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Subject: Re: [OMPI users] MPI_Alltoallv performance regression 1.6.0 to 1.6.1
From: Number Cruncher (number.cruncher_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-12-22 06:47:26
Thanks for the informative response. What I'm still not clear about is
whether there isn't a very simple optimization for the zero-size case.
If two processes know they aren't exchanging *any* data (which is known
from the argument list for all_to_allv), isn't there any network latency
or overhead in the sendrecv exchanges for this zero-exchange? The
previous algorithm just skipped this case; couldn't the pairwise one also?
On 21/12/2012 18:53, George Bosilca wrote:
> I can argue the opposite: in the most general case, each process will
> exchange data with all other processes, so a blocking approach as
> implemented in the current version make sense. As you noticed, this
> lead to poor results when the exchange pattern is sparse. We took what
> we believed is the most common usage of the alltoallv collective, and
> provided a default algorithm we consider the best for it (pairwise due
> to a tightly coupled structure of communications).
> However, as one of the main developers of the collective module, I'm
> not insensible to your argument. I would have loved to be able to
> alter the behavior of the alltoallv to adapt more carefully to the
> collective pattern itself. Unfortunately, it is very difficult as the
> alltoallv is one of the few collective, where the knowledge about the
> communication pattern is not evenly distributed among the peers (every
> rank knows only about the communications where it is involved). Thus,
> without requiring extra communications, the only valid parameter which
> can affect the selection of one of the underlying implementations is
> the number of participants in the collective (not even the number of
> participants exchanging real data, but the number of participants in
> the communicator). Not enough to make a smartest decision.
> As suggested several times already in this thread, there are quite a
> few MCA parameters that allow specialized behaviors for applications
> with communication patterns we did not considered as mainstream. You
> should definitively take advantage of these to further optimize your
> applications.
> George.
> On Dec 21, 2012, at 13:25 , Number Cruncher
> <number.cruncher_at_[hidden] <mailto:number.cruncher_at_[hidden]>>
> wrote:
>> I completely understand there's no "one size fits all", and I
>> appreciate that there are workarounds to the change in behaviour. I'm
>> only trying to make what little contribution I can by questioning the
>> architecture of the pairwise algorithm.
>> I know that for every user you please, there will be some that aren't
>> happy when a default changes (Windows 8 anyone?), but I'm trying to
>> provide some real-world data. If 90% of apps are 10% faster and 10%
>> are 1000% slower, should the default change?
>> all_to_all is a really nice primitive from a developer point of view.
>> Every process' code is symmetric and identical. Maybe I should have
>> to worry that most of the matrix exchange is sparse; I probably could
>> calculate an optimal exchange pattern. But I think this is the
>> implementation's job, and I will continue to argue that *waiting* for
>> each pairwise exchange is (a) unnecessary, (b) doesn't improve
>> performance for *any* application and (c) at worst causes huge
>> slowdown over the last algorithm for sparse cases.
>> In summary: I'm arguing that there's a problem with the pairwise
>> implementation as it stands. It doesn't have any optimization for
>> sparse all_to_all and imposes unnecessary synchronisation barriers in
>> all cases.
>> Simon
>> On 20/12/2012 14:42, Iliev, Hristo wrote:
>>> Simon,
>>> The goal of any MPI implementation is to be as fast as possible.
>>> Unfortunately there is no "one size fits all" algorithm that works on all
>>> networks and given all possible kind of peculiarities that your specific
>>> communication scheme may have. That's why there are different algorithms and
>>> you are given the option to dynamically select them at run time without the
>>> need to recompile the code. I don't think the change of the default
>>> algorithm (note that the pairwise algorithm has been there for many years -
>>> it is not new, simply the new default one) was introduced in order to piss
>>> users off.
>>> If you want OMPI to default to the previous algorithm:
>>> 1) Add this to the system-wide OMPI configuration file
>>> $sysconf/openmpi-mca-params.conf (wher $sysconf would most likely be
>>> $PREFIX/etc, where $PREFIX is the OMPI installation directory):
>>> coll_tuned_use_dynamic_rules = 1
>>> coll_tuned_alltoallv_algorithm = 1
>>> 2) The settings from (1) can be overridden on per user basis by the similar
>>> settings from $HOME/.openmpi/mca-params.conf.
