What a spectacular movie! I went to see the new 'end of the world' film yesterday and was thoroughly entertained. It contains possibly the best special effects that I have yet seen from Hollywood, although it is very low on acting. Youtube videos of volcanos and tsunamis are paltry in comparison with the way the earth is devastated in '2012'.
However, as a portrayal of the end of the world/age, the makers of this film have got things the wrong way round. In the film, the end of this age ushers in the Kingdom of Man without God, a new world order in which man, liberated from any residual reference to God, can make a fresh start. It is noteworthy that any characters in the film who are still 'tied' to God, in prayer for instance, are all swept away in one of many enormous tsunamis. Only those who 'wisely' rely on themselves survive. It is a film made for a world that is expecting its own judgement.
The truth about the end of the world is quite the opposite of this; God will establish His Kingdom through a total renewal of Creation. For those who rely on Him there will be nothing to fear, for God, and not man nor any other power, will be victorious.
The Great Tribulation, the AntiChrist and the appearing of the Restrainer, are certainly a part of the age in which we are living, but this period of Tribulation cannot prevail against God and the establishment of His Kingdom - which will occur at the end of time. In fact, Satan is already defeated, so what we experience in this age is a Spiritual warfare - that there are forces which are trying to hold out against God, in the face of defeat. The Resurrection of Christ from the dead is the central event of human history, and Christ is offered to us, by God, as the way in which to live during these times. Christ died and rose that God may be all in all. At the end of this age, Christ will destroy all fallen powers, sin and death, and will inaugurate the Kingdom of God: the world made new. Those who have lived in Christ will be raised from the dead, in glory. Their resurrected bodies, and souls, will be subject to God and not to sin. There will be no dishonour, decay, disease or death. We will be free to live complete communion with God and with one another. This age in which we are living is then an age of the testing of human beings - to be for God or against Him, and for our proving in grace.
But it is not at all surprising then, that we should see cultural forms which express a lie about the present age and the age to come, placing human self-affirmation as the essential ingredient of human history, and expressing the spirit of the anti-Christ. Who are these film-makers and Hollywood subject to? To which authority do they submit? God or the anti-Christ.
By the way, our planet is amongst the most stable planets in the known Universe.
Practically speaking, yes. Paganism is essentially about me; old-fashioned selfishness, me first. Christianity on the other hand, is about God and what He is doing. Being a man or being a woman is a part of what God has done and is doing. There is no difference between the dignity of man and of woman, but both express, and are called to express, the way in which we relate with one another and with God. Men, by being masculine, express the way in which God relates with man; women, by being feminine, express the way in which man relates with God. Which is it better to be: man or woman? This question is, of course, absurd. The one doesn't have a dignity greater than the other, but both are called to submit themselves to the order which the Creator has established. According to Brant Pitre, the most masculine words ever spoken were: "This is my body, given for you", and the most feminine words ever spoken were: "Be it done unto me according to your word". Christ, in these words, reveals what it is to be a man. Mary, in her words, reveals what it is to be a woman. The love God has for us He has inscribed in our very nature. Women seeking the priesthood is like Eve reaching out to take the Divine Life for herself rather than waiting to receive it. Taking it for herself, rather than receiving it. The contemporary confusion over what it means to be a man or a woman, especially with regard to the question of women priests and civil unions, is a form of paganism, for it is a rejection of the prerogative of God and of His plan of love for us. The mission that men have to image God, and the mission that women have to image humanity, goes right to the heart of human life before God. To do away with these missions is to set ourselves up in defiance of God and to live in way which does not image God's plan for us, but our own plan, which of old set us against Him.
The lecture delivered, by Archbishop Williams, at the Gregorian University in Rome two days ago reveals the myth under which much of England has lived for almost half a millenium. Telling the Catholic Church that its refusal to ordain women is an abstacle to Christian unity, is a living sign of just how far gone is the English myth. A myth created by Elizabeth and her father, and embraced by the whole establishment: that the English way, which we have devised for ourselves, is right and proper, just about the best the world can offer, and that everyone should think of giving it a go. 
