Vatican II at 60

Today mark the sixtieth year since Pope John XXIII open the Second Vatican
Council where he asked those involved to”make use of the medicine of mercy rather than the weapons of severity” while they opened the windows of the Church for some much needed fresh air. A decade ago, as we celebrated the fiftieth, theologians and scholars stated that “Many of the insights of Vatican II have not or only partially been implemented.” Has Vatican II done anything the people like sure, has it been slow going yes, but Francis is the first Pope since Vatican II who wasn’t at the Council and he’s been Pope for only about a decade now. As we get further from the events of the council, I am sure there will still be complaining about what happened, but that’s just people, there’s got to be someone who is still angry about the Council of Trent out there.

One of the key things out of Vatican II is the New Evanglization of the world as we have really seen since John Paul II and has continued through to today with Francis and his Evangelii gaudium and with Word on Fire from Bishop Barron and Father James Martin,SJ. This is something that I find important with priests as names that non-Catholic people can name is essential for the betterment of the world like with Fulton Sheen and Thomas Merton. These individuals, Barron and Martin, might be the only priest that they interact with in their lives by Twitter, Facebook/ Instagram. One of the best things to come out of the pandemic and the stopping of gathering was that churches invested in their online presences. In a world where we are spending more and more time in digital space getting the church there is a major step, especially with those who are still streaming services. As Pope Francis has said the clergy need to smell like their flocks and we are all online liking and sharing.

There will be more councils as the years go by and more assemblies of the Synod of Bishops. This just reminds us that the Church is a living body made of people who are flawed.

NFL season 2022

It’s that time of the year again, the professional American football season starts tonight, with the Ram facing the Bills in a potential Super Bowl 57 preview. This past off season many things changed. The Washington Football Team changed their name again to a dumb name, Commanders joining the Buccaneers as another three syllable team, however unlike the Bucs, Commanders doesn’t shorten nice. I think most will still be calling them Washington and ignoring the name. Lots of Quarterback were shifted around Tom Brady retired and then un-retired.

NFL will be playing five games out of the United States three in London one in Germany and the last in Mexico. This is the first time a game will be held in Germany in a while and this market seems more interested in American football than England.

As for predictions

AFC East will be won by the Bills for the third year in a row with maybe the Pats as a Wild Card

NFC East will most likely not be won by the Cowboys, perhaps the Eagles or Washington win it this year and two of these three will make the playoffs

AFC North of the four teams I think it could be anyone but the Browns making the playoffs but most likely the Bengals and Ravens

NFC North Green Bay and maybe the Vikings will make the post season

AFC West will be interesting this year as we have three teams with a decent shot to make the playoffs with KC, the Raiders and Denver with new quarterback Russell Wilson

NFC West this might look similar to last year with the Rams, Niners and Cardinals competing to emerge in the playoffs

AFC South will be won by the Titans and maybe the Colts could have a shot at a Wild Card spot

NFC South hopefully this will be Tom Brady’s final stand the Bucs win the division maybe Carolina or the Saints could make waves but who knows

AFC playoffs: Bills, Bengals, Chiefs, Titans with Ravens, Denver and Colts

NFC playoffs: Eagles, Packers, Rams, Bucs with Washington, Vikings and Cards

One thing that I sure hope happens this season is the NFL is forced by Congress to punish Danny Snyder for being horrible, by doing more than the wrist splat he already got

94th Academy Awards

Well, it was time for the Oscars again and yet again it wasn’t at all surprising. I mean with the Oscars being the final award show and with the awards going to basically the same people. The only real question mark going into the ceremony was who was going to win best picture as CODA and Power of the Dog as they have been trading Best Picture wins, but it seemed like CODA was the film with the momentum as it had been winning at the guild awards. i mean last year had a surprise with Anthony Hopkins winning Best Actor over the late Chadwick Boseman and Frances McDormand winning Best actress but this year it was a cut and paste of all the previous award show of the season.

Apple continues the trend with streaming service winning Best Picture and this seems to be a trend which will continue with all of them Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Apple making lots of film in the future.

Washington football name change

We’ve been on this for a very long time and it has been a long time coming and as I expected it’s ended in disappointment. The team had the big reveal today and the Football team in Washington is now the Commanders. It is an unoffensive nod to the military and but it’s just a boring and lazy if they said they took 2 years (15 months) and millions of dollars to come up with this what seems like a default name from Madden. People have been pointing out that fans/newspapers are going to want to shorten the name and that Commies or Ders. I foresee loads of headlines about too many commanders on the field or how they have gone commando, or that they command nothing or lost command. Worst of all there is no real connection to the teams of the past, this would could have been simple as well either keeping a name that started with an R or leaning into the Hogs, the OLine whom helped win their three Super Bowls in 82,87 and 91, or even gone Red Hogs. If they kept an R name they could have reintroduced the circle ‘R’ logo.