>>> 3) The settings from (1) and (2) can be overridden on per job basis by
>>> exporting MCA parameters as environment variables:
>>> export OMPI_MCA_coll_tuned_use_dynamic_rules=1
>>> export OMPI_MCA_coll_tuned_alltoallv_algorithm=1
>>> 4) Finally, the settings from (1), (2), and (3) can be overridden on per MPI
>>> program launch by supplying appropriate MCA parameters to orterun (a.k.a.
>>> mpirun and mpiexec).
>>> There is also a largely undocumented feature of the "tuned" collective
>>> component where a dynamic rules file can be supplied. In the file a series
>>> of cases tell the library which implementation to use based on the
>>> communicator and message sizes. No idea if it works with ALLTOALLV.
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Hristo
>>> (sorry for top posting - damn you, Outlook!)
>>> --
>>> Hristo Iliev, Ph.D. -- High Performance Computing
>>> RWTH Aachen University, Center for Computing and Communication
>>> Rechen- und Kommunikationszentrum der RWTH Aachen
>>> Seffenter Weg 23, D 52074 Aachen (Germany)
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From:users-bounces_at_[hidden] [mailto:users-bounces_at_[hidden]]
>>>> On Behalf Of Number Cruncher
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 5:31 PM
>>>> To: Open MPI Users
>>>> Subject: Re: [OMPI users] MPI_Alltoallv performance regression 1.6.0 to
>>>> 1.6.1
>>>> On 19/12/12 11:08, Paul Kapinos wrote:
>>>>> Did you *really* wanna to dig into code just in order to switch a
>>>>> default communication algorithm?
>>>> No, I didn't want to, but with a huge change in performance, I'm forced to
>>> do
>>>> something! And having looked at the different algorithms, I think there's
>>> a
>>>> problem with the new default whenever message sizes are small enough
>>>> that connection latency will dominate. We're not all running Infiniband,
>>> and
>>>> having to wait for each pairwise exchange to complete before initiating
>>>> another seems wrong if the latency in waiting for completion dominates the
>>>> transmission time.
>>>> E.g. If I have 10 small pairwise exchanges to perform,isn't it better to
>>> put all
>>>> 10 outbound messages on the wire, and wait for 10 matching inbound
>>>> messages, in any order? The new algorithm must wait for first exchange to
>>>> complete, then second exchange, then third. Unlike before, does it not
>>> have
>>>> to wait to acknowledge the matching *zero-sized* request? I don't see why
>>>> this temporal ordering matters.
>>>> Thanks for your help,
>>>> Simon
>>>>> Note there are several ways to set the parameters; --mca on command
>>>>> line is just one of them (suitable for quick online tests).
>>>>> http://www.open-mpi.org/faq/?category=tuning#setting-mca-params
>>>>> We 'tune' our Open MPI by setting environment variables....
>>>>> Best
>>>>> Paul Kapinos
>>>>> On 12/19/12 11:44, Number Cruncher wrote:
>>>>>> Having run some more benchmarks, the new default is *really* bad for
>>>>>> our application (2-10x slower), so I've been looking at the source to
>>>>>> try and figure out why.
>>>>>> It seems that the biggest difference will occur when the all_to_all
>>>>>> is actually sparse (e.g. our application); if most N-M process
>>>>>> exchanges are zero in size the 1.6
>>>>>> ompi_coll_tuned_alltoallv_intra_basic_linear algorithm will actually
>>>>>> only post irecv/isend for non-zero exchanges; any zero-size exchanges
>>>>>> are skipped. It then waits once for all requests to complete. In
>>>>>> contrast, the new ompi_coll_tuned_alltoallv_intra_pairwise will post
>>>>>> the zero-size exchanges for
>>>>>> *every* N-M pair, and wait for each pairwise exchange. This is
>>>>>> O(comm_size)
>>>>>> waits, may of which are zero. I'm not clear what optimizations there
>>>>>> are for zero-size isend/irecv, but surely there's a great deal more
>>>>>> latency if each pairwise exchange has to be confirmed complete before
>>>>>> executing the next?
>>>>>> Relatedly, how would I direct OpenMPI to use the older algorithm
>>>>>> programmatically? I don't want the user to have to use "--mca" in
>>>>>> their "mpiexec". Is there a C API?
