On a secular note, over the weekend myself and another server from Brisbane attended the Live Earth concert in Sydney. We both had the best time, with Missy Higgins, Sneaky Sound System, Eskimo Joe and of course Crowded House being the highlights for me. Unfortunately I did not take my camera with me so dear readers you will have to go to the website and see it all there.
I dont think it will do anything for the climate, but I think it is ground breaking in raising awareness. There are no quick solutions, and there seems to be a total absence of a coherent strategy. One observation is that the Catholic Church at least has very little environmental awareness at the local level. I go into church offices that are overheated in the winter and overcooled in the summer. The waste in lack of recycling of old newsletters, cardboard boxes etc is appalling (nothing to do with palls), and in many churches do we really need lights beyond Altar and sanctuary candles on Sunday morning? All food for thought.
At the end of the concert I ate an Indian dish back at the hotel followed with a tiramasu at about 11pm. Early in the morning (about 5am) I had a dream that my parish church from my childhood (and where I had my First Holy Communion) had been converted back for celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman Mass and the FSSP had taken over! It was then when I woke from the dream that the real dream had finally come true - that the long awaited Motu Proprio had just been released in Rome! (I dont know what contribution the Indian food had on my brain in such a dream or that the Holy Spirit was indeed speaking to me).
On Sunday we attended Solemn Mass in St Marys Cathedral celebrated by Fr Michael Stoop. It was the first time I had seen apparelled albs "in action" and we were both most impressed. (Thanks (or biretta tip to use Fr Z's term) to Roman for the quote). I thought that the "Lewisham style" is spreading. If we can spread it further to Queesland all the better!.
5 comments:
If there is global warming then I am most grateful for it. Imagine just how much colder this past June would have been which hit fifty year lows.
For the record environmental concern is good but I wince whenever the bishops jump onto the global warming bandwagon. I'm waiting for this fad to pass just as the "global cooling" fad passed twenty, thirty years ago. Actually the scientists and media have changed their mind on whether the world is heating up or cooling down four times in the past 110 years with a ten year overlap between switches on average.
Often it is erased from the collective memory bank that Greenland was named that way for a reason during the medieval warm period before the earth lapsed into a "mini ice age" that we started coming out of slowly in the mid nineteenth century.
My greatest concern with global warming alarmism is the anti family forces I detect behind it. There's a reason why a lefty like Gore is promoting it furiously and not someone on the so called "right." Some "think tanks" have already suggested that parents be punished for having more than two children due to the carbon emissions attributable to having another child.
A balanced review of global warming can be found in climatologist Pat Michaels book "Beyond Meltdown" where he shows the expected warming will not be anywhere near as drastic as predicted by some. He also examines many examples of misrepresentation whether it be polar bears in danger or melting alps.
To me that is food for thought.
I believe global warming is a reality, but in the past climate has actually been all over the place.
One footnote of history was that Greenland supported a sufficient number of inhabitants for it to be made into a separate diocese - the Diocese of Gadar. It also had sufficient income in the 14th century that the diocese was able to contribute to the Peters Pence (in walrus teeth) and to the support of the Crusades (Source www.newadvent.org).
I have read the Intergovernmental Commission on Climate Change Summary for Policymakers (the "Paris Report") and it is true that it is in no way alarmist that the media make it out to be. Simply it is a reality, there will be winners and losers, but certainly not catastrophe.
I have not found any anti-family forces behind it as yet, but they may be there. They need to go and have a look at China and the results of the one child policy which is producing a social disaster, and done nothing for climate.
The reality is too many people with a too high standard of living (including ourselves) rather than just too many people. Lets make a world where there is enough for everyone to eat, have good healthcare and peace and security to bring up their families. The climate change impacts can be managed around that.
I've always said my main doubts don't concern global warming but that the cause is mostly anthropogenic (in other words all our fault). Apparently there is warming on Mars and other planets also taking place which leads me to suspect that the climate is being influenced by (as it always has been) by the sun.
I couldn't believe they gave Australian of the year to Tim Flannery who believes in the most incredible projections by the year 2010 (the good side is it won't take long to demonstrate him wrong). By the way, he is a mammalogist not a climatologist.
It would be much more worth their time to work at the goals you mention. Being careful to remember however that a utopia in this world will never be possible.
If you are interested in the apparelled albs and the "Lewisham Style" contact Michael at St Bede's Studio.
Thanks Father. I shall.
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