Answer Me This

Joining the fun over at Catholic All Year again today!

1. How long have you lived in your current home?

Very nearly a year; we signed the lease on our apartment a year ago next weekend. It's a lovely house, warm in the winter, if hot in the summer, and we've become rather spoiled having a fireplace, garage, and south-facing deck... We would love to find a house of our own, though, instead of continuing to rent.

2. How do you find out about news and current events?

Mostly through blogs and Facebook. I do follow Alaska's biggest newspaper on Facebook, though, so they are probably my main source of non-Catholic news and current events, particularly from around the state.

3. Would you be able to make change for a twenty right now? For a dollar?

Not a twenty! Maybe a one, if we're at home and I have access to our spare change stein. (Because we can't be normal people and use a jar.) Instead of carrying a proper wallet, I usually just have my phone with me; the case has room for my drivers license, credit card, and a folded bill or two. 

4. What's the craziest food you've ever eaten?

I can't really think of anything; we eat a lot of wild game unique to Alaska, moose, caribou/reindeer, grouse, etc., and Matt and I enjoy several types of Asian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine, but nothing that's striking me as being all that unusual. Although Matt would tell you that my willingly eating moldy cheese (i.e. Gorgonzola) is certainly crazy. Oh! Well, this doesn't seem particularly crazy to me, but I would think that to people not from Alaska, it doesn't sound exactly normal that we regularly shoot for having a reindeer roast for Christmas dinner...

5. Which of the commonly removed parts have you had removed (tonsils, wisdom teeth, appendix, etc)?

I had all four wisdom teeth removed a couple of years ago.

6. What's your favorite sport to watch on TV?

Would it make me sound terribly old and boring to say the PGA Tour? I grew up loving pro football, but right now, something that moves at a more leisurely pace, to which I don't actually have to pay constant attention to keep up on what's happening, and which usually has beautiful views of the scenery around the course, sounds about right.

I don't think this is still the case in my parents' house, but once upon a time when I was a kid, sports came on after Mass every Sunday without fail. In the summertime, the only sporting event happening midday was golf, so that's what we watched; the siblings closest to me in age probably remember our ridiculous rivalries over which of our favorite golfers (usually split between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods) would have a better day. The kids still at home now have probably never heard either of those names... Okay, now I feel like I deserve the "old and boring" title.

We had a visiting priest today, and unfortunately I was changing Kit right at the beginning of Mass so I didn't catch his name or where he's from, but wow, some parish is sure lucky to have him! His homily, about Friday's SCOTUS decision, was quite blunt. Every major civilization throughout history has destroyed itself from the inside, Father said, by choosing to live without reality, without natural and moral law, acting as though God does not exist or matter. In doing so, they have made themselves ripe for invasion and obliteration. He is a lawyer, and went on to make it clear that the SCOTUS decision invents a "right" not found anywhere in the U.S. Constitution or in the intentions of the Founding Fathers. I'm sure that some people in the congregation were offended by the homily, but Matt made a point of stopping to thank him for what he'd said on our way out after Mass.

In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, issued Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, which was approved and promulgated by St. John Paul II. In it, it is made clear that:

"In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection." (Article II, paragraph 3).

The entire thing is worth a read!

Did you hear anything about the ruling at church today?