Sonia Sotomayor – Witch?

Inspired by this article, several bloggers are suggesting that Sonia Sotomayor’s notorious “wise Latina woman” self-description may be more significant than the superficial sexism or racism that conservative pundits have been focusing on.  She is also a member  of a New Age feminist “networking” organization called Belizean Grove.

More importantly, “wise woman” is a euphemism for witch in the Wiccan community. 

Amazon: The Wise Woman.

Two Herbal Medicine sites.

A Christian Woman’s blog.

The Definition of “wise woman,” or “crone” from some feminist/wiccan site:

At the time of menopause, the pause of the flow of the menses, the Sacred Blood of Wisdom is finally retained inside the body and the woman herself can partake of its Wisdom. At this time, in older societies, she becomes known as crone or hag, words whose original meaning is ‘wise one’, revered elder of the circle.

We have lost our respect for the wisdom and understanding of age. yOni would like to contribute to re-establishing a reverence and appreciation for the elders in our society and to learn from these wise ones.

“The Wise Woman’s Tarot”

So, basically, “Wise Woman” seems to have two meanings:

1) a Christian woman referring to Proverbs

2) a Witch, particularly a woman who practices herbal medicine  (which, technically is what “witch” means).

James 2 Personified

I was going through the produce aisle at Kroger in a mart-cart, when suddenly a scary man blocks my cart and announces, “Sir, the Lord just told me he wants me to pray for restoration of your ability to walk.”
“I’m in this because I have a bad heart.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“A genetic disorder called Marfan syndr–”
“What’s your name?”
“John,” I said, sheepsihly.
Then he starts into his Pentecostal “Lord we just wanna .. . . ”

And I really wasn’t in the mood to start practicing my Catholic apologetics in the produce aisle, or to point out that, if he were really hearing from the Lord, he would have gotten the facts right, or that I don’t believe in his false religion that calls Jesus a liar, etc.

I thought about saying that it’s my belief that God is insulted by our prayers that He change the way He made us.

And maybe we should give the guy credit for having the faith to that.

But it sure is a lot easier to say, “Sir, I’d like to pray for your healing” than it is to say ,”Sir, would you like help with your groceries?”

The Future of Tradition?

As my kids watch DVD 1 of The Flying House, I think of my own childhood. A cradle Catholic raised among Catholics: children’s bible stories books, watching Superbook and Flying House on CBN, being amazed that there was a nun on TV and watching Mother Angelica even when I had no idea what she was talking about, watching Mass for Shut ins with Grandpa, etc.

I was very blessed. Ronald Reagan. The best CCD class I had was when my mom substituted one Sunday when I was in first grade. In first grade, my teacher was pretty good, though. In second grade, it was mostly coloring pictures, and I didn’t get it. I’d do my First Communion studies, and I always knew my lessons better than anyone else. My brothers teased me for raising my hand so much when Father asked the questions at First Communion mass.

Then there were the cool “First Mass” books and saint books I got for First Communion. I’d read them constantly. Then The Chronicles of Narnia in Fifth Grade, etc. . . . .

I grew up with this sense of understanding of what it meant to be Catholic, of what Catholicism was all about, that didn’t seem much reflected in reality. As I got older, I was bothered by how different what was taught officially was from what the Saints lived.

Compromise with the world versus providentialism
Feel good liturgy versus profound experience of the numenous.
I was a “RadTrad” at 15 if only for hearing “Vatican II got rid of that” over and over and over.

Then I rediscovered EWTN, read _Crisis_, and had my faith re-enlivened. I found out there were all sorts of Catholics my age who thought the same way I did, that there were all these homeschooling, Latin Mass attending large families out there.

Now, at 32, I’m starting to feel much the way I did at 16. Mary says the same. Doesn’t help that, as when we turned 16, the Democrats are back in power. This feels so much like Clinton 2.0–especially with the looming threat of Socialized Medicine–that the only hope I have is that 2010 will be a rerun of 1994. And maybe that’s where Sarah Palin’s populism will be best suited: a new revolution in the House of Representatives.

But it’s more than just the government. It’s the total infatuation with Obama among Catholics. I thought that 2000 and 2004 signalled the death of liberal Catholicism. I thought that Catholics in America finally “got it” about the Culture Wars. That they’d finally given up their obsession with money.

As my father said to a Clinton-voting priest, “How many dollars on your paycheck are worth the life of a child?” Of course, the liberals *try* to say they’re being “pro-life” by supporting “abortion prevention”: Obama has achieved quite a cultural coup with that lie.

Yet it totally flies in the face of the teaching of Humanae Vitae, and “abortion prevention” Catholics either conveniently ignore that, to Obama, “abortion prevention” means contraception and sex education, or else they overtly support it, flaunting Church teachings in both regards.

And then there’s the IPod Generation. Those who’ve come of age under Vietnam 2.0. Those who’ve come of age in a culture totally severed from any sense of tradition, media overload.

We’ve come full circle, after the vibrant minority of faith-centered, conservative Catholic and Evangelical youth of the nineties, to having young people who look much the same as the youth of the 60s and 70s. Just when we finally get Summorum Pontificum, when the USCCB finally agrees to literal translations from Latin, and when the Vatican is openly calling for some Latin at every Mass (calls which are roundly ignored), the young people are firmly entrenched in David Haas as the embodiment of “tradition.”

Protestants are talking about “emergent Church”: shedding the image of the “Religious Right”, introducing “new media” into services, making “services” even more informal than Protestants are to begin with. The people who brought you Amy “God just wants me to be happy, so I’m getting divorced” Grant think that they can build the Kingdom of God by even more compromise with Modernism.

Now, in the Church, we have Pope Benedict XVI. Doing his best to reverse many of the errors that happened under the tenure of John Paul the Not-so-great, Benedict fights an uphill battle against curial officials, liberal media, and the adoring fans of Barack Obama and Michael Jackson.

Now, with Benedict’s new encyclical (which I will not comment on till I have read it), the liberals are calling victory over conservatives, while the neocons engage in the typical rants and orthodox Catholics call the encyclical a slam dunk. Judie Brown calls it a love letter to the pro-life movement.

I look forward to reading it and finding out for myself. Most likely, I’ll find, as I find reading every “social justice” encyclical, that the Left has improperly co-opted it and the Right is being too knee-jerk.

I just wish Catholics, from laity to the Pope, weren’t so obsessed with temporal affairs, with worrying about money.

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” Our Lord taught. He said we’re not supposed to be concerned about money at all. Yet that seems to be the #1 concern of most Catholics, myself included at times.

It wouldn’t be a concern if we were living like Christians, and that is the point of most of the encyclicals. I don’t understand why secular government needs to be involved in it at all. It seems to be a cop out, on the part of both the average liberal voter and the average liberal priest, to say the government should pay for this stuff.

Much easier to demand that other people be taxed to solve the problems of the poor than it is to actually go out and help a poor person yourself.

Priests who are so concerned about “the poor” when they vote have no problem going out golfing, then telling their parishioners who ask for help, “I’m too busy.”