they are given. They are used initially to shut down the reproductive system and then to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs instead of a single one, which can then be surgically collected and fertilised with the father's sperm.

A less intense hormonal regimen is being phased in, although the frantic women wanting success don't necessarily want to hear about minimising the risks. Emotions run high, as do the bills.

Since almost 80 per cent of women seeking fertility treatment do so at private, and highly expensive, clinics it seems surprising then that more clinics do not opt for the mild version. The traditional mindset seems to be that more drugs mean more embryos put back in the womb - resulting in more babies and higher places in the league tables compiled by the regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

Prof Fauser believes the reality is that the huge costs charged (a single cycle of IVF costs about £3,000) has meant that there is fierce competition among the clinics. 'With all the commercial pressure and all the money involved,' he says, 'it is easy to understand. But it is not to the benefit of the patient.' With all parties desperate for results, the tendency has been to use more drugs to produce more eggs and, hopefully, more babies. Thus IVF has become a multi-million-pound industry.

Each story is one of unique suffering, and yet, while they are all tied to the notion of reproducing (naturally enough) they are also locked in a struggle of wills -- despite the losses, the discarded children, and the dead-ends. I've read so many testimonies of infertile couples who find peace -- in God's will. Accepting "no" is inevitable at various points in life. God's consolation must line these beds of pain in a unique way, but He must be sought on His terms. If only these couples considered Providence and how else to receive the seeds of grace, then this dark industry would diminish. For now, prayers for the children who won't see the light of day. Some day, they will judge us all.

Dilemma of the day

Laura Ingraham finds a gem, in which a woman is clearly confused about her priorities (not to mention rational thought):

Dear Abby: I have been in a relationship with “Wade” for six years. The situation is this: He has gotten into trouble and can’t be around children because he’s a registered sex offender. I have an 11-month-old daughter by him. I want to be with Wade and work our relationship out, but if I do, I’ll have to give custody of my daughter to my parents and live in my own place with him.

I think we can say that the "women's liberation" movement was grossly misnamed, for such women are in shackles of their own making -- as firmly bound as any women who have ever graced the planet. She is probably no more stupid that any others in the sisterhood. Whether her daughter breaks free from the death spiral is anyone's guess. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! When will folks see?

Screening love

In light of a couple's deliberate conception of a child who would be free of a particular gene leading to breast cancer, blogger Denise Hunnell makes an excellent point about eradicating illness

A few months ago I attended the funeral of an amazing woman who died of breast cancer. She was in her thirties when the disease was diagnosed. She valiantly fought this disease for six years...She was a loving wife and a faithful friend. Her funeral Mass was so packed with people it looked like Easter Sunday. Do these people in Great Britain really think it would be better if this woman had never been born?

This reminds us of how we define ourselves, whether it is "disabled," "gay" or "breast cancer survivor." Those details may [severely] impact our lives, but they shouldn't define us -- not in the way that "image and likeness of God" should define us. We cannot let the challenges to our holiness win by coopting our need to live virtue, regardless.

It also highlights the euphemisms accepted by the world, such as the one used by "March of Dimes." When they say they are "eliminating birth defects," we must respond firmly by saying that they are not. They are simply eliminating the children who have birth defects. Big difference. Likewise, this British mother talks of "screening" embryos for hereditary breast cancer.

The woman decided to have her embryos screened because her husband had tested positive for the gene and his sister, mother, grandmother and cousin have all had the cancer. The couple produced 11 embryos, of which five were found to be free from the gene. Two of these were implanted in the woman’s womb and she is now 14 weeks pregnant.

Thus in order to "save the life of her child" she created ten others who subsequently died. Rather than saying "it is better that one man die for the sake of the people," we now kill ten so that one has a chance at living. Bizarre word games; monstrous proportions. Sayeth the mother:

“It has been successful for us which means we are eliminating the gene from our line."

