Actually you didn't have too far to go, once you recognized that the womb was an organic aspect of the whole body, not a disposable pouch. The trouble with modern Western medicine is that it is based on a materialistic metaphysics, which is powerful as long as you are dealing with material causes (and it seems to be the case that many diseases exhibit an imbalance in the lower orders of causality) but that is only the tip of the iceberg, as it were. Of course it is very tricky to determine what is the real wisdom in the more ancient approaches to medicine, even more difficult to know whether it still works in present circumstances or to know what to do to make it work. The "New Age" does this all very stupidly. But of course none of the ancient traditions was simply foolish.
A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday I felled a small wild cherry tree, sawed it up and split it. Not one minute of the work was dull. I didn’t wonder what the world was up to. When you open up cherry, all you want to do is smell it and look at it and open up more of it. I can’t say the same about what I did Monday to Friday, much of which involved managing—nay, fending off—electronic distractions.James Tiberius Kirk didn't get to be the youngest-ever captain of a Constellation class starship by spending his youth playing internet computer games, and Jack Aubrey was learning the ropes (literally) on the high seas when he was 14. Lord Baden Powell began serving in the army at 19 and defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking in the Second Boer War. Churchill too fought bravely in the Boer War before going on to become Prime Minister and trounce the Hun.
ENGLISH
Dear Blogger,
As you should be aware, you have been selected to attend the Vatican Meeting with Bloggers on Monday 2 May 2011.
Please come to the Palazzo Pio X entrance on via dell’ospedale, which is off via della Conciliazione, 5, at 3.30pm.
This invitation is strictly personal and you are asked to bring some form of Proof of Identity.
We remind you that as the event has been timed to coincide with the Beatification of John Paul II, we are not supplying assistance with travel, lodging or visa costs or logistics.
We are greatly encouraged by the warm response to this event
and the various parallel initiatives, including the creation of other meetings and groups, [HAW!!] a facebook page, a wikispaces, twitter, and the live feeds being set up for the meeting.
Please see www.pccs.va for the programme and any further details that may emerge.
If you are unable to come in person, it would be useful if you were to let us know.
If you are coming, we look forward to meeting you.
Yours, in the joy of the Risen Lord,
Richard Rouse
O let us make up our minds to something; let us be resolved one way or the other; let us be either cold or hot; choose life or death. Choose now and choose wisely, for one false choice may become eternal.Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, a British Lion of the Faith.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical surgery in locally advanced cervical cancer. Prognostic factors for response and survival
Between January 1986 and September 1988, 75 patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics [FIGO] Stages IB–III) received three courses of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), [That's what they're thinking of giving me. It means a short course of chemo before surgery to reduce the size of the tumour.] including cisplatin, bleomycin, and methotrexate (PBM). Fifteen percent of patients achieved a complete response (CR) [Holy crap!] and 68% a partial response (PR). [That means that the treatment worked at least to some degree in 83% of cases.]
Pretreatment characteristics were analyzed for response to NAC. Significantly lower response rates were found in patients with tumor size more than 5 cm in diameter and bilateral parametrial involvement to the pelvic side wall. [Well, that sort of stands to reason, one would think. That's some pretty seriously advanced cancer.]
None of the biological parameters studied was related to chemoresponsiveness. Patients achieving CR or PR had a significantly improved 3-year survival rate compared with those who did not respond. [Again, one would think...]
After NAC, radical surgery was possible in all responding patients. The median number of lymph nodes removed was 60. A lower than expected incidence of lymph node metastases was detected. None of the clinical and pathologic features considered was significantly correlated with the lymph node status.
Twelve of the 62 operated patients had disease recurrence. [Don't forget, we're talking about a total of 75 patients with stages 1B through 3, so that doesn't seem too bad.] Pathologic parametrial involvement and cervical infiltration equal to or deeper than 5 mm were found to be significant prognostic factors for recurrence. [That means 'late stage' in layman's terms.]
A 3-year, disease-free survival of 89%, 73%, and 43% for Stage IB –IIA, IIB, and III, respectively, was found. Among the operated patients these rates increased to 100%, 81%, and 66% for Stage IB –IIA, IIB, and III, respectively.
Dear miss White,
I will be glad to give you all the information you need
I will contact you in the next few days.
Best regards
Giovanni Scambia
"Vai via, non sono una putana! Sono sposata e ho dodici bambini e mio zio e un padre padrone nella Curia e mia zia e una stregha."
"I would like to suggest the new Pope Benedict XVI drinking game for those who believe in celebrating for octaves of feasts in the traditional manner. The new drink was suggested by John at Disputations. Tak...e a pint of Bavarian beer in a German stein and a shot glass of Benedictine. Sink the shot glass into the beer stein. Whenever you come across a news article or hear something on the radio that has some liberal/commie/feminist/apostate layman with a PhD in pastoral theology whining that this is the end of their revolutionary stranglehold on the Church, stand up, yell, Viva Papa! and chug it down.
