Postcards From Mars; an Embarrassing Arrest; and a New(ish) Website

I am not making this up:

• "Animal rights activists disrupt Mass, accuse priest of 'murdering' cat"
  CNA/EWTN News (August 29, 2012)

The dateline for that article is Lima, Peru. In a way, it's nice to know that America doesn't have monopoly on - colorful? - folks.

We do have an election coming in November, though. There are some very important issues at stake: none of which I'm writing about today. The closest I get is my opinions about an archbishop's arrest last Saturday: for DUI.

More importantly, I think, the Vatican has a new(ish) website with resources for the upcoming Year of Faith.

Finally, Curiosity sent back 'postcards' from Mars - plus the first voice transmission from the red planet, and a song.

Quite a bit more has happened this week, some of which may be more important than what happened in Peru, or on Mars. But this is what I've decided to write about:

• Year of Faith/Annus Fidei: Online Resources
• Drunk Driving and Rorschach Tests
  • Statistics and Driving Drunk
  • DUI and News
  • Seeing What We Expect to See
• Voices From Mars
  • 'And Now, a Song'
  • Sounds of Mars - Maybe Next Time
  • Should We Stay, or Should We Go?
  • Postcards From Mars

---

1. Year of Faith/Annus Fidei: Online Resources

"Pontifical website aims to help lay Catholics worldwide"
David Kerr, CNA/EWTN News (August 29, 2012)

"The Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Laity is positioning its website as a resource for lay men and women ahead of Pope Benedict's Year of Faith, which will kick-off in October.

" 'It is directed to all the lay faithful that want to know more about their vocation, about their role within the Church,' Ana Cristina Betancourt of the Pontifical Council's Women's Section told CNA in Rome.

" 'So, it is a way of being in contact with what we do day-to-day and that was our aim in having it, to make more known the things that we do, the reflections that we have, the things that we are thinking about and also the guidelines that the Pope is giving the laity to better live their vocations.'..."

When Betancourt said "...live their vocations," she wasn't necessarily talking about how we earn money. I'm pretty sure that, since she'd "all the lay faithful," she had this definition of "vocation" in mind:

"VOCATION: The calling or destiny we have in this life and hereafter. God has created the human person to love and serve him; the fulfillment of this vocation is eternal happiness (1, 358, 1700). Christ calls the faithful to the perfection of holiness (825). The vocation of the laity consists in seeking the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will (898). Priestly and religious vocations are dedicated to the service of the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation (cf. 873; 931)."
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, Glossary)

When I visited www.laici.va, the server sent me to www.laici.va/content/laici/en.html, the English-language version of Pontifical Council for the Laity. The website is also available in Italiano/Italian (www.laici.va/content/laici/it.html), Spanish/Español (www.laici.va/content/laici/es.html), and French/Francais (www.laici.va/content/laici/fr.html).

Pontifical Council for the Laity's has a pretty good selection of articles and publications, including:

• Articles
  • "Movements and new communities and the Year of Faith"
  • "Women at the Olympics"
• News
  • "Father Lixey has left the Pontifical Council for the Laity"
    (no date given)
  • "Pro-life movements in Europe. An important initiative"
  • "The new iGPII application"
    (July 29, 2011)
• Overviews of publications
  • "Men and Women. Diversity and mutual complementarity"
    (January 30-31, 2004)
  • "Rediscovering the Eucharist"
    (November 21-23, 2002)

There's even a trailer for next year's World Youth Day in Rio.

"WYD Rio 2013 - Promo Trailer"

JMJRio13, YouTube (June 12, 2012)
video, 2:48

I don't expect that the Pontifical Council for the Laity's website will be updated daily - or even weekly. But it looks like a pretty good place to go for background on a fairly wide range of topics:

The Pontifical Council for the Laity has been around since 1967 - or since 1976, when it was re-founded as a permanent department in the Roman Curia.

---

2. Drunk Driving and Rorschach Tests

First, a little background about driving and DUI (Driving Under the Influence) in America.

Statistics and Driving Drunk

About 2/3 of all Americans are licensed drivers: of the 307,000,000 Americans in 2009, 210,000,000 were drivers. The same year, some of those 210,000,000 drivers got drunk or stoned: resulting in 1,440,409 arrests for impaired driving in 2008. (Federal Highway Administration, U. S. Department of Justice)

If I did the math right, that means that a little over one half of one percent of American drivers got caught in a DUI violation in 2009.

I think driving while impaired is a really bad idea. It's a decision that can have lethal consequences: which is why I think legal sanctions against drunk driving are sensible.

