The Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington are participating in a joint campaign to extend the sacrament of reconciliation to as many people as possible this Lent.
In addition to regular confession times, Catholic churches across the greater DC metro region will be open for confessions every Wednesday from 6:30 p.m - 8:00.
That's every parish in both dioceses everywhere at the same time. They have a radio, web, and poster ad campaign. This picture was taken on the inside of a Metro train. The web site is at TheLightIsOn.org.
Somebody really wants you to get forgiven for Easter. The light is on -- for you.
The DC region still hasn't really recovered from the blizzard of 2010. We don't get snow measured in feet here normally, and we don't deal with it well regardless of amount.
For whatever reason, the traffic this morning was abysmal and there was nowhere to park at the Metro garage as half the top deck still has ice mounds on it. I parked a mile away at a shopping center and hoofed it back to the train nearly getting myself run over in the process since the sidewalks are unavailable.
The blizzard was a lot like an earthquake for our region. Like most large earthquakes, there are always aftershocks. Now there is more snow in the forecast. (Rumble, rumble) It's only 3 inches this time; normally that would be paralyzing for us, but after the blizzard nobody is panicked over it. It's all what you're accustomed to, I guess.
Here is the weather forecast for the DC Metro area for this weekend: BIG SNOW. People around here don't exactly drive well in any amount of snow, never mind 20 inches. Already there is an inch on the ground, with lots more to come.
Part of the problem as Mrs. Nod pointed out is that the temperature frequently hovers around freezing -- which means sometimes above and sometimes below. This leads to melt and re-freeze (better known as ice) -- and no one drives well in ice: it's a physics thing. Got 4-wheel drive? Great. Got 4-wheel stop? Didn't think so.
In addition to snow, we get varying amounts of sleet, hail, freezing rain, freezing fog (really!), and sundry mixed precipitation. Conditions are constantly changing, roads are not exactly straight and level, and there is a high transient population who have never seen snow.
You might not be afraid of snow driving, but you'd better be afraid of that other idiot on the road.
WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 AM EST SUNDAY...
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 AM EST SUNDAY.
* PRECIPITATION TYPE... SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS... HEAVY SNOW WITH ACCUMULATIONS OF 10 TO 20 INCHES THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT.
* TIMING... SNOW WILL BEGIN BETWEEN 11 PM AND 2 AM TONIGHT AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW WILL BE HEAVIEST BETWEEN 8 AM AND 6 PM SATURDAY.
* TEMPERATURES... UPPER 20S TO LOWER 30S THROUGH THE EVENT... LOW TO MID 30S IN COASTAL SOUTHERN MARYLAND.
* WINDS... 10 TO 20 MPH THROUGH THE EVENT... WITH GUSTS OF 25 TO 30 MPH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE VERY RAPIDLY SATURDAY MORNING AND WILL MAKE TRAVEL EXTREMELY TREACHEROUS.
Recently the DC council took a second vote to legalize gay marriage in the district. If the Congress doesn't interfere it'll probably be allowed to become law without a referendum from the people.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has signaled that without additional religious exemptions the Church will not be able to continue offering services to the poor due to the threat of lawsuits. Catholic Charities in particular and the poor they serve would be especially hard hit.
The media has already started to search out any contrary group or situation that has Catholic in its name. Most notably, the media has reported that Georgetown has a policy that may allow same sex benefits by listing them as "legally domiciled adults" which is similar to what the Diocese of San Francisco adopted several years ago. The idea is that same sex benefits would be given as long as it's not called "marriage" with a wink and a nod.
Well, Georgetown isn't the Archdiocese of Washington, and to some observers hasn't been particularly ardent in its adherence to Catholic doctrine in the last several years. The sensational driven media doesn't know the difference between one Catholic group and another, so this is being held up variously as the model for compromise or as the height of hypocrisy.
What it ultimately signals is that these outsiders want the Church to be anything other than authentically Catholic, and that civil laws trump the rights and freedoms of religion. You'll also be hearing plenty from people who say "I'm Catholic but I think the Church is wrong" in the days and weeks to come. What these people don't realize is: their opinion doesn't change the Church's constant teaching or doctrines. There will be endless strawmen set up and knocked down, but it will prove nothing; those arguments will be based on utility or sentimentality which fail to satisfy.
People are shocked, shocked, to find out that Catholics are behaving like Christians.
The very idea that a religion would have deeply held beliefs and tenets, and that its members and affiliated groups would actually act on those beliefs is, well, shocking.
The histrionics that permanently characterize Washington D.C. politics are on display again as the D.C. Council imposed its Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 on its residents without submitting it to a popular vote. This effort was championed (surprise) by David Catania, one of the two openly gay members of the legislature. Proponents of this measure are all in a huff that Catholic archdiocese leaders found that there are not enough exemptions to this social engineering law for them to practice their religion.
As usual, the aggressors blame the victim and the progressive media has predictably piled on. (We would remind our readers that progressive refers to an attitude in time, rather than a transcendent truth.)
However, there are voices of reason. Jonetta Rose Barras writes a column in the Washington Examiner where she says that the church should keep the faith by choosing God over Government.
[Washington Examiner] Threat. Demand. Blackmail. Childish. Ultimatum. Those were a few of the words used last week in the media and elsewhere to describe the Archdiocese of Washington's stated intention of ending its contractual relationship with the city, if the D.C. Council doesn't amend its homosexual marriage legislation to provide additional protections to religious organizations.
Currently, the archdiocese, through its social services arm, Catholic Charities, cares for about 68,000 people in the District. Its counseling, homeless shelter and adoption programs are funded with a combination of about $20 million in government contracts and about $10 million of its own money. Those services are now in jeopardy.