If it is a priest [being interviewed] sing the Te Deum in Latin after knocking it back.
If it is a bishop, and he mentions either 'collegiality' or 'ecumenical dialogue,' repeat step one while dancing in the street."
I suggested that we will shortly be in a crisis situation in which people are going to stop being afraid of him altogether! We have to move on to phase II and just plainly start making stuff up. I suggested that we put it about that he likes cats because he needs something to feed to his rottweiler, thus in one go, dispelling the cuddly cat-lover image and reminding people of the rottweiler connection. Too much of this huggy "God's German Shepherd business..."
Warren didn't send this one out the whole Dogans list, so I felt obliged to share his contribution to the papal chants.
"Perhaps it would be better to refer to His Holiness as "Benito XVI", instead of the "Benedetto" the Vatican insists on using. We might also encourage trads in the loop to shout "Benito, Benito!" whenever he comes in view.
And, to go into cheerleading routines, uttering such approving slogans as,
'Mussolini, what a weenie! Benito, Benito, sweet sixteen!'
The new pope speaks to the inner adult in all of us...Did you see them running to St. Peter's Square as the bells began to toll?
They came running in from the offices and streets of Rome, running in their business suits, in jeans with backpacks over their shoulders. The networks kept showing it in their wide shots as they filled time between the ringing of the bells and the balcony scene.
Why did they gather? Why did they have to hear?
The faith is dead in Europe, everyone knows that. So why did they come?
why did so many weep as the new pope came out? Why did they chant "Benedict, Benedict" as he stood at the balcony? Why were they jubilant?
Woke up to listen to the CBC moaning about what a bad sign it is that his first homily was given entirely in Lain. I did a victory dance and started the day with a big smile, exactly the way I ended the day yesterday.
As for the CBC, I am surprised it took them until 10 am to get hold of Joanna Manning. "It's the end of the line for people like me..."
Te Deum Laudamus!!!
I know that in fact, he is nothing like the martinet they have built him up to be. We had, after all, 24 years of him in the CDF and not one excommunication for heresy, nothing but gentle little slaps on the wrist for the ones who really refused to stop denying the Divinity of Christ and on and on. But I think that even the perception of 'rigid conservatism' is going to work wonders.
The commies and feminists immediately started braying they would give up their 40 year fight. I hardly dare to hope that after their revolution and their oppressive 4 decade long occupation that we would so easily have achieved liberation from their regime in one moment. But if the reputation of being the big bad bogey man that they themselves have created is enough to have them running scared into the hills, who am I to criticize. Demoralization is an important weapon in war, even if the propaganda is patently false. It helps immensely if the propaganda has been promoted by the enemy. I'll take it. If it looks like it will scare them away and help Catholics get their Church back, I will be happy to perpetuate the myth of the PanzerKardinal...
[...]
My only worry is that they are going to remember that all their fears about him are ones they themselves invented and try to muscle back in before we have changed the locks.
UPDATE 3: So, it turns out that the people in the Vatican DO have a sense of irony after all. Looks like I'm going to be attending their official blogger conference, along with Kat and a couple of other of our favourite bloggie buddies. Congratulations to all the ones who made the list, but please don't let it stop you from signing in as "Attending" on the page. RSVP, people! It's manners!
UPDATE 2: Just spoke to the proprietor of Scholars Lounge pub and all looks just fine. He's got Wifi, a good sound system, loads of room in a newly built space and would love to have a bunch of bloggers come and drink his beer. Meeting with him on Saturday to firm up the plans.
UPDATE: Keynote speaker will be the rootin' tootin' Michael Voris of Real Catholic TV.com and The Vortex, speaking on
"How the blogs and 'new media' are shaping the New Evangelisation"
Do you have a blog on which you write about Catholic stuff?
Do you read Catholic blogs?
Do you comment on Catholic blogs?
Are you planning on going to Rome for the Beatification of John Paul II?
Are you pretty sure you're not going to get invited to the Vatican's blognic?
Do you suspect that they found your work just a leeetle too ... err... forthcoming about the bishops, the Church, the state of things?
Well, why not come to the *other* Catholic blogger Rome blognic...
and talk about what *YOU* want to talk about...
Ours will be FUN!
AND we'll have beer...
AND pizza...
AND we'll let you come in your pyjamas if you want.
Tell your bloggy friends and enemies.
Where?
We're still in the process of organising this (since we just dreamed it up on Friday). More details about location will follow, but right now we're looking at a very central venue, Scholar's Lounge Pub, the home of the Rome Pub Quiz, which is on all the Centro's bus and tram routes. So it will be an easy access to wherever you'll be camping for the Beatification.