No, my dear. You have simply eliminated your children. You have "saved" them from knowing you and your brand of love, and you have saved yourself from looking them in the eye before death. I wish you and this surviving "miracle" every happiness, but what a price.

"Hooters for women"

Women in Japan seem to agree that they do the brunt of the domestic work, are solely responsible for family commitments, and are overwhelmingly unappreciated by Japanese men. Thus, this campy break from the routine seems to provide a harmless respite -- and jobs for western men.

In season and out

Folks who know me know my pet peeve about "random acts of kindness" which are not the Christian way. Love demands a constant generous presence, with which we all struggle. Tell a newborn about random feedings. Tell a dialysis patient about random hours of operation. Or consider what these Sisters outside Hanoi [Vietnam] have done consistently for over 45 years.

Children who have at least one leper in the family, and for this reason are the object of discrimination and marginalisation: for them, studying would be unheard of if it were not for a community of sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres, who welcome them in Pleiku, in the region of the Vietnamese highlands.

In addition to studying, in fact, the 160 children welcomed by the sisters practice sport and music, as well as having the opportunity to deepen their understanding of religion.  There is also a daytime centre that cares for another 200 young people.

In addition to providing educational opportunities and a haven of love for so many on-site, they also go out and tend to over 700 lepers -- consistently. God be praised!

Evolution isn't working

For all the assurances of the sexual left, the women aren't falling into line about being able to "love 'em and leave em:"

OTTAWA, June 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the last several decades many have claimed that the sexual and feminist revolutions freed women to enjoy casual sex without fear of adverse consequences. Yet according to Professor Anne Campbell from Durham University in the UK, the negative feelings reported by women after one-night stands suggest that they are not well adapted to fleeting sexual encounters. Her findings are published online in the June issue of Springer's journal, Human Nature.

Professor Campbell looked at whether women have adapted to casual sex by examining their feelings following a one-night stand. She hypothesized that if women have adapted, they should rate the experience positively. To test this theory, a total of 1743 men and women who had experienced a one-night stand were asked to rate both their positive and negative feelings the following morning, in an internet survey.

Prof Campbell added: "Evolution often acts through positive or negative emotions which draw us towards adaptive behaviours or drives us away from harmful ones. For example, we enjoy other people's company but get depressed if we spend too much time alone. Basic emotions guide us down pathways that have been advantageous for our ancestors. It seemed obvious that if our female ancestors really were adapted to short-term relationships they ought to enjoy them."

Overall, however, women's feelings were much more negative than men's. 80 percent of men said they had overall positive feelings about the experience, compared to 54 percent of women.

The predominant negative feeling reported by women was regret at having been "used". Women were also more likely to feel that they had let themselves down and were worried about the potential damage to their reputation if other people found out.

"What the women seemed to object to was…the fact that the man did not seem to appreciate her. The women thought this lack of gratitude implied that she did this with anybody," Professor Campbell explained.

There seems to be some serious hard-wiring in the way here. It would seem that the need to be "appreciated" is blocking the necessary evolution to "mindless animal couplings." I'd also like to commend that 20% of men who aren't so base as to enjoy sex without some level of commitment. I'd also speculate that drugs and alcohol probably have a lot to do with the folks who claim "no regrets."

Belgium, 2008

A 21 year old woman was raped in a major Belgian train station with passers-by ignoring her plight. Two North African immigrants accosted her as left her train and said she should be wearing a head-scarf. (She was not a Muslim.) Thus they held her at knife point and assaulted her.

Is this the way of the New Europe? Is this what women can expect? Rogue immigrants and detached local men? Is this the accumulation of years of post-Christian malaise, the banality of sexual prurience, outright rejection of a chivalric code and waves of Muslims?

Her father, of course, is outraged. She is hospitalised. Police are mulling about looking for clues. No bystanders have come forward to help. Not during, not after. Without God, moral duty withers. (Duty to Allah, evidently, is a thing apart.)

