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Blackberry services crash

Oct 10th, 2011 by

This is the big news on all the major sites, from FoxNews, to CNN, to the UK’s Telegraph, and even Drudge, which has a ridiculously large headline highlighting this news item.

The glitch, which struck at around 11AM, was affecting online services for consumers all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa. All are served by a RIM data centre in Slough.

They have been unable to browse the web or instant messages, or access other internet services such as email.

Many BlackBerry users were particularly annoyed at being cut off from BBM, RIM’s free instant messaging service. It is a major selling point for its smartphones and makes them popular among teenagers, who are able to save on text messaging costs.

“So I have no email, Twitter or BBM on my BlackBerry,” said Amanda, a Twitter user from Twickenham

“I may as well cut one of my arms off too *angry face*.”

Interestingly, Pope Benedict XVI just spoke on the prevalence of technology in the modern life and it’s obstruction to the spiritual life.

he lack of silence in contemporary society is making many people’s lives “more agitated and at times convulsed,” Pope Benedict XVI has said.

“Some people are no longer able to stay long in silence,” he told members of a silent Carthusian monastery in the southern Italian region of Calabria on Oct. 9.

“Most young people, who are already born in this state, seem to fill every empty moment with music and images, almost afraid to feel, in fact, this void.”

But the lack of silence, whether it’s audible or visual silence, prohibit mankind from finding tranquility in life.

“Retiring into silence and solitude, man, so to speak, is ‘exposed’ to reality in his nakedness,” said the Pope. This allows man to experience “the fullness, the presence of God, of the most real Reality that there is, and that is beyond the dimension of the senses.”

So if you’re a Blackberry user affected by the outage, take a few minutes to enjoy the technological silence you’ve inadvertently been given. And if you’re not a Blackberry user, maybe you can find 5 or 10 minutes to shut off phone, be still, and know that God is. He always has been, and always will be.

(Note: further reflection on this topic can be found here, a blog post written not so long ago by yours truly.)

Posted in Culture, Faith, Media | No Comments »

Steve Jobs: The Secular Prophet

Oct 9th, 2011 by

That’s what Christianity Today editor-at-large Andy Crouch titled Steve Jobs in a front page Wall Street Journal tribute. Reflecting on the image of the apple and it’s symbolism within the fall of Adam and Eve, Crouch calls Steve Jobs as an icon of hope for this decade. And while Jobs himself was a Buddhist, whose beliefs did not align with the Christian beliefs of hope and salvation, his ingenuity inspired our culture in ways we’re perhaps only realizing as we reflect on his passing.

And so it came to pass that in the 2000s, when much about the wider world was causing Americans intense anxiety and frustration, the one thing that got inarguably better, much better, was our personal technology.

In October 2001, with the ruins of the World Trade Center still smoldering and the Internet financial bubble burst, Apple introduced the iPod. In January 2010, in the depths of the Great Recession, the very month when unemployment breached 10% for the first time in a generation, Apple introduced the iPad.

Politically, militarily, economically, the decade was defined by disappointment after disappointment—but technologically, it was defined by a series of elegantly produced events in which Steve Jobs, commanding more attention and publicity each time, strode on stage with a miracle in his pocket.

The human person can survive forty days without food, four days without food and water, but only four seconds without hope, reminds Crouch. Whether Jobs meant to or not, he helped Americans, and the world, keep hope in times it’d be easier to give up hope.

Even the Vatican Newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano paused for a moment to commemorate the life of a man who changed the course of communication in the modern age.

The new director of the magazine Civilta Cattolica, Father Antonio Spadaro, S.J., said Jobs’ greatest contribution lies “in the fact that technology, for him, was part of life” and not something “reserved to the techies,” but rather for “our everyday lives.”

Fr. Sparado recalled Pope Pius XI’s early understanding of the power of communications. He said that both Jobs and the Pope understood “that communication is the greatest value we have at our disposal today and that we should put it to use.”

Steve Jobs not only put communication to use, he made sure personal communication brought us closer than ever before with the invention of FaceTime video calling. And let’s not forget the uplifting commercial used to launch FaceTime, with screen shots of a solider viewing a live ultrasound of his unborn child, grandparents congratulating their grandchild on her graduation, a father talking face to face with his children and wife while he’s away on a business trip, and a hearing impaired couple communicating with sign language through a phone. To say that Apple revolutionized long distance personal communication may be an understatement.

