Misplaced Pages

HAPPY NEW YEAR This is Carcassonne in southern France where I spent Christmas, safely away from Wiki temptations. Back to work now. I hope you have a great year in 2010 for writing, reviewing, or whatever takes your fancy. Keep fighting the good fight, Nancy. Always willing to help when I can. Brianboulton (talk) 23:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Brian! Happy New Year to you too! What a neat place to spend your holidays, I'm envious : ) NancyHeise 06:18, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

The trials and tribulations of a "lead writer" trying to get an article through FAC

I think you might enjoy this... World War Wiki. You will need to turn captions on via the CC button at the lower right of the YouTube window. --Richard S (talk) 07:32, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Richard, I hope you and your family had a great holiday. NancyHeise 06:18, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Meetup Location

Hi there! Regarding the meetup, I think we may need a more neutral location; Dania is too far of a hike for us Miamians. Let me know what you think about my note. Thanks. P.S. Stunning pic! --Neon Sky (talk) 18:27, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello Long time no talk

Hi Nancy, I haven't forgotten my promise to say hi! Sorry, its been a very burdensome time for me. Our seminary has grown to 6 now from 5. We have a certain person who is seriously considering joining and a few others who are discerning, but not yet joined. As for myself, I am struggling between an offer by a grad school and the seminary; do I leave for five years and get my degree and then return? At the same time I still need to struggle with celibacy, but its getting better. It takes time to realize that the creator is better than his creation, even though for a Catholic Christian such as myself it is a proven truth. Sorry I wasn't of much use for those other pages you asked me to intervene. Lately I have become a decent apologetic, in Aristotelian philosophy and principles of nature and in biblical apologetics. Gabr-el 03:44, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

What a pleasant surprise to hear from you! I am so glad to hear that you are still tinkering here on Misplaced Pages and progessing down your life's path as well. I will pray for you to know just the right thing to do and I'm sure you will know. I have much to say to you about celibacy so I hope you are prepared to get an earful! See my points to ponder below:

• Christianity is about love - if you don't love people - you can't be a good priest and you will fail at celibacy.
• All love comes from God - if you don't love the people you give your life to serve - ask God to give you love for them - he told us to ask for things and when we do, its never in vain.
• Sex is from God. It is a beautiful gift that the Church teaches is holy and beautiful within the sacrament of marriage. Giving it up is a sacrifice.
• God wants to marry us - according to Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body".
• When you give something up for God - he rewards you "whosoever has left home or mother or father or children or wives for the kingdom of God..." Remember, God is never outdone in generosity.
• Saint Teresa of Avila said (not getting the words 100% correct here) "We can not always know if we are loving God but we can be very certain if we are loving our neighbor"
• Saint Teresa of Avila loved a priest friend very much. They wrote letters to each other. He kept all of her letters on his person for the rest of his life. They were in love but did not violate their vows - they expressed their love and they prayed for each other. Pope John Paul II also had a female friend he loved. Successful priests have people they love who pray for them. Prayer for a person you love comes from your heart, it is very loud. If you have ever felt the prayer of someone who loves you it feels like you are a dry plant and all of a sudden someone has poured water over you and you feel warm and life and love come all the way into your soul. If you express your love for someone sexually instead of praying for them, you will not feel this because you have spent your love in a physical rather than a spiritual way. If you are not married to that person, your mispent love can harm rather than help that person's soul. So it is important to ask God to give you a pure heart to pray for someone you love.
• I know of two priests here in the Archdiocese of Miami with opposite stories. One loved a woman very much. He did not know what to do about his love and instead of praying for her, he had an affair with her and eventually left the Church to become and Episcopal priest so he could marry her see Alberto Cutie.
• I know another priest who loved a woman very much. He did not know what to do so he asked God to help him love her properly and the Holy Spirit showed him how to express his love in prayer. His prayer helped her soul and she became a better Christian. She is a very happy loving person who prays for this priest she loves on a regular basis. This priest got sick one year and almost died. She went to Lourdes to pray for him. He was so near death that he was in a coma for nine days. She wrote to the bishops in South Florida telling them that in Lourdes, she experienced God's affirmation that he had heard her prayer for his healing. The priest recovered miraculously after that. Almost two years ago I went to a Mass celebrating his 35th anniversary as a priest. His best friend told everyone during the sermon that his recovery was a miracle. The Archbishop was there as well and he is one of the very best priests in the Archdiocese.
• Gabrel, If you decide on celibacy, I hope you will be like the second priest and discover a beautiful way to love and serve God or else I hope you find just the right bride if you are meant to be a married priest in the Eastern Rite - whatever God leads you to do. One of the priests I know was in love with a woman and almost married her before he decided to be a celibate priest. I think he is a very good priest because that woman continues to pray for him. Maybe that is what will happen for you. You should have someone who knows you and loves you to pray for you and be a spiritual friend on your journey. I will ask that for you and keep you in my prayers. NancyHeise 04:19, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks a lot Nancy. Most of the above I know more or less. Its been a year in the seminary so far for me. I am skeptical about married priests, even though I don't think there is anything wrong with it, and the Russian Orthodox Martyr who was killed a few months back was both married and an excellent priest (his dad was also a priest!). That's a shame about the Episcopal priest, though perhaps with the Anglican Communion being pushed to Catholicism, there might be a chance for him to come back; he needs our prayers. Forgive me for being so blunt, but I think that celibacy can't be had in degrees; I like to cut to the chase. I'm not interested in finding a particular girl that will love me in a sisterly way; rather my Bishop told me to love everyone as a brother and sister and not be focused on one person. I think Celibacy is best taken as it is; I will and I am slowly accepting the brutal hard and cold fact of celibacy; whether its for me or not is a different matter. I feel that the other opportunity that God gave me, pursuing a great grad school is a waste rather than a sacrifice. Yet at the same time the Chaldeans are in great need of Priests, but then again which rite in the Catholic Church isn't? Thanks for your prayers, prayers are the way, always the way. Anyways, I know Lent starts in the Latin Rite on Wednesday, today was the Chaldean Rite's first day. Have a Great and fruitful Lent! Gabr-el 03:02, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Gabr-el - saying "yes" to God is a good thing. You are going to make a great priest! NancyHeise 18:27, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, no pressure then hey!? May God guide the path so that I see it but keep it as open to take credit for it! Have a great Lent. Thank goodness Jesus ate fish after he was resurrected or else we wouldn't be able to eat sea food on Fridays either! Gabr-el 05:18, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Here! Here! (Just finished a fish dinner with husband, kids and my dad)NancyHeise 02:32, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Social Teaching Article