A different kind of vigil

Zimbabwe has suffered under a brutal dictator for years. He wields power through violence and intimidation, and nothing seems to be able to dislodge him. He holds rallies around the country, fueled by alcohol and drugs, which all locals are forced to attend. The upcoming election has ramped everything up still more:

As the country heads for a second round of a presidential election on 27 June ... MDC Information Director Luke Tambironyoka says more than 500 women and girls have been sexually abused and raped in the political violence gripping the country.

"We are still yet to establish the exact figure as some cases are still yet to be reported officially," he says. "Furthermore, the majority of the victims are in the outlying remote rural areas, where they are in hiding fearing for their lives."

[T]he abuse tends to happen at night-time vigils, called "pungwes." These are gatherings held in the open where people are forced to sing revolutionary songs to prove their loyalty to the ruling party. Many residents in the area are made to attend, including girls as young as 16 where, if they catch a commander's eye, they are kept at the base until the militia leave the area.

Some are held for weeks or longer, such as Maidei -- a young widow on whom this story centers. Those supporting Mugabe don't even deny it.

Asked about the allegations that men were raping women and girls forcibly at the meetings, he replied matter-of-factly: "We have to share in comradeship as we have the same aim to get rid of the opposition here." He confirmed that the young and beautiful women were often identified at the meetings and made to stay on with the group leaders.

Just this weekend, the only man running against the brutal dictator pulled out of the race, since he couldn't guarantee the safety of his supporters at the polls and much of his staff has been arrested. Supporter of his opposition party have had their homes burned and many international observers sent to the country have been killed. He's in hiding in the Dutch embassy.

The older members of the ruling party are all dying of HIV/AIDS, which the members spread even further with the rape campaigns. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 37 years. So far, the international has no leverage over this country, and sanctions prove useless. Half the country desperately needs aid from abroad, which the government already refuses to distribute. Oremus.

Mother-daughter outing

Spending the day with mother is often unappreciated by teenagers. Most kids prefer to hang out with friends, maybe being dropped off at a mall or some such. But by the time the daughter turns twenty, many mothers and daughters begin to get along much better, to which Megan Lampros and her mother can attest. They stopped into the Westin near their home in Columbus to allow Megan to have some pictures taken and really enjoyed themselves.

She winked and smirked for photos in a blue bikini, then agreed to take off her top.

She wasn't so sure, though, about her next move.

"Do I just throw it away?" she asked the photographer, holding her bra.

(Well, yes, but toss it over your shoulder, like a bride with a bouquet, she was told.)

Next, she was instructed to remove her suit bottoms -- a request she didn't expect.

Her question: "Do I take my shoes off?"

After the five-minute audition Tuesday, Megan returned to the lobby to tell her mother that she had just been photographed completely naked.

"Oh, nice, princess!" the proud mom exclaimed.

There is a competition, doncha know, for the 55th anniversary edition of Playboy, and lots of girls want to make the cover. It seems lots of mothers think it would be a real accomplishment as well. Not much experience necessary, evidently. Win or lose, it's the chance of a lifetime.

If she doesn't become the Playboy model, Whitney Degroat, 22, of Springfield figures she'll at least have a life experience to share: "It's something to tell my grandkids: 'Grandma tried out for Playboy.' "

No doubt, they'll be thrilled.

Urgent

Just in:

We just got a message from Brother Peter, a Christian missionary in
Zimbabwe who spoke briefly at our January Walk for Life this year.

He said that people are being massacred right now in the general
vicinity of his church. He asks prayers from everyone.

Please alert all prayer chains immediately

Sheer myopia

Seventeen girls in one high school made a pact to each try to conceive a child. Various mating rituals take place, including using older men of dubitable qualities -- and the community is stunned.

The pregnancy rate at the 1,200-student school is four times higher than the previous year, and officials were shocked to learn that men in their 20s had fathered some of the babies, Time.com said. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan told Time.com.