The new logo is bad and the uniforms are ok-ish, I think the burgundy looks the best, the black is meh and the white looks bad. As someone across the internet put it “this is not the look of a 90 year old franchise” then offered that it looks like a College design. To me it looks worse as they are solid uniform in one color and this team has a mismatched jerseys and pants but look at the possibilities 3 jersey/3 pants/2 helmet that’s like 20 different looks and everyone loves the different combinations look at all of them the University of Oregon Ducks have.

Well all the blame to the lackluster-ness of the reveal can be placed on Danny Snyder and his wife Tanya, Co-CEO’s of the team. If there were only some way to get them to sell the team and go far far away or hire a CEO that isn’t them to make decisions about the team. This would make the fan base the happiest Snyder has owned the team for roughly two decades and the team has been to the playoffs six times and have won just two time. Because it looks like everything that they, Danny specifically, touch does not turn to gold but a turd.

Now there are three teams that are Native American based the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and the MLB’s Atlanta Braves. None of these teams has indicated that they are thinking about changing anything as of yet. Last year, after Hank Aaron passed away someone over at Uni-watch suggested that Atlanta Hammers should be the name honoring Aaron and John Lewis. Who knows where this all will end up, well have to wait and see.

2021 NFL Season begins

It’s that time once again for better or worse the professional football season begins tonight, with Tom Brady coming off his latest Super Bowl and hoping to get yet another one. There is a general youth movement in the QB position this year, three of the five first round quarterback will be starting week 1. With so many big name retiring after last season who will join them after this year. This will be an interesting year as they have added another week to the calendar so every team will play 17 games in the season so time for the predictions.

The Easts

In the AFC this seems like a season where Buffalo will run over everyone as they have the only QB who has play a full season in Josh Allen while everyone else have basically rookies. Over in the NFC will Washington be able to win back to back division titles, a thing that hasn’t happened in almost 20 years, so perhaps Dallas or Philly take it back.

The Norths

In the NFC this will be Aaron Rogers playing for a huge contract either in Green Bay of elsewhere in 2022 so coming off a third MVP season Packers will win the division again. Over in the AFC it’s a bit harder to guess as it has become a three team race each season with Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cleveland.

The Souths

In the NFC this is an easy pick as Tompa Bay will be back in the playoffs as per usual. In the AFC this also seems like it might be a one horse race with Tyrod Taylor as the new starting QB in Houston it seems like the Titans are the favorites.

The West

Here in the AFC we have some of the same with the Chiefs winning the division and perhaps the Chargers making it as a wild card. In the NFC it seems like at least a two team race with Seattle and Arizona.

Rerum Novarum (Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor)

Rerum Novarum is one of the most important Encyclicals written as it is the foundation of modern Catholic Social Teaching. This Encyclical about New Things from Leo XIII from 1891 is something that I believe that everyone should at least have a cliff’s notes understanding of. Pope Leo attacks socialism, recognizes the need that more people should own private property, defends a just living wage, the rights of workers to organize (unions) and that states need to promote justice through the protection of rights.

With the rise of Socialism and the industrialization of the world in the middle of the 1800s the Church needed to say something about how to live in this new world. Pope Leo begins talking about the world as it is today (1880/90s) with the destitution of the masses and wealth of the few, and the church needs to talk about the working classes. “The discussion is not easy, nor is it void of danger. It is no easy matter to define the relative rights and mutual duties of the rich and of the poor, of capital and of labor.” The traditional trade guilds aren’t there any more to protect the rights of the workers. This whole thing is like a little bit better than slavery but there are still the rich and they are getting richer exploiting the poor. Socialism offers the idea that no one should own anything but it  also will take everything and make it administered by the State. The Pope think that this would lead to the destruction of the family.

Leo XIII continues that we are all created by, strive for and redeemed by the same God, so we all have talents/gifts to offer although not the same gifts. The World needs to work for the Common good of all since we all have the same dignity, children shouldn’t be working, but in school learning, and miners should have some safety in their job. There is also a seed here of the preferential option of the poor/marginalized. The Role of the Church is to speak out on social matters that affect morality, bring the classes together and educate people on how to act justly.

Sure 130 years later it doesn’t seem like that radical of a message and I am sure that there are other places with better overviews on the Encyclical but everything has to start somewhere and here is the beginning of Catholic Social Teaching.