And while we’re talking about revolutions, let’s recall Apple’s porn free app policy. In a late night email exchange with writer Ryan Tate, Steve Jobs candidly defended his company’s ‘revolution’  advertising campaign by highlighting the various ways Apple products are ‘freeing.’

Tate wrote to Jobs:

If Dylan were 20 today, how would he feel about your company?

Would he think the iPad had the faintest thing to do with “revolution?”

Revolutions are about freedom.

Less than 3 hours later, past midnight West coast time, Jobs responded:

Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom. The times are a changin’, and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is.

Tate fought back and what ensued was a multiple email chain during Jobs persisted on Apple’s anti-porn stance. “You might care more about porn when you have kids…” wrote Jobs. While some say it may have been a competitive business move for Apple to ban porn apps from the iPad (Microsoft allowed them, so Apple doesn’t to set their product apart), Jobs further explained his motives behind the decision and they seemed pure.

Jobs has made his thoughts on the topic very clear twice this year. In April, he told a press conference: “You know, there’s a porn store for Android [phones using Google's software]. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there.”

Later, he even went as far as to say, “Buy Android if you want porn.”Catholic and evangelical leaders praised Apple for this bold countercultural policy. However, many of those same religious leaders were disheartened when months later an app for the Christian movement titled The Manhattan Declaration was also denied privileges in the Apple app store.  As those battling the culture wars know, progress in any area is a patchwork of victories and defeats. These two decisions from Apple are a great lesson in such victories and defeats.

Steve Jobs built his Apple empire on ideology, but it was his ideology, not anyone else’s. And though that ideology may have fallen short of the Christian views for hope and salvation, his life and work can still serve as a good reflection for us all. He wasn’t perfect, but who is? His company wasn’t perfect, but will any company be? We’re a work in progress, individually and societally. And in many ways, Steve Jobs reminded us that, as he worked to perfect products that were deemed innovative, unique, and revolutionary, and always better than the last.

With every launch of a product, the world was uplifted by the potential for closer communication and human interaction.

[O]ur keen sense of loss at his passing reminds us that the oxygen of human societies is hope. Steve Jobs kept hope alive. We will not soon see his like again. Let us hope that when we do, it is soon enough to help us deal with the troubles that this century, and every century, will bring.

Posted in Culture, Entertainment, Media | No Comments »

9/11: Remembering the Spiritual Aftermath

Sep 6th, 2011 by

There’s been much controversy surrounding the lack of clergy presence at the 9/11 commemoration at Ground Zero this coming Sunday. Mayor Bloomberg has stood by his decision, citing that clergy have never been a part of the anniversary gatherings and he wants to keep this gathering as similar to the others as possible.

But the lack of clergy at any of the commemoration ceremonies resembles nothing of the morning of the 9/11 attacks and the clean-up of Ground Zero in the following months. The stories being told, of the spiritual strength and solace, felt after 9/11 speak of a nation seeking comfort and healing in a God who is greater than the evil that tried to take us down. This week, I’d like to resurrect this stagnant blog, with the amazing stories of prayer, sacrifice, and heroic virtue the rose from the rubble on 9/11.

We begin with Catholic priests, whose immediate response to the devastation was critical in those first moments of shock.

For many Americans, the wounds inflicted on their country 10 years ago have been slow to heal. But the healing began right away, in the midst of the Twin Towers falling, as Catholic priests rushed to the scene to anoint the dead and dying, provide solace to the grieving and grant conditional absolution to those going into the inferno in a desperate attempt to rescues whomever they could.

Father Kevin Madigan, pastor at St. Peter’s in New York, was one such responder.

“I was going from one corner to another, looking for the wounded and the dying in order to be of some assistance. Little did I know that the dead and many of the wounded were being brought to St. Peter’s to await transport to either the morgue or hospital. In fact, the marble floor of the church sanctuary served as a temporary morgue for more than 30 bodies.”

On his way to an aid center with another priest and policemen, firemen said there was danger that one or both of the towers might collapse. Even though he thought that unlikely, Father Madigan checked avenues of escape.