Things we do know:
1) you will be allowed to talk about whatever YOU want
2) No Vatican prelate will "engage you in a meaningful dialogue"
3) the talks will all be in English
4) all the cool kids will be there
For now, the plan is to have two formal "talks," in the style of Theology on Tap: a keynote and a panel. We'll discuss the general state of things, the impact of the "new media" on the Church at the local and international level, the contributions of bloggers to the various Catholic public debates etc (see topic suggestions below).
The rest of the time will be in "small breakout discussion groups" (IOW, sitting around in the pub drinking and talking).
Also, we're going to do our best to get Wifi so you can liveblog it, and we can maybe set up some Skype calls or iChat thingies for people whose bodies can't make it so at least their heads can be there. And we'll see what we can do about getting the thing on video so it can go up on YouTube.
AND, if all goes as planned, there will be discounts for drinks for those who are registered before the event.
"Sounds GREAT! What can I do to help put it together?"
First thing to do is cut and paste this post into your blog (or other new media thingy) and start drumming up interest.
Next, think of three or more Catholic bloggers who fit the following criteria:
1) could be described, in the immortal words of John Allen and at least one influential cleric, "Taliban Catholics"
2) blogs about Catholic stuff
3) is likely to be in Rome for the Beatification anyway
...and invite them to join this facebook event page.
Next, suggest topics you'd like to hear talked about. So far we've had:
1) Whatever the hell we damn well want to talk about
2) "blogging until something happens"
- the intolerable silence of injustice has been disturbed and even destroyed
- the power of the blogs efforts in transparency and accountability
3) "I am not alone"
- isolationism and the iconoclasm
4) Why is the Catholic bloggosphere so nearly uniformly "conservative," pro-Benedict and, above all, young?
5) Are we really "making a difference" or is it really all just narcissism?
6) exchanging stories: how have Catholic blogs, websites and "new media" actually made a concrete difference to the Church or to real people?
~
That's what I thought about the Rome blognic, where loads of Catholic bloggers are invited, only to be confronted by a stern faced Cardinal Sodano of greasing the wheels for Marcel Maciel infamy and an even less amused Cardinal Schonborn, still reeling from the worldwide viewed footage of that clown youth Mass in Vienna. "Turn back everyone! It's a trap!" the bloggers cry, but it is too late! All the bloggers are rounded up and then turned into 'carbonite' by Cardinal Sodano who is now dressed as Bobba Fett, the bounty hunter.
But even if the motives are honourable, I do think that once you have a Guild of Catholic Bloggers, you have an acceptable mainstream face of blogging. You have something that can be leaned on and coerced in to expecting certain behaviour of it's members. You can say that you have the only real version of what Catholic blogging looks like and anybody else isn't really a Catholoc blogger.
Hilary White ... 3 hours ago in reply to Quareitur
Man, you English bloggers treat each other badly.
Good thing your guild idea won't work. I'd hate to be the one cleaning up the mess after the meetings.
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Hilary White [Moderator] 0 minutes ago in reply to Hilary White
Don't edit me! I said you treat each other like crap and that's what I meant.
And I can't believe what a pack of nervous nellies y'all are.
Although there have been important advances in the management of women with cervical cancer, the optimal treatment for patients with locally recurrent and metastatic disease is still problematic, and there are relatively few randomized trials to guide treatment decisions. This paper reviews the approach to management of patients who relapse after primary treatment for cervical cancer. Patients who are still potentially curable with radical treatment are identified, and the various treatment strategies are discussed. However, most women are treated with palliative intent...
A 10%-20% recurrence rate has been reported following primary surgery or radiotherapy in women with stage IB-IIA cervical tumors with no evidence of lymph node involvement...
The majority of recurrences occur within 2 years of diagnosis, and the prognosis is poor, with most patients dying as a result of uncontrolled disease. In a retrospective review of over 500 patients treated at the University of Kentucky, 31% of patients developed tumor recurrence, 58% of these recurred within 1 year and 76% within 2 years.
In this series, only 6% of patients with recurrent tumor survived 3 years. While it is possible to identify subgroups of patients with recurrent cervical cancer who have a substantially better prognosis than this and in whom the objective of treatment is cure, 50%-60% of patients have disease situated beyond the pelvis, which, with few exceptions, is incurable, and treatment is given with palliative intent, as is the case for most patients with pelvic side wall involvement by recurrent cervical cancer..
Most patients who relapse locally after primary radiotherapy are not candidates for further radiotherapy, and pelvic exenterative surgery is the only potentially curative approach for these patients. The 5-year survival rate for patients who undergo total pelvic exenteration ranges from 30%-60%...