DUI and News

DUI arrests generally aren't 'news,' unless there's a celebrity involved. Archbishops aren't, quite, celebrities: not the way Hollywood glitterati are. San Francisco's incoming archbishop, Salvatore J. Cordileone, is an exception. He's scheduled to take over that job on October 4: and was arrested for DUI last Saturday.

"Police confirm DUI arrest of future San Francisco archbishop"
Hillary Senour, CNA/EWTN News (August 27, 2012)

" The San Diego Police Department verified the weekend arrest of the Archbishop-designate of San Francisco for driving under the influence.

"San Diego police spokesperson, Detective Gary Hassen, confirmed for CNA Aug. 27 that Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone was arrested just after midnight on Aug. 25 and held in county jail.

"After passing through a DUI checkpoint near the San Diego State University, Archbishop Cordileone was further evaluated by the police and then taken into custody.

"Just before noon that same day, Archbishop Cordileone was released on bail, Hassen said. The legal blood alcohol content limit for California is 0.08 percent...."

As far as I know, Archbishop Cordileone's arrest hasn't been used as 'proof' that the Catholic Church supports child abuse and is plotting to destroy the environment. But quite a few folks are offering opinions, analysis, and assertions: some of them sensible, some not so much.

The way I see it, the archbishop's arrest:

• Shows that
  • Archbishops are
    • Human
    • Affected by original sin
    • Not exempt from traffic regulations
      • In San Diego, California
  • DUI laws
    • Are enforced
      • In San Diego, California
    • Set minimum standards for sobriety
• Doesn't show that
  • Same-sex marriage is
    • Okay
    • Opposed by drunk drivers
      • Who should shut up
  • The Catholic Church
    
    • Hates homosexuals
    • Wants to spoil everyone's fun
    • Shields drunk drivers

But I'm a practicing Catholic, so I would say something like that.

This is an election year in America, so I figure we'll be seeing Archbishop Cordileone's DUI arrest replayed in news and op-eds for weeks. Maybe longer.

More about the archbishop, from a counter-cultural point of view:

• "The Catholic League on efforts to silence Archbishop Cordileone"
  Fr. Z's Blog – What Does The Prayer Really Say? (August 29, 2012)
• "Trying to Silence Bishop Cordileone"
  Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (August 29, 2012)
• "Future San Francisco archbishop apologizes for 'disgrace' caused by arrest"
  EWTNews Feature (August 27, 2012)

Seeing What We Expect to See

What I've read suggests that Archbishop Cordileon's DUI arrest is like the old Rorsaschach test. Some folks may see this news as 'proof' that the Catholic Church is icky: because it's what they expect to see.

I'm one of those people who think Catholic clergy, from priests up to the Pope, are human beings. I think the archbishop's DUI arrest indicates that San Diego police had reason to think that he was driving while 'under the influence.'

Driving with alcohol in one's system is a really bad idea, and I expect that Archbishop Cordileon will experience whatever legal sanctions the law requires.

But my faith isn't shaken. A DUI arrest, although serious, is far from the worst trouble a member of the clergy's had in the Church's millennia-spanning history.

---

3. Voices From Mars

"First Recorded Voice from Mars"
Mission News, NASA (August 27, 2012)

"The following statement by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was returned to Earth via the Mars Curiosity rover.

"Hello. This is Charlie Bolden, NASA Administrator, speaking to you via the broadcast capabilities of the Curiosity Rover, which is now on the surface of Mars.

"Since the beginning of time, humankind’s curiosity has led us to constantly seek new life…new possibilities just beyond the horizon. I want to congratulate the men and women of our NASA family as well as our commercial and government partners around the world, for taking us a step beyond to Mars...."

I enjoyed listening to Administrator Bolden's speech.

It's a 'first,' although we've had the technology for sound transmissions from Mars for more than a decade. Curiosity's Monday voice transmission was, I think, more about encouraging folks to think about what we can look forward to, than a technical or scientific milestone.



I tweaked the embed code NASA provided, in an effort to fit their video player's controls into this blog's format. It worked for me: but if you have trouble, I recommend viewing "Interplanetary Voicemail" on NASA's website.

I also made a low-resolution version, in case NASA reorganizes their site before you see this post:

"First Recorded Voice from Mars"

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology (August 27, 2012)
video, 1:33 (file size: about 10.8 MB)

The server for the low-res. version is nowhere near as fast as NASA's, so the file may take quite a few minutes to load.

