Well, the maniacs are back on the air!

Well, this one anyway.

First of all I must apologize for being away for so long. My last post was almost three years ago to the day and I will not bore you with excuses for why and the business that being a father and a Deacon in formation carries with it a busy-ness that we all understand and frankly don't want to hear about anyway.

The Holy Spirit has whupped me upside the head with the proverbial frying pan to get back and comment upon all things Catholic, so here I am - back and better than ever!

What led to this epiphany was, I suppose, the extremely exciting news received yesterday that our Archdiocese (Louisville) is to receive our new shepherd, Bishop Joseph Kurtz (now formerly) from Knoxville.

I have to say that, of course, I am well pleased.

He is 60 years old and an active runner they say, and the energy which he seems to have is something that will be of great blessing to all of us. He drives himself everywhere, and indeed drove up from Knoxville for the formal announcement at 4:00 AM so he could keep his already scheduled visit to the local prison the night before! That's commitment, energy and an enthusiasm we certainly love to see! Archbishop Kelly has seemed to have lost a lot of his earlier vitality - age and all that's happened here in the last few years makes this easily understandable - and I think that the change will be noted quite vividly in all manner of ways.

Being somewhat on the "inside" by my Diaconal formation, I seem to be coming more and more into contact with all manner of clergy and administrators within the Archdiocese, and the general consensus on BOTH sides of the political spectrum - and I mean both sides inclusive of their respective extreme ends as well here - is that they all want a strong LEADER, period. The overwhelming opinion of anyone and everyone, from those who are kind and intelligent in their talk to those who flame every word they speak or write - is that they want someone who will say "Do it this way (and I'll even tell you why.)"

Archbishop Kurtz will have many issues to solve, and those that get mentioned a lot are always the ones with someones vested interests attached it seems. Nevertheless, the people here wish unanimously to be LED, and most aren't afraid of that concept, even if it might mean not hearing what they want to hear.

And that for me, is quite refreshing.

I was once told that be careful of praying for a "Law and Order" Bishop, because invariably swinging the axe creates far more casualties on all sides than may be prudent. There's no question that a renewal is needed here, as is inevitable everywhere at the proper times, but I think that we are receiving someone who knows the truth, is not afraid to state it clearly and authoritatively, but with the kindness and clarity that compels everyone to follow him joyfully to where he wants us to go.

And again, I am well pleased.

Been having site maintenance issues of late. Moved all the CatholicManiacs stuff to a new home and updated the blog settings. May even get around to doing something with it one day. :)

Anyway, the best way to access the blog now is at http://blog.CatholicManiacs.com

That's right... With a .COM at the end. Finally got my .com name back last spring and I am trying to merge the .COM and .US stuff together.

If you have the CM site linked, please update your links to the .com address.

Thanks!

Added a link to an RSS feed in the side bar. It's the first link at the top. If you don't know what to do with it, don't worry about it. If you do, no explanation is necessary.

I must say that I like the RSS feeds only when I know I am going to be away from the internet for a while and/or if I haven't read my favorite blogs in a while. For instance, I have a Pocket PC that I can sync my RSS feed Outlook folder to. That way I can catch up on several days of posts at once.

I love technology.

Today I turn 40.

Still seems weird. Not freaked out about being 40 so much. I don't feel that old. Feel more like I am 30 or 32, give or take...

What freaks me out is where did the last 20 years go?

I must say I am nowhere near where I thought I would be 20 years ago. Figured I would have made at least one fortune by now and be extremely wealthy and semi-retired. I did get the wife and family I thought I would have though. And pretty much when. Though I never thought the third one would come this late. :) Certainly never expected to be Catholic. Just wasn't on the radar screen.

Ah well. Time to start over with the dreams and goals. Just because I didn't ever get where I though I would, doesn't mean I can't shoot for something else. Who knows, maybe in another 20 years, I WILL be fabulously wealthy and semi-retired.

Actually found this out not long after the last post, but it's been busy, what with hand therapy, kids being out of school, etc. etc....

We are having a BOY!!!!!!

Woooooooo-Hoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not that I wouldn't love another girl at all. Absolutely I would. But I am like every guy out there. We want a boy. A buddy. Someone who we can use to justify the purchase of war toys with. Luckily my girls are already into comic books so I was covered there. But now a whole different world is opened up. :)

So far the little guy is extremely active according to Mrs. Fric. He's constantly on the move. I could feel his movements through Mom's belly some time ago. Way earlier than the girls.

We are all excited about it too. The girls are happy to have a brother on the way.

Names are still an issue. At one time I wanted to name a boy after me... William Timothy. Since becoming Catholic, that doesn't seem so important anymore. Not sure why, but I think my ego doesn't need to be stroked that way anymore. Mrs. Fric still likes William though with Will for short. We are thinking William David to include her father. She also likes Patrick, Elijah and others. Not sure myself. She's way more into it than I am right now. We've got time, right? :)

Please pray for a healthy baby and a safe delivery. Thanks!

And many more to the greatest nation on God's green earth!

Still on the way. Mom and baby are doing great so far.

Got to feel the baby move for the first time last weekend. Could barely tell, but definitely there. Way cool stuff.

Next week we find out if we are having a boy or girl.

God knows I will love the baby no matter what, but I gotta say that a boy and the extra testosterone in the house would be welcome. Outnumbered 3 to 1 now. The dog is male but fixed. And a wuss. No help there.

Ah well... Let it be done according to thy word, Lord.

Can't wait til October.

Back to two hands... Six weeks ago today I had surgery on my right ring finger to set a fractured bone at the very tip and to reattach the tendon at that point. Had my hand in a cast for all that time since and got the cast and the final suture (down through the nail, around the bone, back out the nail and tied off) removed. My right hand is my dominant hand and I've had no (OK, a little... I cheated now and then) use of it for six weeks.