Hi Nancy. Do you have time to look at the Catholic social teaching article? It is being re-assessed with regard to references etc, and needs a wider range of sourcing. See the talk page. Are you able to help on this? Xandar 23:02, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Oh Xandar, I teach my class tonight and Im still getting ready for it. I'll try to help out later in the week as Im busy all day tomorrow. I hope you get the help you need and I appreciate your tremendous help and improvement on the Catholic articles. If you weren't around they might all be a ridiculous mess. I hope Misplaced Pages appreciates you! NancyHeise 18:31, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Arbitration notice

You are involved in a recently-filed request for arbitration. Please review the request at Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests#Catholic Church and, if you wish to do so, enter your statement and any other material you wish to submit to the Arbitration Committee. Additionally, the following resources may be of use—

• Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests#Requests for Arbitration;
• Misplaced Pages:Arbitration guide.

Thanks,. Please add others to the party list if you think it is necessary. Karanacs (talk) 19:47, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Your statement on the Catholic Church arbitration request

Please note that there is a 500 word limit on the request for arbitration page. That includes your initial statement and replies to others. Yours currently stands at over 1500 words. Please shorten it so it is below 500 words as soon as possible. Regards, Ryan Postlethwaite 13:19, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Exceptions are quite frequently allowed, and this case is much too complex to summarize in 500 words; 800 seems a reasonable limit. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:23, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

500 words is ample. As this case is likely to attract a lot of commentators, it's especially important to enforce the word count. Should you require more words, you can create a page in your userspace and link to it on the main arbitration page. Ryan Postlethwaite 13:29, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Arbitration response to Hesperian

• Please note that Hesperian offers no links to support his assertions and that is because we have never supported using such a source or engaged in such a battle.
• He is speaking about the section of the article entitled "Origin and Mission" where we discuss the various points of view held by scholars. We encountered Harmakheru last November who tried to make us eliminate all mention of scholars that supported the Church's view of its own history. He did not like our sources so we changed them (full story with links to discussions on article talk page here ). Karanacs suggested the present wording cited to our present sources which were supplied by me..

That section of the article has been thoroughly discussed and reviewed and remained relatively unchanged through the last FAC, peer review and good article reassessment all of which saw many of Misplaced Pages's best editors involved.

• Here is that section per the last FAC Here are the FAC editors and their comments many by frequent and respected FAC editors and reviewers like Ealdgyth and LingNut who supported the page and sources for FA.
• Here is the same section after the last peer review Here are the peer reviewers which included Karanacs, Ealdgyth and Dweller among others
• Here is that same section per the Good Article Reassment review Here are the good article reassessors - note that neither I nor Xandar voted in this reassessment.
• As you can see the section never uses the source Hesperian alleges and to this day is in much the same form as its been for the past two years, here's the section as of this writing

Continued response to Hesperian

• Hesperian provided a link to the article talk page where I provide an 1840's googlebooks source that I never proposed using as a source in the article. I posted it to prove a point that there were scholars in other centuries who agreed with the Church's position of its own origins.
• After that post, I went on to provide many highly respected modern scholarly sources that were agreed to be used in the article to support the assertion that some scholars agree with the Church's position of its own origins. , , , which led Karanacs to propose the suggested wording we eventually used that included my newly supplied sources as well as some previously supplied ones.
• Hesperian's accusation here is an example of what happens often on this article's talk page. Our efforts to make the article meet WP:NPOV are not always well received by those who are often astonished that scholars say what they say about the Church. Instead of noticing that these are expert historians telling the story, those of us who are trying to include solidly referenced facts cited to multiple WP:RS sources that meet the highest standards of WP:Reliable source examples get accused of POV pushing.
• Another example of this is our attempt to include information on the condoms controversy. The Church has been widely criticized in the media for its stance on condoms - particularly where people in Africa are dying of AIDS. This is such a notable controversy that just googling Catholic Church, Africa and condoms will get many hits to the world's most reliable news organizations. The article included mention of the controversy but it does not mention that a leading AIDS researcher, scientist and professor at Harvard came out in defense of the Pope's statement regarding condoms. I brought several references to the talk page for discussion but was instantly accused of POV pushing - actual statement by Haldraper was "quick lets get some pro-Catholic apologia into the article". Here's another example as well