U.S. Notes & Quotes

Cardinal Bevilacqua on War

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, April 5—At the beginning, those who called for peace in Kosovo were considered unrealistic. Philadelphia Cardinal Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua was one of them. Were they right?

In answer to a question about whether the NATO intervention will do greater harm than good, cardinal Bevilacqua told the Daily News, “The answer appears to be yes, but we can't tell if it could have been foreseen.”

As for recent peace efforts, the cardinal is quoted saying, “every attempt at peaceful negotiations has proved fruitless. But the question is, was everything possible done?” He added: “Something has to be done to end this. It is escalating rather than diminishing.”

The Sheer Joy of Priesthood, at 57

LOS ANGELES TIMES, April 1—It took him 57 years to say these words:

“Something has shifted in me, and I don't know what it is. I can't articulate it yet. Part of it is a great sense of responsibility. Part of it is a sense of being loved by God.”

That was the reaction of Bruce Baker, a father and grandfather following his ordination as a Carmelite priest recently at the age of 57. Baker was raised an Episcopalian and had considered the ministry as a possible career. He later married a Catholic woman, converted, had a large family and supported them through a lucrative career as the producer of TV commercials. He decided to pursue the priesthood following the death of his wife.

Baker recounted his first day as a priest for the Times staff writer Patricia Ward Biederman: “I'm a priest! I'm a priest, after all these years. … To be God's man, that's what I always wanted to be.”

Movie Attacks Church

NEW YORK POST, April 7—Disney's Miramax film company, notorious for its movie Priest, has sought a clandestine way to release the Kevin Smith movie Dogma.

That's understandable. The story, which follows two fallen angels trying to get back into heaven through a loophole, is bound to further anger Catholics, said the Post.

“They think they've found their solution in the conduct of an oily cardinal who is offering a plenary indulgence — that is, a complete remission of punishment due for one's sins — to anyone who passes through a special arch he's built outside his New Jersey cathedral,” reported the paper.

The filmmaker should check his catechism. Such indulgences are given for genuine acts of piety, and require confession and Mass. Fallen angels need not apply.

The film then goes on an anti-Catholic rampage, reports the Post, maligning the perpetual virginity of Mary, the apostles, and God himself, played here by pop-singer Alanis Morrisette, whose concert repertoire includes a song about her own jaded vision of her former Church.

The good news? Reports the Post, “no one old enough to order a cocktail will see [Dogma] as a serious challenge to Catholicism.”