Censorship is Bad - Always
by Michael Sean Winters on Apr. 13, 2011
The Diocese of Scranton and Marywood University recently cancelled a speech planned by Michael Voris, an obnoxious rightwing personality who runs the outfit "RealCatholicTV." Earlier this year, a bishop told me, "Funny thing is that his show is not real and it isn't Catholic."
Now, it is puzzling to me why anyone would invite the spewer of right-wing agitprop to rant on campus in the first place. But, censorship is not the answer. Let people hear Mr. Voris's paranoid fantasies about unorthodox bishops and the USCCB's supposed collusion with the Culture of Death. There is nothing attractive about his rants. The best way to expose a scoundrel is to shine the light of day on him.
What is wrong with the official meeting? Aren't you being quite biased in your own links? Some bloggers loyal to the magisterium don't all link to the same bloggers..perhaps a third meeting could include them..
Hi Jackie,
Maybe you could read the posts around town about "what's wrong with the official meeting". A lot of people are talking about it, but most of all, what's wrong with it is the infinitessimal chance I have of being invited.
As I've said (many times now) I didn't want to miss out on the fun, so I'm having this one so I don't have to.
And yes, I'm being biased in my links. These are the blogs I happen to like. I invited them because they're the ones I pay attention to.
You will note, however, that the call is for people to invite whatever Catholic bloggers they want, and for any and all Catholic bloggers to invite themselves.
I don't have a "selection criterion" except, "be a Catholic, a blogger and want to come".
It's a funny thing to be accused of exclusivity when I'm putting a public notice of my event on my blog and on facebook and begging bloggers to invite whomever.
But if there's one thing that characterises bloggers of all stripes it's the pleasure they take in sniping at each other.
Dear Friends
By 8am Monday morning we had received over 400 requests.
On Wednesday 13 April we will close the application process and sort out requests into categories of language, geography, typology etc. and where necessary we will draw lots to make the final selection.
On Saturday a list of participants will be posted on www.pccs.va We are heartened by the widespread interest, and ask you all to be patient with this effort to increase dialogue with the blogging community, and also to support us with your prayers.
Richard Rouse & Ariel Beramendi
"One of the things we are a little bit aware of is that sometimes the Catholic blogosphere can become a bit of a ghetto…rather than engaging in the world outside."
When asked if he thought there are risks associated with such an initiative, Dr. Rouse said he knew the meeting could be different than others hosted at the Vatican.
“Certainly we are aware that a blog meeting can sometimes be a blog-fest and sometimes it can be a blog-fight,” he said. “We are aware of that, but our intention here…is to start to engage in a first step with Catholic bloggers. Further on down the line, I’m sure we will be able to articulate a more fulsome pastoral response to the reality, but first steps at a time.”
dedicated to the support of His Holiness Benedict XVI through prayer-based apostolic action. Traditional ROMAN CATHOLIC and loyally obedient to his authority as Successor of Peter.
My dear readers must judge for themselves whether I have calmed sufficiently to avoid a rant..
I am glad to see that Mulier Fortis agrees with me about the ridiculously short notice we have been given if we wish to have the slightest chance of attending the first Vatican blogging conference. In my turn, I agree with the other points Mac offers about expense and the difficulty of making arrangements at this late stage. The Vatican seems to have launched this initiative on the basis of some questionable assumptions.
1. that we can all afford to go to Rome at the drop of a hat. (There seems to be total unawareness that many of us blog simply BECAUSE it is a CHEAP way of keeping in touch with the Church at large, and of sharing out views.
2. that many of us will be in Rome anyway for the Beatification
3. that many of us do not have jobs which preclude any chance of our being there
4. that the majority of Catholic bloggers are 'young'. (see Rome reports video on Bones' blog) Of coursse the Church must attract and look after the 'young'. They are the future. But if you are between 40 and death, do you ever feel that the Church has forgotten about you?)
5. that in the terms they give, the Vatican thinks that with a full capacity of 150 (worldwide and from several different language groups) it can select a truly representative assembly.
SEVERAL QUESTIONS ARE BEGGED. According to the Catholic Herald 'hundreds' have applied already. Who is doing the sifting and how thoroughly? [and I would add, according to what and who's criteria?] Will a list of the successful applicants be published? Why the haste? How can such an event be properly organised within such a short time frame? Rome is usually much more cautious and thorough than this. It shouldn't be surprised that many of us are sceptical.
...whom I've never met and don't read all that often, frankly.
I have had many queries about whether or not I am going to be in Rome for the beatification of Pope John Paul II and the Vatican blogger meeting, which seems to be by Super-Double-Top-Secret Selection.
I am not going to be in Rome for the beatification.
But… I could be in Rome for something else at that time, including a Robber Council Rome Breakout Blognic (read = The Cool Kids Table) I am hearing about.
Great!
You can talk about whatever you like, as long as it's this
"How the blogs and 'new media' are shaping the New Evangelisation"
Now I've just got to get people to show up.