Right after he spotted the the entrance to a subway station, at 10:05am, the 110-story south tower began to collapse. Father Madigan yelled to his companions “Down here!” and they all ran down the steps. When they exited several blocks away, police told them to go to St. Vincent’s Hospital in nearby Greenwich Village.

At St. Vincent’s, more clergy were visiting the injured, including then Cardinal of New York City, Cardinal Egan.

Cardinal Edward Egan was eating breakfast when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani called to say there was a tragedy and the churchman was needed. A police car would soon be outside the chancery to take the leader of New York’s Roman Catholics downtown.

Egan didn’t know exactly what had happened in lower Manhattan that morning as he and his priest-secretary hurtled through the city. He couldn’t decipher the crackle of the police radio and didn’t have access to news. Giuliani first said he was sending Egan to provide support at a makeshift morgue on the city piers, then redirected the cardinal to St. Vincent’s Hospital, so he could tend the injured.

Within 90 minutes, Egan would be standing in the doorway of St. Vincent’s looking south to Wall Street as the World Trade Center crumbled. He would spend the next several days anointing the dead, distributing rosaries to workers as they searched, mostly in vain, for survivors, and presiding over funerals, sometimes three a day.

But his ministry at Ground Zero did not end on 9/11.

Early the next day, Egan would start the pattern that would define his week. He would put on his boots, black suit and Roman collar, prepare his gas mask and grab as many rosaries as he could to distribute to grieving New Yorkers. With Mustaciuolo and a police escort, he spent the days walking ground zero and lower Manhattan.

He remembers one moment unzipping the top of a body bag and reaching in to anoint the deceased, when his priest-secretary shouted for the cardinal to look where a rescue team was digging. “Out of the ground comes a man all covered in white, white dust,” Egan said. “Like someone rising from the dead. All the people who could see started shouting and clapping.”

Firefighters would stop him and thank him for being there. (The New York Fire Department has a strong Catholic heritage, especially Irish Catholic, that was made clear as the names and stories of the 9/11victims became known.) He felt he didn’t deserve their gratitude, since they had lost so much and were working so hard. Workers had set up planks over puddles around the recovery site. But Egan, who has some leg weakness from having polio as a child, found the planks impossible to navigate, especially through the clouded lens of a gas mask, so he gave up and started walking through the water instead. No one at the site knew what, if any, health risks they faced, he said. Each day he came home, went to the basement of his residence behind St. Patrick’s, and threw out his clothes just in case.

It seems that health risks and personal safety were of little concern to relief teams, including these Catholic clergy members, who could have chosen to minister from the safety of their churches. They’re selflessness speaks volumes of their great belief in the spiritual relief needed at Ground Zero.

While watching a National Geographic special on the clean-up, I was struck by a worker who through tears said “It was a good day if you found a piece of [human] tissue.” The image on the screen while he talked was a group of 10 or so recovery workers making the sign of the cross as they finished a prayer and turned back to the task at hand. Evil struck America that day, but spiritual warriors attacked right back.

Amazingly, Cardinal Egan recalled that this time brought out a strength in New Yorkers, especially in their spiritual lives.

He especially remembers one encounter in St. Patrick’s. He was running through the aisles to reach his next appointment, when he saw former Mayor Ed Koch sitting in a pew crying. Koch, who is Jewish, had heard that a Fire Department chaplain he knew had been killed, so the former mayor came to the cathedral to light a candle for him and say a prayer. But Koch’s information had been wrong. Egan told him the chaplain had survived.

“Here was a Jewish former mayor crying over a monsignor after having lit a candle in St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” Egan said. “Where but New York?”

Next installment: Inter-religious dialogue and healing in the immediate aftermath

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The religious factor in the political arena

Aug 22nd, 2010 by

Discussion about the President’s religion as been circling in the media and what’s interesting is not only the points of discussion, but the fact that the discussion is being had.

Prior to President Obama’s statements regarding the controversial Ground Zero mosque, Pew Forum conducted a survey asking Americans what the President’s religion is. “Do you happen to know what Barack Obama’s religion is? Is he Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, or something else?” the question read.