93rd Academy Awards

It is that time again when Hollywood gives awards to the people who have already won the other awards this award season. The only really big question mark coming in was Best Actress as between all the other award shows one of them won. The biggest surprise of the night was Anthony Hopkins winning Best Actor over Chadwick Boseman who many had expected to win posthumously. All of the other awards went to the people who have already won the awards for better or for worse. It’s great that the people at Pixar and Disney have an award that they pick up basically every year in Animated Feature since it’s been an award they have won roughly 75% of them. Now sure they, Disney/Pixar, makes good movies but it might be nice to see some other film studio could win and maybe not another 3D animated film, perhaps I’m just nostalgic for some great 2D animation and would like the industry to continue to make other types of animated film. Sure it was fun to have seen all the nominated Best Films before the awards thanks to streaming, but yet again with the Oscars being the last awards of the season it kind of makes the whole process less fun it might just have been the two weeks between the BAFTAs and Oscars. Maybe next year we will see some difference as the BAFTAs adapted new rules this year about diversity and inclusion (limiting nominations to no more than two individuals of the same race and/or nationality in each category and requiring at least two female nominees in every gender-neutral category) and the Academy next year is going to have 10 films nominated for Best Picture, in the hopes of “popular” movies might be nominated and they are working on other rules about diversity and inclusion as well.

Divisional Playoffs 2021

After last weeks Wild card round here most of the favorite team went on to win and the two surprise teams were division rivals we move on to the next round.

Saturday and Sunday both have two games and the Packers and Chiefs are back from their bye week. Saturday we have the Rams traveling to Green Bay to try to beat the cold weather at Lambeau Field and the Ravens traveling to Buffalo to face the Bills hopefully in the snow. Sunday the Browns travel to Kansas City and Tom Brady (43) and the Bucs facing Drew Brees (42) and the Saints. Which old guys will win.

Will this be a chalk weekend or will some lower seeded team make it to the championship game. I feel that most of the world is tired of Tom Brady winning and getting into the playoffs and he’s bound to be close to retirement right. I think that chalk will prevail this weekend and we will have 1 and 2 facing off next weekend in the championship round.

NFL Playoffs “super” Wild Card Weekend 2021

The NFL has finished it’s season without any cancellations and now it’s playoff time. This was something that not many expected when the season began including myself.

This season was unique in many ways and the expanded playoffs are another touch to the season as there are three Wild Card teams and only the top seed in each conference get the Bye week, Green Bay and Kansas City will host

We’ve got the brand name teams the Packers, Saints, Seahawks, Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens and a couple of surprises as well. The no name team in Washington won the NFC East holding up the tradition of non consecutive winners since ’04. The Browns made it to the playoffs for the first time since 2002, Tom Brady is back in the playoffs with the Bucs.

Time for predictions:

Saturday: Colts-Bills, Rams-Seahawks, Tampa-Washington

Sunday: Ravens-Titans, Bears-Saints, Browns-Steelers

Some of these games are easy picks: The Steelers should beat the Browns, I mean they almost beat them last week without Big Ben playing, and the Browns have been Covid stricken this week. The Saints should have no problem with the Bears as they struggled and unsuccessfully fell in last week with a lost.Another one that’s almost an easy pick is Seattle and the Rams they’ve split the last couple of times they’ve met with the home team winning. So Pittsburgh,New Orleans and Seattle should all be moving on to next weekend.

The other games are a bit trickier, the Ravens and Titans met last year in the playoffs and this year during the regular season and the Titans won both times so there is a strong possibility that the Titans once again emerge on top. The Colts and Bills are another tough pick, sure I’d love to see Philip River somehow get to the Super Bowl in this what many are saying is his final season but on the other hand it would be great if the Bills could come out on top, since the game is in Buffalo I’m inclined to pick the Bills. Now what I am calling the toughest game on the slate for me to pick Tompa Bay at Washington. The last time Washington won in the playoffs was 15 years in Tampa and all the struggles throughout this season with Coach Ron Rivera battling cancer, quarterback controversy and Alex Smith (Comeback player of the Year) and being that team without a name. It’s like something Disney would make a movie about. However to get past this weekend they face Tom Brady and the other old retirees in Tampa who have been great on the road this season. I am picking my home town team but don’t really expect them to win. Bills are the only game I have the most confidence in picking. The other two Ravens and Washington because I’ve been waiting for this Super Bowl since 1996.

Native American Mascots: Part 14

This is yet another major sports team to decide to change their name this year.This one is pretty big and one I think we have all been waiting for the baseball team in Cleveland is changing its name. There has been gradual steps for this over the years like to get the All Star game in 2019, they dropped Chief Wahoo as their Mascot and when to the block ‘C’. People across the internet have been hoping we get the Cleveland Spiders back. Cleveland had had its names since 1915. There has been no nickname but it will be decided upon after the 2021 season so we might have the Cleveland Baseball Team for a year.

So far this year the football teams in Washington and Edmonton have also decided to drop the Native/First Nations names. Now Atlanta, Kansas City and Chicago are the only teams that still rely on controversial names. However it seems like there are some waves being made in the NHL as when the Reverse Retro Sweaters were released they shied away from showing the front of Chicago’s sweater. It is a step forward but there is a long way to go.