Ever tried to use your non-dominant hand and ONLY that hand to brush your teeth?

Eat?

Tie your shoes?

Put on pants?

Take pants off?

Type?

Mouse?

OK. I know it sounds like I am whining. Not intended. After all I got the use of it back. It was just kind of eye opening how much you don't use the non-dominant hand you you are forced to use it as the dominant. Everything was backwards and weird.

My hand is stiff and sore. And I have a ton of new therapy exercises. Yay. At least I can type again. Maybe I can blog if I can get my brain unstuck.

We'll see.

OK. I know it's not official for us down here.

But, really...

Do we doubt JPII is a Saint in Heaven?

Do we doubt his status as "Great"?

OK. Some may doubt the last. Only the truly obstinate can doubt the first.

One year ago today the Holy Father passed from this life into the next. According to many reports at the time, he died with a prayer on his lips, saying Amen just before passing. Supposedly this coincided with the conclusion of a Rosary or a part of the Rosary being prayed outside.

The Holy Father died as he lived. An example of Christian holiness and suffering. He died with the eyes the entire world watching and with a good many more non-Catholics than I could scarcely believe grieving at his passing along with us. That was part of what I think makes him "Great". I remember reading a quote from a non-Catholic Christian that said he was their Pope too.

That is utterly astounding to me. Certainly not all non-Catholics believed that. It certainly was true though simply by the nature of the Church and the Papacy. All validly baptized Christians are a part of the Body of Christ which is the Catholic Church. They may not realize it, and they may not like it. But they are. Any Pope is the Pope of all Christians. I think the Holy Father understood this better than any other Pope before him.

As a convert in 2002 I never really knew any other Pope. I remember becoming aware of the Papacy and Popes in 1978 when Paul VI died and JPI was elected. Then he died and JPII was elected. He was all I knew. Even though not Catholic, I have always respected the institution of the Papacy because I instinctively understood that the Pope was the successor of Peter. I never really understood the implications of that until I started studying the Church in preparation for making sure my girls would be raised as proper Catholics. If they were to be Catholic, I wanted them to be good ones. I then understood what that succession meant for me.

Because of JPII I was able to respect the office and the Church even when I was ignorant of the true meaning of the Church and its doctrines. I think many must have felt that way. I don't know how much previous Popes were accepted by the world and times they lived in. I do know that JPII was the conscience of the human race. He was the only one who could speak with such moral authority. No other religious or secular leader could do so.

His legacy will be seen in the fruits of the coming years. I think he planted the seeds that will bring us back from the brink of modernism that has infected the Church since the rubbish of the "spirit of Vatican II" crap that has infected the Church. Though not particularly young, I will be 40 this year, I still consider myself part of the JP2 Generation. This group, including the group of excited and motivated converts of the past 15 or more years, is the strength of the Church. They are the driving force for a return to orthodoxy of doctrine and practice. They are young, producing children and vocations.

We may be going through the desert now. But due to the seeds JPII planted, our children and grandchildren will reap the benefits of his Papacy.

Greetings Fellow Maniacs!

Been busy obviously of late. No posting and all.

But I return with awesome news!

Mrs. Fric and I have been blessed with the impending arrival of a new little Maniac! This is our third child and the older two are actually excited rather than mortified. Considering the age differences (9 and 12 years when the baby gets here), that is pretty good. Samantha, our now middle child, keeps proclaiming that she is now the middle child. Apparently Emma, the oldest, has been oppressing her mightily and she is looking forward to some of that rolling down hill a little farther. :)

We are all excited about this. We will be finding out the gender when the time comes and will do some of those really cool 3-D pics in July. Can't wait for that.

But been busy with the new job and the old side work. Also moving the CM stuff to a new server. So that should be interesting. We have been getting a lot of hits on our site from search engines on things like "lutherism" (I accidentally misspelled LutherAnism), Fr. Corapi and more. It will be interesting to see if that dries up. Search engines tend to penalize new sites for a year or so as potential spammers. I have seen that myself on a colleague's sites. So will we lose the random surfers now?

We haven't covered Iraq much.

There has been a lot to talk about. Many Catholic blogs, including those I link to, talk about them often. Mark Shea's Catholic and Enjoying It! has had many ongoing discussions about whether the war in Iraq met the Church's Just War criteria. A new common topic is about torture, what it is and whether it is permissible.

Here is the latest on that to get a flavor of what's going on there.

I hesitated to link to the post for a couple of reasons. First, I think Mark has gotten way too snarky since he came back from his book writing hiatus on some things, especially this. I've added a comment or two now and then but not being a regular poster, I think it gets lost in the discussion. Second, I don't necessarily want to drag the animosity over here. It gets nasty there at times.

That's why I bring this up. I hate to see this sort of thing go happen on blogs I like to read. I certainly understand that there are differing opinions on what is and isn't torture. Not to mention what is and isn't a Just War and whether one can disagree with a Pope on a particular case. What I don't get is the automatic consignment of those who hold differing opinions to the worst possible categories of supporters of evil... torturers or terrorists depending on your point of view.

Anyway, knowing some of the other Maniacs are likely to disagree on this subject for various reasons, I am hoping to generate a more calm discussion over here.

Please note to potential commenters that I will not tolerate any of the name calling and ad hominem attacks that I have seen go on at other blogs. I can and will delete comments that cross a line. If you don't know for sure if you are crossing the line, you probably are.

Happy 2006 everyone!

I know I am late with those well wishes... Ah well. Too busy yesterday with trying to get some work done on the old job so I can move on to the new job. Hopefully I can get that done ASAP and have some time off before I must start the new gig.

Worst part about being a contract tech nerd. No paid time off.

Soon.

Very soon.