California Beauty, Notre Dame - Not

Pin The Tail On The Bigot

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”

John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

When the Culture of Death attacks the Catholic Faith, it attacks all of it. That every spear-carrier in the cultural death squads has his assignment was recently demonstrated in – of all places -- the recent Miss USA pageant.

Precedent does not encourage us to expect much of such endeavors. In 2007, a Miss Teen South Carolina was asked why some American schoolchildren could not locate the United States on a world map. Blonde Caitlin Upton was clueless, and came unglued:

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.

But they’re not all ditzes. In 2009 Miss California, Carrie Prejean was on track to win Miss USA until a judge noticed that she attended San Diego Christian College. So he asked her, ““Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?”
Prejean did not fall prey to the South Carolina syndrome. Her answer was direct: “In my family, I think that … a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be -- between a man and a woman.”

Little did Miss Prejean know that her questioner was a “celebrity blogger.” In California that apparently means flaming homosexual -- in this case a Mr. Perez Hilton. And Hilton wasn’t Carrie’s only problem on the five-judge panel. “Holly Madison” is a Playboy bunny. Another judge, Alicia Jacobs, later admitted that Prejean would have won if she hadn’t forgotten that “at least two people on the judges panel are openly gay. Another judge has a sister in a gay marriage. Her very own state pageant director, Keith Lewis is an openly gay man.”

Phew! Well, Mr. Hilton later observed that Prejean’s answer had “offended millions of Americans,” so naturally MSNBC and CNN immediately invited him to pontificate further on her bigotry. He obliged, calling her a “dumb b***,” asserting that she had “half a brain,” and said he “would have stormed onto the stage and ripped off her tiara if she had won.” He topped off assorted vulgarities with this: “I don’t want her talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, because that's offensive.”

After “celebrity” Perez’s performance, the “gay rights” crowd cheered him as a hero. Which brings to mind a few timely truths. First, Satan hates truth and beauty. Perez’s foul-mouthed “justifications” are reminiscent of the vile epithets channeled by the demon in The Exorcist through the possessed Regan MacNeil. Secondly, homosexuals are unusually violent in their relationships, according to medical personnel in gay communities; they are also petty and vindictive. This is not a “homophobic” observation, but a clinical acknowledgement of reality that Catholics (including bishops, alas) need to understand when confronting the “gay rights” crowd. One must bear in mind that, like other intrinsic evils that the bishops address with more frequency, sodomy has profound consequences. Third, “gays” are rank cowards. Perez later insisted that “Yes, I do expect Miss USA to be politically correct.” But Miss Prejean sees it differently. She told the Today show that “it's not about being politically correct; for me it was being biblically correct.”

Miss Prejean’s sentences more than parse. She is just the kind of woman that homosexuals hate: smart, beautiful, talented, grounded, and Christian. Perez’s routine is just the latest national outburst of gay cowardice. Miss Prejean, on the other hand, stood her ground. “This happened for a reason,” she said after the contest. “By having to answer that question in front of a national audience, God was testing my character and faith. I'm glad I stayed true to myself.”

Another Looming Threat Awaits The Bishops

As a generation of pro-abortion politicians who were raised Catholic approach old age, the prospect of death – memento mori! – rears its ugly head. And therewith arises a question that vexes even the most prudent prelate: where do we bury these people?

This is not a merely hypothetical question. Back when Joe Biden was running for president in 1988, he was lifting weights in the Senate gym and thought he had pulled a muscle. Fortuitously, his doctor discovered that Biden had suffered a near-fatal injury and was able to save him in the nick of time. Ditto Teddy Kennedy, who escaped an untimely death not once but twice – first, when Indiana Senator Birch Bayh pulled him from a fatal plane wreck in the wilds of Alaska in 1964, and then five years later, when Kennedy managed to free himself from a sinking automobile and make it safely ashore after a tragic accident in Massachusetts.
So the grim reaper haunts us all – and, when the roll is finally called up yonder for all the Catholic pro-aborts, what will the bishops do to -- shall we say -- address the question of the disposition of their remains?

Canon Law is clear on the subject: “Church funeral rites are to be denied to the following, unless they have given some sign of repentance … Apostates, heretics schismatics … [and] Other manifest sinners to whom a church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful.” [1184.1, .3].

On the one hand, public supporters of the “intrinsic evil” of abortion [USCCB, Faithful Citizenship, 2007] are certainly “manifest sinners to whom a church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful.”(Please note that the 1983 Code of Canon Law prudently adds the helpful phrase, “to the faithful” in order to distinguish Catholics who embrace the Magisterium from the editorial board of the New York Times, or the panel of judges at the Miss USA contest).

On the other hand, the death of some of these political luminaries might occasion a funeral so grandiose that bishops will be fighting for seats in the bleachers.

What to do? Again, we turn to Canon Law. “If any doubt occurs, the local ordinary is to be consulted and his judgment followed.” [1184.2].

Well, I think we’d all agree that that makes it perfectly clear.

Not Exactly Henry At Canossa

Notre Dame’s spokesman admits that the university owns its own jet, but assures me that University president John Jenkins, C.S.C., did not use it to fly to Washington on April 21 to meet with Obama at the White House. Rather, Fr. Jenkins was in town for a “development” meeting. However, other developments are not so innocuous. Bishop John M. D’Arcy, in whose Indiana diocese Notre Dame is located, has written a stern letter admonishing Father Jenkins to correct the errors which Fr. Jenkins distributed to the public regarding his justification for the invitation of Obama to the university’s commencement exercises. Moreover, the good bishop chides Fr. Jenkins for a “serious mistake” – specifically, in extending the invitation, Jenkins “fail[ed] to consult the local bishop who, whatever his unworthiness, is the teacher and law-giver in the diocese.”