Church leaders took heat last week as they made it clear they would not abandon fundamental tenets of their religious doctrine, which among other things asserts that homosexual relations is a sin. They have said they cannot provide certain services, including employee benefits, to gay couples. Those declarations came after a legislative committee approved the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.
Faced with a choice between God and government, not surprisingly the archdiocese and Catholic Charities chose God.
Far from being demanding or threatening, the Archdiocese of Washington is simply reacting to the actions of the DC Council. The Church leaders are saying that if you force them to act against their consciences, they simply won't provide those services for the City.
Although some might applaud the Church's exit from the social services scene, the real losers are the 68,000 Washingtonians who benefit from Catholic Charities' counseling, adoption, and homeless programs to which it contributes its own $10 million.
The Church will continue to care for the poor and disadvantaged in DC as far as allowed by law, but it doesn't have to do it for the city.
Michelle Obama very nearly earned my opprobrium in the form of a Blynken Raspberry today with the institution of the new McPherson Square Farmer's Market. The Office of the First Lady narrowly avoided the anti-award because the Metro station upon which my commute relies did not close entirely and the McPherson entrance was open after 4 p.m.
[Dr. Gridlock] The District Department of Transportation warns motorists that Vermont Ave NW will be closed between H and I streets today until 8 p.m. for the new [McPherson Square] farmer's market. These closures will continue every Thursday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. through Oct. 29.
Additionally, the Vermont Avenue entrance at McPherson Square station will close until approximately 4 p.m. today. Metro advises riders to use the 14th st entrance during that time.
Now in general I am very supportive of real farmers (as opposed to big agribiz), fresh produce, and cutting out the middleman. So I have no problem with the idea of a farmer's market as long as it doesn't make everybody else's life miserable in the process.
The stretch of road that is Vermont Ave NW between H and I streets is tiny; even though some buses had to be re-routed, I don't think it had that much impact. Given the fact that it is one day a week for a limited time until October 29, it should be livable.
Not that traffic in the city has ever been good, but since Congress and schools came back into session the traffic everywhere is horrible. If you really, really want to help ease traffic congestion then get a job within 5-10 miles of where you live.
Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl just busted my #1 myth about the Catholic Church: she doesn't advertise.
In my travels during my working life, I have had many occasions to visit various Catholic churches in various American cities, whether it be for Sunday Mass, or more likely a holy day of obligation. As every practicing Catholic adult knows who has been forced to travel on such a day, MassTimes.org is your one stop shop for this kind of thing. If that doesn't work, Google Maps will substitute in a pinch; failing that, every hotel I've even been to had some kind of card or printout directing you to the three nearest Catholic churches.
Open your local paper to the religion section and you'll see all kinds of ads for various Protestant or Bible Churches and a random religion or two; this is especially true around Easter. What you don't find is any ads for Catholic churches. Same thing goes for the Yellow Pages.
Strange? Curious? Why don't Catholic churches advertise? The answer is simple: they don't need to. Everybody knows, if you're Catholic you go to the local Catholic church -- there's no thought required. Oh, there are those Catholics who'll avoid St. Cecelia's because "Fr. Mike doesn't do it right" and go to St. Mary of the Valley because they like the folk mass, but that's a kind of intra-Catholic shopping.
Those other churches advertise because they need the membership, and that equals financial support. They need to advertise to get people to come to their particular church to stay in business. "Come to our church because we've got great preaching and fellowship".
Catholic churches don't need membership for the same reasons that independent churches do. Catholics are generally numerous enough (in cities) that they don't advertise to increase their numbers -- they have a built-in audience. Catholic churches are set up by the diocese to serve the faithful -- hey, we got Catholics here who need sacraments and stuff, we'd better send a priest. Yes, the faithful have to support the local church or it'll fold too, but the rationale is different and benefits from diocesan central planning.
Now, I may have to revise my theory in part. I was driving home from work when I heard Archbishop Wuerl on the radio inviting fallen away Catholics to "come home" this Lent. I nearly fell out of the car.
"Longing for Something? Maybe It's God."
was the ad. Archbishop Wuerl has a soft spoken, sing-songy kind of voice. Maybe his voice is really just "pastoral", but the acoustic muzak that accompanied the ad made it sound sort of stereotypical "churchy". As soon as I got home, I looked it up on the Web -- sure enough, it's a real campaign put on by the Archdiocese of Washington.
There is an accompanying YouTube video of Archbishop Wuerl inviting those who have drifted away to rediscover their faith and their church. I must say he carries it off much better on video than in the radio ad. What I do like about it is that it is a personal invitation, and that's what people will respond to -- not heurmeneutics, not a general plea, not the promise of better music.
ADW has a decent Web site: it has a personal instead of an official feel to it, including a blog. The Archdiocese and the Church in general are starting to really embrace technology to reach the people. There's still a ways to go, but you gotta give 'em props for trying.
Here comes Snow in Washington, D.C. It's supposed to be the big one for us -- up to 8 inches. While it's no northern blizzard, it's pretty much paralyzing for this former swamp area.
The residents are highly transient, with most people coming from somewhere else, and so snow experience varies accordingly.
Just as it only takes a few "bad seeds" to ruin a neighborhood, it only takes a few "bad drivers" to make driving in the D.C. metro area a nightmare.
Add to this the fact that Virginia never planned its roads for cars, they just paved the cow paths, and it's doubly dangerous.
Finally, every yuppie in an SUV around here thinks they can "drive in the snow because they have 4 wheel drive". Hey, genius, no one has 4 wheel stop!