'And Now, a Song'

There's another recording stored on Curiosity: "Reach for the Stars," by will.i.am:

• "Curiosity Rover Plays First Song Transmitted From Another Planet"
  Mission News, NASA (August 28, 2012)

The audio quality was pretty good, although I was a little disappointed with the musical style. In the NASA video, will.i.am explained why he chose a rather 'classical' orchestral approach. I see his point: and agree that it was probably important to show a very 'human' sound coming from Mars.

Sounds of Mars - Maybe Next Time

The Mars planning FAQ page says that Curiosity doesn't carry a microphone, so we won't be hearing 'live from Mars' broadcasts. This time.

A late-20th-century Mars expedition carried a microphone. Signals from Mars Polar Lander ended on December 3, 1999, during descent to the Martian surface:

• Mars Polar Lander
  NASA
  • "What Sounds Will the Mars Microphone Record?"

Should We Stay, or Should We Go?

(from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, used w/o permission)
"...This image is a portion of a larger image taken by Curiosity's 100-millimeter Mast Camera on Aug. 23, 2012. See PIA16104. Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain...."

"NASA Rover Returns Voice, Telephoto Views From Mars"
Mission News, NASA (August 27, 2012)

"...In spoken words radioed to the rover on Mars and back to NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden ... said curiosity is what drives humans to explore.

" 'The knowledge we hope to gain from our observation and analysis of Gale Crater will tell us much about the possibility of life on Mars as well as the past and future possibilities for our own planet. Curiosity will bring benefits to Earth and inspire a new generation of scientists and explorers, as it prepares the way for a human mission in the not too distant future,' Bolden said in the recorded message.

"The voice playback was released along with new telephoto camera views of the varied Martian landscape during a news conference today at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif...."

My faith doesn't depend on learning more about this astonishingly vast and complex creation. On the other hand, I don't see a point in cultivating ignorance of the wonders God surrounds us with.

Postcards From Mars

Here's a closer look at the center of that photo.


(from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, used w/o permission)
"...For scale, an annotated version of the figure highlights a dark rock that is approximately the same size as Curiosity. The pointy mound in the center of the image, looming above the rover-sized rock, is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and 300 feet (100 meters) high."

Scientists figured the terrain in Gale Crater would be interesting. I don't think they expected to see something like this, though:


(from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, used w/o permission)
"This image taken by the Mast Camera (MastCam) on NASA's Curiosity rover highlights the interesting geology of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed. ... "
What's intriguing about this photo are the strata - more-or-less horizontal layers on the face of Mount Sharp. What's unusual about this set of layers is that the upper ones are tilted quite a bit more than the ones underneath. the dividing line between those two zones runs roughly across the middle of the photo.

Strata being at different angles isn't at all unusual here on Earth - it has to do with plate tectonics, according to a fellow in a NASA news conference. But around here, it's normal for the upper set of layers to be much more horizontal than the lower ones: the opposite of what's happened on Mars.

It's another puzzle - I'm pretty sure that we'll find more. I hope so, anyway: maybe some answers, too.

Related posts:

• Two millennia, one message
  
  • " 'The World is On Fire' - Again: Saint Teresa of Avila and the New Evangelization"
    (July 22, 2012)
  • "Annus Fidei/Year of Faith: New From the Vatican, Online"
    (June 22, 2012)
  • "Spreading the Gospel, Social Media, a 10-Point List, and All That"
    (July 8, 2012)
  • "Catholics, Credulity, and Credibility"
    (February 12, 2012)
  • "Same Mission, Same Basic Message, New Century"
    (May 31, 2011)
• A little history
  
  • "A Little Look at the Big Picture"
    (February 13, 2012)
  • "HHS Mandate, Catholic Bishops, and Foster Auditorium"
    (February 12, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Current Events and Getting a Grip
  • "We Won: Quite a While Ago"
    (January 13, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Wildly Improbable Survival
  • "Copernicus, Galileo, Science, and a Reality Check"
    (October 26, 2009)
  • "You Think You've Got Troubles? Remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer"
    (May 17, 2009)
• Surrounded by marvels
  
  • "Principles, Politics, Parkas, and a Robot on Mars"
    (August 17, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Messages from Mars
  • "Taking Life a Thousand Years at a Time"
    (June 10, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Overwhelmingly Huge
    • Still Declaring the Glory of God
  • "Ancient Style and Today's Discussions at the 'Vatican Science Academy' "
    (October 2, 2011)
  • "Earth May Not Be a 'Class M' Planet"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (December 5, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Doesn't Everybody Dream of Flying?
  • "Astrobiology, the Vatican, and the Meaning of Our Existence"
    (November 12, 2009)