The Explorers Club
No. CXXXV - The first east-to-west Transatlantic flight (2-6 July 1919), and first Transatlantic return flight (10-13 July 1919), by the British rigid airship H.M.A. R34; also, for good measure, her more long-lived sister, the R33.










There is apparently something about August that flames my fancy for the brief, bygone era of the airships: Wayback Machinelink.

Holy Mother Church
Saturday evening, I slide into Lumi on my way to a play, the Flint Youth Theatre's production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and had the misfortune to hear a few moments of A Prairie Home Companion. That evening's episode was "all about Lutherans," and this reminded me of a occurrence during my nephew Teddy's baptism that I'd neglected to chronicle here. Teddy was baptized into his mother's faith, the heretical Lutheran strain of Christianity, during a regular Sunday service; both Teddy's pop, a former Catholic/former atheist/agnostic, and I noticed something peculiar during the fourth verse of the Nicene Creed. In the Catholic recitation, we say, "I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church;" this Lutheran version read, "I believe in one Christian* and apostolic church," the asterisk leading to a footnote that explained the word "Christian" had until relatively recently read "catholic," making no mention of the complete deletion of "holy."

I've always maintained that Protestantism is intellectually bankrupt, and there was a tragically perfect example staring me right in the face. Even in the Catholic Church the line reads, "one holy catholic and apostolic church," not "one holy Catholic and apostolic church." Lower-case C catholic means "universal," not upper-case C Catholic, as in the one true church. One holy catholic and apostolic church means that all Christians around the world—Western Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, weirdo freaks—are members of the universal Body of Christ. We are all brethren in Christ Jesus. To remove the words "holy catholic" in favor of "Christian" is not to distance yourself from the Holy See, it is to reject and refute two millennia of Christian belief that all believers are united in Christ; it is to proclaim the extremely un-Christian belief that Christ's Truth is not be shared by all Mankind.

Additionally, "one holy catholic and apostolic church" already provides threefold coverage of the Christian nature of the faith: only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are holy; the apostles were the followers of Christ and specifically charged by Him with spreading His Word; and church is used almost exclusively to describe Christian institutions. Judaism has synagogues, Islam has mosques, many religions have temples, and Christianity has churches. So, "one Christian and apostolic church" is not only a renunciation of God's Will, it's redundant and, dare I say it, indefensibly stupid.

And so there in front of my eyes was a horrible truth I'd long suspected: Martin Luther's misguided followers hate the Catholic Church more than they love God.

Post Script
Hip hip hoorah: hyperlink. For as long as I've been aware of Wikipedia, its entry on the Holy Mother Church has used the name "the Roman Catholic Church," the name applied by the Church's many enemies. Now, at long last, Wikipedia calls her by the name she calls herself, the Catholic Church. Growing up in this Protestant-dominated country, I always heard her described as the Roman Catholic Church, and many forms over the years have called on me to identify myself as Roman Catholic. But the Church is not Roman Catholic, she's Catholic. "Church of Rome" is a pejorative used by the hateful, cynical princes of the Protestant Reformation (and never kid yourself, the Reformation was more about politics and power than it was about faith); "Roman Catholic Church" is a moderated version of the same venomous slur. The only proper way to speak of the Church of Rome is to speak of the Diocese of Rome, seat of the Bishop of Rome, who also serves as Pope, sovereign of the State of Vatican City and Holy Father of the holy, catholic, and apostolic Catholic Church.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Reel Big Fish, "Last Show" from We're Not Happy 'Til You're Not Happy (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"I think I've learned my lesson,
I'll never follow my dreams again."