What About a Microwave?

Hey ya, hey ya, Arinze's back... and, per usual, it's gonna be trouble.

Every summer, as he has since the late '80s, the prefect of CDW is doing his summer stock for the Conikers in Steubenville, where he speaks to sell-out crowds of families who water-slide by day at the amusement park/Inn of the (Catholic) Dove.

But as the newly-minted cardinal-bishop (filling Ratzi's slot) can't be kept down for long, Ann Rodgers reminds us that an Arinze appearance is always a newsworthy event:

After giving a speech on the importance of the Eucharist for family life, he took written questions on a wide range of topics at a benefit dinner at the Le Mont restaurant on Mount Washington for the Apostolate for Family Consecration in Bloomingdale, Ohio. One question concerned whether Catholic legislators who support legal abortion should "be refused" Communion.

"Should the person be given [Communion]? And I ask you, do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to find the answer?" he said to laughter and applause from an audience of 120 ardent Catholics. "Are there no children from First Communion to whom you can pose the question and receive the answer? You do not need a cardinal to answer that. Because it is a straightforward matter."

My favorite Arinze quote -- and he's basically got a monopoly on the Quote Hall of Fame, Rome Division -- was at a 2004 press briefing when he told the assembled: "The church is alive. It is not in the Vatican museums or sealed like some kind of 'ecclesiastical refrigerator.'"

Hmm... well the Fridge Man needs to get the American bishops out of the cold real quick. Because that's where he's put them. Again.

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