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Simon
>>>>>> On 16/11/12 10:15, Iliev, Hristo wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi, Simon,
>>>>>>> The pairwise algorithm passes messages in a synchronised ring-like
>>>>>>> fashion with increasing stride, so it works best when independent
>>>>>>> communication paths could be established between several ports of
>>>>>>> the network switch/router. Some 1 Gbps Ethernet equipment is not
>>>>>>> capable of doing so, some is - it depends (usually on the price).
>>>>>>> This said, not all algorithms perform the same given a specific type
>>>>>>> of network interconnect. For example, on our fat-tree InfiniBand
>>>>>>> network the pairwise algorithm performs better.
>>>>>>> You can switch back to the basic linear algorithm by providing the
>>>>>>> following MCA parameters:
>>>>>>> mpiexec --mca coll_tuned_use_dynamic_rules 1 --mca
>>>>>>> coll_tuned_alltoallv_algorithm 1 ...
>>>>>>> Algorithm 1 is the basic linear, which used to be the default.
>>>>>>> Algorithm 2
>>>>>>> is the pairwise one.
>>>>>>> You can also set these values as exported environment variables:
>>>>>>> export OMPI_MCA_coll_tuned_use_dynamic_rules=1
>>>>>>> export OMPI_MCA_coll_tuned_alltoallv_algorithm=1
>>>>>>> mpiexec ...
>>>>>>> You can also put this in $HOME/.openmpi/mcaparams.conf or (to make
>>>>>>> it have global effect) in $OPAL_PREFIX/etc/openmpi-mca-params.conf:
>>>>>>> coll_tuned_use_dynamic_rules=1
>>>>>>> coll_tuned_alltoallv_algorithm=1
>>>>>>> A gratuitous hint: dual-Opteron systems are NUMAs so it makes sense
>>>>>>> to activate process binding with --bind-to-core if you haven't
>>>>>>> already did so.
>>>>>>> It prevents MPI processes from being migrated to other NUMA nodes
>>>>>>> while running.
>>>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>>>> Hristo
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Hristo Iliev, Ph.D. -- High Performance Computing RWTH Aachen
>>>>>>> University, Center for Computing and Communication
>>>>>>> Rechen- und Kommunikationszentrum der RWTH Aachen Seffenter Weg
>>>> 23,
>>>>>>> D 52074 Aachen (Germany)
>>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>>> From:users-bounces_at_[hidden]
>>>>>>>> [mailto:users-bounces_at_[hidden]]
>>>>>>>> On Behalf Of Number Cruncher
>>>>>>>> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 5:37 PM
>>>>>>>> To: Open MPI Users
>>>>>>>> Subject: [OMPI users] MPI_Alltoallv performance regression 1.6.0 to
>>>>>>>> 1.6.1
>>>>>>>> I've noticed a very significant (100%) slow down for MPI_Alltoallv
>>>>>>>> calls
>>>>>>> as of
>>>>>>>> version 1.6.1.
>>>>>>>> * This is most noticeable for high-frequency exchanges over 1Gb
>>>>>>>> ethernet where process-to-process message sizes are fairly small
>>>>>>>> (e.g.
>>>>>>>> 100kbyte)
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>> much of the exchange matrix is sparse.
>>>>>>>> * 1.6.1 release notes mention "Switch the MPI_ALLTOALLV default
>>>>>>>> algorithm to a pairwise exchange", but I'm not clear what this
>>>>>>>> means or how to
>>>>>>> switch
>>>>>>>> back to the old "non-default algorithm".
>>>>>>>> I attach a test program which illustrates the sort of usage in our
>>>>>>>> MPI application. I have run as this as 32 processes on four nodes,
>>>>>>>> over 1Gb ethernet, each node with 2x Opteron 4180 (dual hex-core);
>>>>>>>> rank 0,4,8,..
>>>>>>>> on node 1, rank 1,5,9, ... on node 2, etc.
>>>>>>>> It constructs an array of integers and a nProcess x nProcess
>>>>>>>> exchange
>>>>>>> typical
>>>>>>>> of part of our application. This is then exchanged several thousand
>>>>>>>> times.
>>>>>>>> Output from "mpicc -O3" runs shown below.
