Belgian Primate Léonard Continues Careening Down Wrong Side of Highway: Disingenuousness of Catholic Conservatives' Attempts to Deny Implications of Rhetoric of Homosexual Disorder

I've noted repeatedly on this blog that there's a strong strategy among conservative Catholics today to deny that the Catholic magisterium says precisely what is says about homosexuality as a disorder.  As Catholic homophobia is placed on the defensive both by shifting cultural consensus and by strong opposition from within the lay ranks of the church itself, the claim is being made that the magisterium does not define gay and lesbian persons as disordered, but only gay and lesbian acts.  Note that claim in the thread following the America posting to which I've just linked.

Numbers Game Flops in Spain, Papal Apologists Still Spin

And so here's what happens when you play the numbers game (and here) to prove how well the church  is kicking butt through its stellar anti-secularist theatrical papal visits: when the numbers don't shake down in the right direction, you torture your interpretation of a papal visit to explain how it's still a stunning success.

For Fall: A Couplet of Haikus

Falling

One leaf more
Falling down:
No sound.

Just the bore,
One leaf more.

Joy to the World: McDonald's and the Christmas Message

Saturday, on our way to an early-morning meeting, Steve and I decide to stop at McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat, as the first frost of the season lies sparkling on the low-lying fields beside the Arkansas River.  Between us and our destination, there is no other place serving a fast and easy breakfast—not one we can think of.

Fall Arrives: Hope in the Turning of the World

You may have noticed.  

I need some levity these days.  And the last place I expected to find it was at the dentist’s office last Thursday.  But find it there I did, like the precious diamond glinting out of a patch of mud at the Murfreesboro diamond fields in Arkansas.  Where my mother once went and came home saying, “It was like making mudpies all day, sitting in that field trying to find diamonds.  If I wanted to play with mud, I would have gotten a time machine back to childhood.  Never again.”

NCR Places Urban Monk Shane Claiborne in Limelight Again: Questions Continue about His Views re: the "Gay Problem"

And--somehow related to what I've just posted about the spectacle Catholicism is intent on making of itself these days--I wonder about a number of things as I read the latest fulsome recommendation of urban monk Shane Claiborne at the National Catholic Reporter site:

Kings, and Queens, and Awe-Filled Restorationist Catholicism: We're Baaack!

The headlines alone are almost worth the rollercoaster ride.  I'm talking about the rollercoaster ride of yet another top-dollar, resplendent-theater,* papal visit, with hundreds of thousands of papal cheerleaders rooting for God against the dirty, filthy secularists and their rag-tag band of gay supporters, survivors of clerical sexual abuse, women with countless reasons to find the Catholic church repulsive.  To show the world, you know, that Catholicism is not only alive and well: it's kicking some major butt in some major theatrical shows these days, just when its enemies are prematurely writing its obituary.

*On theatrical Catholicism, see Colleen Baker's latest incisive posting at Enlightened Catholicism.