Thirty four percent answered Christian, a number that is down fourteen percent from March 2009. Eighteen percent answered the president is Muslim, a number up 7 percent from March 2009. And a startling forty three percent answered that they do not know the president’s religion, up nine percent from March 2009.

Pew offers interesting analysis of these numbers, that is worth your time.

But what I find more interesting, as do many other media and political pundits, is the fact there is so much confusion about the President’s faith.

“I haven’t seen any example, and I’ve been following polling of presidents for a long time now, of where we’ve seen increased confusion about religiosity the longer they’re in office,” says John Green. University of Akron politics professor and Senior Fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Precisely. We’ve had more than two years, including campaign time, to get to know the President. We should know his religious affiliation by now.

And it matters to Americans, whose religious beliefs sway their political decisions.  It goes without saying that religious beliefs and practice have an influence on a person’s actions. The President has expressed Christian belief, and sporadically has attended Christian church services. But the confusion among citizens indicates that perhaps the President has not been consistent enough in expressing his beliefs, whatever they may be.

My question is, why?

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Posted in Faith, Government, Media, Politics | 1 Comment »

Grab a Kleenex

Aug 12th, 2010 by

Military families say goodbye to their loved ones not knowing if they’ll see them again. The loss, worry, and anticipation of these families is foreign to those of us who haven’t gone through it. But the reactions of these wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, and siblings gives a taste of those emotions. Their faces, body language, and words (or sometimes lack of words) says it all.

I could watch this all day.

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Posted in Culture, Society | 1 Comment »

When was the Word made flesh?

Aug 3rd, 2010 by

Remember when Nancy Pelosi said her favorite word is ‘The Word’ and I suggested that someone remind her that the Word was made Flesh because a young woman said ‘yes’ and courageously carried Him in her womb.

Well, someone did even better. They asked Speaker Pelosi when she thought the Word became Flesh.

Thomas Peters at CatholicVoteAction has the story.

God Bless the young reporters at CNS News. They are getting into a good habit of asking intensely awkward, revealing questions to public officials. Jill Stanek blogs todayabout Jane McGrath, who posed this question to Nancy Pelosi on July 29th:

You said at a recent Catholic Community Conference [video] that your favorite word was ‘The Word, as in the word made flesh,’ and that we need to quote, ‘give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the Word.’

So, when was the Word made flesh? Was it at the Annunciation, when Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Sprit, as the Creed says, or was it at the Nativity when he was born of the Virgin Mary? And when did the Word get the right to life?”

Head to CatholicVoteAction for the audio response.

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Posted in Abortion, Faith, Government, Politics, Right to Life issues | No Comments »

The soul of a culture

Aug 3rd, 2010 by

There has been no greater pro-life voice than the Catholic Church.

From Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae to John Paul the Great’s Theology of the Body and Evangelium Vitae, to all the grassroot initiatives and organizations rooted in Catholic teaching and tradition, to the countless bishops, priests, and lay men and women who have spoken for the pro-life movement, collectively Catholics can be proud of their Church for the advocacy we’ve taken part in.

But the Catholic Church does not give up in this advocacy and is constantly assessing the culture and engaging themselves in it. Which is why I want to bring attention to this announcement.

The new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, announced that his dicastery is preparing a document on the effects of abortion on women, often called post-abortion syndrome. The document will focus on the study of the “habit of abortion” and is expected to be published next year.

Everyday, in America alone, 4,000 lives are lost to a legal procedure. And everyday, 4,000 women in America, whether they realize it or not, are profoundly emotionally, spiritually, and physically wounded by this legal procedure. Help is being offered to these women by great organizations such as SilentNoMore, Rachel’s Vineyard, and Project Rachel, but more must be done. Not just for America, but for the world.

“It is true that abortion, in addition to killing an innocent person, profoundly affects the conscience of the woman who undergoes it.  It is a question, then, that cannot be ignored, especially from a pastoral point of view,” [The archbishop] added.

Given that the Church is concerned with the protection of the body and soul of a person, but particularly the soul, the effect abortion has on the soul is of great importance to the Church. So they’ll be using this document to explore another issue involved in abortion, one they say the scientific community as well as the greater public do not give much attention to.

“and that is the grave phenomenon of the habit of abortion.”