>>>>>>>> My guess is that 1.6.1 is hitting additional latency not present in
>>>>>>>> 1.6.0.
>>>>>>> I also
>>>>>>>> attach a plot showing network throughput on our actual mesh
>>>>>>>> generation application. Nodes cfsc01-04 are running 1.6.0 and
>>>>>>>> finish within 35
>>>>>>> minutes.
>>>>>>>> Nodes cfsc05-08 are running 1.6.2 (started 10 minutes later) and
>>>>>>>> take over
>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>>> hour to run. There seems to be a much greater network demand in the
>>>>>>>> 1.6.1
>>>>>>>> version, despite the user-code and input data being identical.
>>>>>>>> Thanks for any help you can give,
>>>>>>>> Simon
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> users mailing list
>>>>>> users_at_[hidden]
>>>>>> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> users mailing list
>>>> users_at_[hidden]
>>>> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> users mailing list
>>>> users_at_[hidden]
>>>> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
>> _______________________________________________
>> users mailing list
>> users_at_[hidden] <mailto:users_at_[hidden]>
>> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list
> users_at_[hidden]
> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
The TestsAs with my previous browser tests, I installed completely fresh copies of the three browsers on my Windows Vista laptop, with all settings left to defaults. With the second beta of Internet Explorer 8, I reset the browser to factory settings and chose whatever Microsoft suggested during the click-through setup. My test system has the same specs as before: A 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, and running Windows Vista Home Premium. For the time-based tests, I again used Rob Keir's ultra-lightweight timer app , simultaneously tapping the "\" key with "Enter" to launch a browser shortcut or folder full of bookmarks. I performed each test on each browser three times and averaged out the results, while eliminating obvious oddities. (With Vista's often empirical hard drive usage, there were definitely artificially long start-ups). It's the same system I used to test Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 RC3, Safari for Windows, and Opera 9.5 , so you can make fair comparisons between all the browsers. It's not scientific in the strict sense, but it's meant to measure browser performance as real humans experience it—load, click, and wait.
Test 1: Startup Time—Winner: Chrome!Drawing inspiration again from Mark Wilton-Jones trend-setting tests , I timed each browser loading up "cold" load (straight off a system restart) and "warm" (having run twice already). I used a locally-saved copy of Google's minimalist home page to negate net connection variations, and, to compensate for Vista's start-up fickleness, timed each browser exactly two minutes after boot-up. Here are the first results: Note the small scale of the time on the X-axis: Even though Chrome was (quite surprisingly) slower at startup than Firefox or even IE 8, it's less than a second of difference between them all. That's a bit more than an error from my twitchy fingers, but probably not enough to rate any one browser on. Let's check out the warm boots: As you can see, Chrome's noticeably fast on reload, although all the results are so close it's hard to confidently crown a winner. Just like last time, IE 8 slightly edges out Firefox on warm boots, but lags just a bit behind when starting up. You don't start your browser to look at clean, white, locally-saved pages, do you? No, you speed around your must-visit sites, and often keep a bushel of them open at once. For the next test, I led each browser page-by-page through the assortment of web sites pictured at right—some heavy with interactive elements, some just text and pictures—before jumping back to a blank page (entering
does this in any browser) and loading all the links at once. Each browser keeps a spinning icon on tabs as they load, so I measured from first click to the last tab settling in.
IE 8 and Chrome clock in too close to call, but Firefox fell behind. Based on the minuscule difference in cold-boot time and the two warm tests, I'd call Chrome the fastest, but definitely hand IE 8 a Most Improved Player trophy at the awards banquet.


text:
Simple Definition of ghostwrite
: to write (something, such as a book) for someone else using that person's name
Full Definition of ghostwrite
ghostwroteplay \-ˌrōt\
ghostwrittenplay \-ˌri-tən\
intransitive verb
: to write for and in the name of another
transitive verb
: to write (as a speech) for another who is the presumed author
See ghostwrite defined for English-language learners
See ghostwrite defined for kids
Examples of ghostwrite in a sentence
She was hired to ghostwrite the mayor's autobiography.
Origin and Etymology of ghostwrite
back-formation from ghostwriter
First Known Use: 1927
Rhymes with ghostwrite
affright, air right, airtight, albite, