New Bishop for Lansing

A new bishop was nominated for the Diocese of Lansing (where I hail from) today - he'll be installed on April 29. Bishop Earl Boyea. Michigan native, dean of studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary for a decade (the decade before I arrived there) - details are available at American Papist - the blog, incidentally, of a former Sacred Heart classmate of mine who quotes another former Sacred Heart classmate of mine.

I dug up a book review published in First Things that was written by Bishop Boyea, and found this paragraph very encouraging:

Fr. Cozzens discusses at length what he views as attacks on the integrity of the priest as a human being, among which he includes the tension between the strict teachings of the Church and the more pastoral disposition of priests’ own consciences. He quotes Fr. Bernard Häring on the problem created “when religious authorities demand all too much submission to an obscure package of doctrines.” To be sure, I have felt at times, and I suppose most priests have felt at times, a tension between Church teaching and my own pastoral sensibilities when working with the real problems of people. I take that as a signal that I need to understand the teaching more thoroughly. Let me say it quite flatly: my presumption is not that I am right but that the Church is right. Christ made no individual promise to me that the Spirit would lead me into all truth; he did not give to me the keys of the kingdom. These are promises made to the Church, the Body of Christ, of which I am a member not as an equal but as a servant.

Perhaps even more encouraging, at least in its concreteness, is this paragraph (written, incidentally, before he was appointed bishop in 2002):

Fr. Cozzens says that the Church is indifferent to the “data” regarding problems such as the vocation shortage, the graying of the clergy, rampant homosexuality among priests (more on that later), the birth control dispute, and calls for married priests and women in ministry. Manifestly, the Church is not indifferent to these questions. At every level of the Church’s life, they are endlessly discussed. Just because the Church does not change its teachings or practices does not mean that such questions are being ignored. Might it not be at least seemly for those who agitate for change to entertain the possibility that the Magisterium understands the problems as well as they do, or even that the Magisterium is right and they are wrong about how these problems are to be understood and addressed?

God give him the grace to be a good shepherd!

At least I didn't eat the hamburger

On Friday. I ate the big juicy hamburger the night before, and only blogged about the hamburger on Friday. And then I asked Mom to e-mail me a certain coincidentally-mentioned-by-Kate-in-the-comments recipe for

Mjedera

1+ cup (dried) lentils

1 big onion, diced

1/2 c. rice

2 t. salt

1/8-1/4 t. pepper

1/4+ c. olive oil

Wash lentils and place in cooking pot. Measuring with lentils in the pot, add 2"-3" inches of water.

Boil lentils until done (soft, edible consistency).

Sauté diced onion.

When lentils are cooked, add the sautéed onion and more water if necessary.

Bring to a boil.

Add rice, salt, pepper and olive oil. Stir occasionally until rice is fully cooked.

Made it for dinner last night (that is, Friday night - ahem), and Kevin and I both really enjoyed it. Maybe, Betsy, you can give the recipe to a poor women's household - it certainly is something that fits well within the bounds of any food budget that actually involves food - and then maybe they'd make it for you? (And for themselves. Though tell the poor cook that the household members will likely rebel at the thought and then at the sight of lentils - but they should recover as soon as they start eating. This has been my experience.)

It goes really well with fresh bread (as does anything), and a cucumber salad - just cucumbers, olive oil, a vinegar of your choice, and generous pepper and salt. For the adventurous, tomato slices and chopped green onions, too.

Enjoy!

Happy day after Valentine's Day

Yesterday Kevin and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going to the Angelicum so I could take my last exam (how romantic!) and then going out to eat at a favorite little Roman spot of ours - (drumroll, please) -

Hard Rock Café.

Seriously. It started last year when our first meal together happened to take place at the Hard Rock Café. It wasn't a date - there were two others there with us - or even a double-date, since Kevin and I weren't yet dating and the other couple had officially broken up with each other. Nevertheless, the four of us were there because it was Thanksgiving Day and the HRC was the one restaurant in Rome that one could hope would have something resembling an American Thanksgiving dinner. (They did, in fact, offer a turkey dinner that night - Kevin and I both had hamburgers.)

Thanks to a long wait for our table on that memorable night, Kevin and I walked down to the Spanish Steps and then up to the Borghese Gardens, talking about divine justice and miscellaneous. He still remembers what I was wearing, better than I do. (I don't have any idea what he was wearing.)

We went to Hard Rock Café again the late-afternoon that we got engaged - 5:30pm, which works out to a very early dinner as far as Rome is concerned, is the ideal time to eat there and avoid the crowds. Kevin picked it in honor of our first meal together there.

And the truth is, as we both freely and thoroughly acknowledge, the Hard Rock Café serves, by far, the best hamburger in Rome. Pasta, as wonderful as it is, and as good as I'm getting at preparing it, is not a hamburger. Furthermore, the more pasta one eats, the better a hamburger every-(not)-so-often sounds.

There are other places in Rome to get hamburgers - McDonald's has taken over Rome just like it's conquered the rest of the world, and at least one of the several-many Irish pubs (which have also taken over the world) serves a decent burger, but they do not compare to the 10-oz. Hard Rock burger. I order one topped with blue cheese; Kevin orders one with a heart attack (cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce).

The music was too loud, the wait was too long, and there were too many people (and a poor guy dressed up in a fuzzy Valentine costume and yellow tights who was doing free balloon puppets for the patrons), but by golly, those hamburgers were wonderful!

Yes, we still exist

Hi, everyone. Sorry for the long silence. Kevin and I do really still exist, and we're surviving our exams. He's done, actually. I have one left (tomorrow).

True to my usual course of action, as soon as I was done with the bulk of my exams (getting down two in one day on Ash Wednesday), my body promptly decided that no classes = plenty of time to get sick! What could be more fun for everyone, after all!

Nope, not pregnant. That would be too creative. Instead, I have something that went on Thursday from a cold to a sore-throat-hacking-cough-stuffed-nose-croaking thing, and then on Sunday morning my voice decided it had had enough and took its own two-day vacation (hope it went somewhere nice).

As of yesterday, I've been able to talk again - Kevin and I are more than happy to call my cracking-croaking "talking," since we can actually verbally communicate now. It was definitely odd for both of us to have his voice be the only one heard at home by either of us for two days. It was also my first experience of laryngitis - it's amazing how many things go through one's mind to say that are not, in the end, actually worth the trouble of communicating when it would take longer than speaking. Raises the question of whether that type of thing is ever worth communicating . . . being literally speechless was a good Lenten exercise, however involuntary it happened to be.

The timing of all of this was, of course, impeccable in that we've had some absolutely gorgeous weather for the last week - precisely the amount of time that I've been pretty much in bed. Maybe it will decide to stick around a little even after I'm out and about again?

Reading the Mitzel blog in the midst of this, though, I'll take my week of my own head-and-chest cold over their recent tummy ordeal. God bless them!