The Gloucester baby boom is forcing this city of 30,000 to grapple with the question of providing easier access to birth control, something this largely Catholic enclave is slow to embrace, the site said.

Perhaps there are not enough clues:

• kids are inundated with contraceptive materials already;
• kids are told that promiscuity is modern day fun;
• the girls wanted to be pregnant;
• standards indicate any living male would do for sperm donor;
• the repeated tests were to acertain who succeeded.

The feminists have obviously failed in showing that motherhood is a trap, since the girls "reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for baby showers." But the educators prove themselves just as hard-headed, straining at gnats (sex often leads to babies--yikes!) and swallowing camels ("nice" girls engage in party games like "trysting with vagabonds" in order to be single parents).

Two glaring examples that show that those who are forming the youth are often clueless in the most important matters. John Dewey, call your office.

The epitome of womanhood

Sega has come up with a new product for lonely men. A robot girlfriend--who kisses on demand.

"She's very lovable and though she's not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend."

EMA can also hand out business cards, sing and dance.

No nagging. No bad breath. No stealing the covers. Who could ask for anything more?

She'd just drive...

Sometimes after dinner, Mrs Ward would just get in the car -- without telling her 17 children where she was going. Any wonder? (Aren't they lucky she always came back...!) Regardless of these short absences, they adored her and thought she was loads of fun.

Mrs. Ward, 81, a devout Catholic, died Friday, June 13, in her Kankakee home of complications from congestive heart failure, family members said.

To make ends meet on her husband's salary, Mrs. Ward improvised. She made a gallon of milk last longer by mixing it with powdered; had the children sleep in triple bunk beds; and gave out star-shaped stickers as steps toward a present, instead of an allowance, as a reward for completing chores on time.

But she also had fun, belting out "My Wild Irish Rose" on the ancient piano in the family room, taking some of her children to the zoo and speeding up the family station wagon over a particular bump on Lake Shore Drive to make their stomachs drop. The family home at was a neighborhood hangout.

The family was paramount, but it did help that "the village" was entirely supportive. May the angels greet her with a hearty, "well done!"

The mommy trifecta

Had a mildly fun time putting this together for Catholic Exchange, despite the depressing trend.

Last year, the New York Times looked into a recent phenomenon in the United States called “the mommy job.” Dr. David A. Stoker explained it succinctly: “Aimed at mothers, it usually involves a trifecta: a breast lift with or without breast implants, a tummy tuck and some liposuction. The procedures are intended to hoist slackened skin as well as reduce stretch marks and pregnancy fat… The severe physical trauma of pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding can have profound negative effects that cause women to lose their hourglass figures.”

Let’s parse that. The negative effect he outlines is not impacting health but beauty. When women lose that “hourglass” figure, we have a problem. When even the New York Times‘ fashion section questions the mindset that “pathologize[s] the postpartum body,” then you know a trend has hit a sociological wall.

When will women learn?

Two deaths of note

The foundress of La Leche League has died at age 93, being a dynamic force supporting nursing mothers. She had her first child at age 35, when she was told that she was too old to produce breastmilk for the babe. Nonsense, said Edwina Froehlich.

At a time when most pediatricians encouraged formula and bottle-feeding and when there were few scientific studies demonstrating the health benefits of breast milk, Mrs. Froehlich chose to breast-feed all of her babies, said another La Leche founder, Mary White.

“We used to tell the mothers the three main obstacles to successful breast-feeding were doctors, hospitals and social pressure,” Mrs. White said.

There were seven women in all who banded together to make a dent in the prevalent mindset in 1956, in which only 18% of women nursed their babies. She and others were responsible for writing The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which has gone through numerous editions since its inception.

In Poland, another mother has prioritised the needs of her child over her own.

Agata Mroz, who was originally known for her athletic prowess, was buried in her hometown of Tarnow. Mroz was pregnant with her first child when doctors discovered she had a fatal case of leukemia. After consulting with her husband, Mroz delayed a bone-marrow transplant until after she gave birth to her daughter Liliana on April 4, 2008.

