Sadness in Athens…

The University of Georgia’s beloved mascot, Uga VII, died unexpectedly Thursday. Sniff.

No replacement mascot will be used in tomorrow’s game, but they’ll place a wreath outside of his doghouse on the sidelines.

File this one in the “That’s Just Plain Wrong” category: votive candles featuring Obama as a saint.

According to an article in today’s National Catholic Register, “NBC has refused to air CatholicVote.org’s new pro-life ad during its broadcast of this Sunday’s Super Bowl game.” You can view the ad here:

This is a positive and uplifting message. And it is tastefully done, without shocking photos or even use of the word “abortion.”

According to the article, an “NBC representative in Chicago told CatholicVote.org late yesterday that NBC and the NFL are not interested in advertisements involving ‘political candidates or issues.’”

Last Thursday’s passing of Father Richard John Neuhaus — the noteworthy editor of First Things and ex-Lutheran minister who became a Catholic priest — is marked by a nice article by George Weigel in Newsweek.

I enjoyed Fr. Neuhaus’ commentary on EWTN this past April when Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States. That was the first time I saw him on television, and I liked his dry wit!

Two or three years ago, on my own journey toward Catholicism, I read an article Neuhaus wrote entitled, “How I Became the Catholic I Was.” (I later learned that it was an excerpt from his book Catholic Matters.) The article is available as a PDF in the Coming Home Network’s Feb. 2003 newsletter (beginning on page 3) and as HTML on the First Things site.

He recalled the story of how “the great confessional Lutheran theologian Peter Brunner regularly said that a Lutheran who does not daily ask himself why he is not a Roman Catholic cannot know why he is a Lutheran.” Neuhaus also pointed out how Lutheranism “turned against the fulfillment of its destiny as a reforming movement within the one Church of Christ. Lutheranism in all its parts, both in this country and elsewhere, had settled for being a permanently separated Protestant denomination; or, as the case may be, several Protestant denominations.”

That hit me hard — especially as someone who was a proud member of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod since the early 1990s. The original idea of the Reformation was to work toward reform of and reconciliation with the Catholic Church, not to establish a permanently separated state. This original idea has been lost over the past 490+ years.

I cannot say that Fr. Neuhaus’ writings immediately prompted me to join the Catholic Church, but he did get the old wheels turning in my head at a much faster rate than they had in the past.

Thank you, Father Neuhaus, for all that you did in this life, and may you enter into eternal rest!

Dan Magill’s column from earlier this week in the Athens Banner-Herald offered some neat history on the UGA vs LSU series, which began in 1928 (or as the old timers say, “19 and 28″).

I’m hoping that today’s game will be Georgia victories, like our last two meetings (2004: UGA won 45-16 in Athens; 2005: UGA won 34-14 in the $EC Championship). But I think today will be a close one. I’m sure this might prompt some smack talkin’ from LSU-fan James H. at Opinionated Catholic, but I just had to do this quick post and say…GO DAWGS!

The Alive and Young blog has a great weekly feature called Not Said By Jesus Sunday. This week’s installment is a gem:

Glad to know there won’t be a scantron test to enter heaven!

Thanks to The Sporting News for this gem: We Don’t Recall the Bible Saying Anything About Female Football Players

Today is a key holy day on the Catholic liturgical calendar: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This day is important to Catholics because it is the day we mark Mary’s “heavenly birthday” – in other words, the day that she was received into heaven. We see Mary’s entrance into heaven as a symbol of Christ’s promise to us: that whoever “endures to the end” (Matthew 10:22) will also be received into paradise.

Scripture supports the idea that Mary was assumed into heaven. In Revelation 12:1-2, 5, Saint John describes her as appearing bodily in heaven:

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. … she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

The physical depiction of Mary is different from others in heaven who appear to only be disembodied souls, such as those mentioned in Revelation 6:9-10.

The late Pope John Paul II in his August 15, 2004 homily, also cited John 14:3 in connection with the Assumption:

And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Mary is not only Jesus’ mother, she is our mother as well, as we see in Revelation 12:17:

Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.

Let’s make sure we take the time to remember our spiritual mother on this great feast day!

Football season is just around the corner, and in these parts, anticipation is high: the Georgia Bulldogs are expected to do great things. The USAToday Coaches’ Poll just issued their preseason NCAA rankings and the Dawgs are at the top of the heap: preseason #1, baby!

As a UGA alumnus and the curator of DawgFan.com, I proudly sport many rather obnoxious Georgia Bulldogs items – not the least of which is a statue of Uga, our beloved mascot, which is prominently displayed just outside our front door.

Living here in the Bible belt, it’s not unusual for door-to-door missionaries to drop by. But it just occurred to me that none of them has ever mentioned anything about our family’s Uga statue. I’m sure if it were a statue of the Virgin Mary or some other saint, this would have set off the missionary’s graven-image-worshipping-Catholic radar. Their spiel would have quickly brought up Exodus 20:4-5 and its supposed prohibition against making statues, then accusing me of some form of idolatry. My response would have pointed out that God forbade the worship of statues, not the use of statues – not even the religious use of statues. In fact, scripture reveals that God commanded the use of statues in worship (see Exodus 25:18-20…a mere five chapters after the supposed condemnation of statues mentioned above). [If you’re interested in reading more, see Catholic Answers’ helpful article Do Catholics Worship Statues?]

But our statue of Uga never had an effect on these missionaries. Why not? Perhaps the statue isn’t large enough to notice. Maybe I need to upgrade to something that might be closer to waist height to get their attention? Who knows? Maybe I’ll ask them what they think of my “graven image” of Uga the next time they come a-callin’. It could spark an interesting conversation that might steer them in the direction of the Catholic Church. Or at least turn them into Dawg fans.

I really have nothing to say…