The problem, he said, “was made manifest in all of its gravity when 20 years ago, after the devastating earthquake in Armenia (1989), a team of doctors from the Sacred Heart Catholic University traveled to the region to provide medical assistance and discovered that many women had undergone as many as 20 abortions or more.  For them, having an abortion had become something like having a cup of coffee. Thus they talked about the dramatic phenomenon of completely erasing any moral sensitivity to the issue of abortion.”

Sounds hard to believe, doesn’t it?

But take a look around the culture. Look at how desensitized we are to sex and pornography in the culture.

Which is why we must be more vigilant than ever, defending life and helping woman. This document may not come out until next year, but women, children, and men need us today, which is probably why the announcement of the coming of this document. Let us pray for this document, and in anticipation for it act on it’s call for mercy and healing.

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Posted in Abortion, Culture, Faith, Society | No Comments »

The immigration debate

Jul 31st, 2010 by

Much like the healthcare debate, if there is one thing most can agree with the immigration debate it’s this–the system is broken and needs to be fixed.

The controversial “Arizona Immigration Law” has forced the issue with legislators and the media. The Catholic bishops, who have called for immigration reform for years, are among the voices discussing it, too.

Cardinal George lays out some foundational comments:

In the current debate about reforming the immigration laws, the U.S. bishops have made it clear that they are not in favor of illegal immigration. No one has a “right” to come into someone else’s country illegally. We are faced, however, with a situation caused by our own government’s not effectively protecting our country’s borders over many years.

Illegal immigrants come for many different reasons–work, safety, and security, or to reunite with family. But whatever the reason, Cardinal George emphasizes that illegal immigration is dangerous for both the immigrant and the country they’re entering. However, he rightly holds U.S. government accountable for putting off the immigration reform for as long as they have. The Arizona Immigration Law in many ways is politically a pressure pointer for the government to act. Hopefully, they will.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our borders (maybe even more). Mass deportation is insensitive and impractical. So the bishops’ call for a respect for the human person in this reform, and with that a respect for families.

“As bishops in [Arizona and New Mexico dioceses], we know that in practically every parish there are families that have been living with the fear and anxiety generated by SB 1070 that they might be torn apart,” the prelates stated. “The situation of these families might be that one parent is a citizen and that the other is not in our country legally. Or, the situation might be that some children in the family are citizens and that a brother or sister is not here legally.

“Our hearts go out to these families. We know them to be good people who work hard and who contribute to the economy and to the quality of life of their communities.”

Signatories of the letter, Bishop Olmsted and Auxiliary Bishop Neveres both of Phoenix,  Bishop Wall of Wallup, New Mexico, and Bishop Kincanas of Tucson, along with Cardinal George, all call for a process for those who are here illegally to go through to apply for legal status-emphasizing this is not amnesty.

“This process must have proportionate consequences for the act of illegal entry, consequences that would include fines, learning English, and going to the ‘back of the line’ to seek citizenship.

A helpful common ground approach to a very difficult issue. We’re a nation of immigrants, and immigrants today contribute immensely to our nation and culture. So let’s hope our legislatures get this important reform right.

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Posted in Faith, Government, Law, Society | 1 Comment »

Clayton’s message

Jul 30th, 2010 by

We could all use a reminder to be grateful for life. And to be fully appreciative of every moment of our lives.

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Posted in Faith, Society | No Comments »

Teen moms in style?

Jul 30th, 2010 by

Forever 21's Love 21 Maternity line

Popular teen fashion store Forever 21 launched a new line this month. A maternity line.

In a society where fashion and trends define cool, a marketing move like this is suspicious. Which is why Gloss Fashion blog dug a little deeper. What they discovered is that three of the five states featuring this line are among the fifteen states with the highest pregnancies rates. Curious, for sure.

Forever 21 denies that teen pregnancy rates have anything to do with the states they’re launching their maternity line in. They also deny that that the line is targeting teens. But when your biggest market is teens, that claim is a bit unbelievable.

Whether they meant to or not (and if we’re being honest they at least thought of the backlash), Forever 21′s maternity line  appears to be an attempt to normalize teen sex and pregnancy. Definitely not a trend we want followed.

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Posted in Culture, Society | No Comments »

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