Polish fans dubbed the national team which Mróz led the "Golden Girls," due to their looks and their successes in international competitions. The national team won the European women's volleyball championship in 2003 and 2005.

Auxiliary Bishop Marian Florczyk of Kielce, Poland has said that Mroz's testimony is an example of "love of life, motherhood, the desire to give life, the heroic love of an unborn child." On June 4, a few hours after Mroz's death, Polish President Lech Kaczynski announced that she will be posthumously awarded the Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest awards for extraordinary and distinguished service.

She has been likened to Gianna Beretta Molla for her selfless generosity. May her husband and daughter find strength in her gift -- and may the souls of both these heroic women rest in peace.

Family or fluency?

South Koreans are making a tough choice for their children -- who can either live in a functioning family and suffer the pressure of Korean schools, or emigrate sans fathers, to live in English speaking countries to study.

More than 40,000 South Korean schoolchildren are believed to be living outside South Korea with their mothers in what experts say is an outgrowth of a new era of globalized education.

The phenomenon is the first time that South Korean parents’ famous focus on education has split wives from husbands and children from fathers. It has also upended traditional migration patterns by which men went overseas temporarily while their wives and children stayed home, straining marriages and the Confucian ideal of the traditional Korean family. The cost of maintaining two households has stretched family budgets since most wives cannot work outside South Korea because of visa restrictions.

Private family decisions, of course, are difficult to gauge from the outside; but this is a toubling trend. Any time that children don't have access to a biological family united to their mother, sociological data begins to reflect it.

South Korean students routinely score at the top in international academic tests. But unhappiness over education’s financial and psychological costs is so widespread that it is often cited as a reason for the country’s low birthrate, which, at 1.26 in 2007, was one of the world’s lowest.

After his family left Seoul, Mr. Park, an engineer, moved into what South Koreans call an “officetel,” a building with small units that can be used as apartments or offices. Hearing about wild geese fathers becoming dissolute living by themselves, he stopped drinking at home.

“I’m alone, I miss my family,” Mr. Park said grimly in an interview in Seoul. “Families should live together.” Living apart for years strains marriages and undermines the role of a father, traditionally the center of the family in South Korea’s Confucian culture, education experts and psychologists said. Some spouses have affairs; some marriages end in divorce.

Mothers take the effects in stride, prioritising their children's education. So do the children.

Asked whether she missed her father, Ellin, 11, said: “I don’t miss him that much. I see him every year.”

“Do you think that’s enough?” her mother asked, a little surprised.

Ellin corrected herself and said she saw him twice a year.

Honest Assessment

The discrimination in India leading to sex-selection abortions is nothing less than a national disgrace, says its prime minister.

Manmohan Singh vowed his country could no longer ignore the problem if it wanted to be a modern nation. Experts believe up to 500,000 female fetuses are being aborted every year due to rampant discrimination against women and deep rooted cultural preference in India for male children. "This is a national shame and we must face this challenge squarely here and now," Mr Singh said while opening a conference on ways to "Save the girl child."

"No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women," he said. Aborting female foetuses was the worst manifestation of this discrimination, he said.

According to UNICEF, about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born every day in India - leading to a widening gap in the ratio between men and women.

Ultrasound scans to distinguish sex for the purpose of sex-selection abortions have been illegal since 1991 but are widely available. I remember seeing pictures in Catholic World Report years ago in which ultrasound machines were on street corners, hooked up to generators. That availability linked to ubiquitous billboards reminding Indian citizens to plan their families "responsibly" made this war on the girl-child inevitable. (A not a peep from western feminists, natch.)

DVD available

A recent hour-long episode of Living His Life Abundantly has been made available online. It is airing this week, though you need to find it on the ewtn schedule in your area. I enjoyed the conversation, despite my serious face. Always trying to keep up (mentally) when age is offering a serious "push-back" I simply had to focus in order not to lose track.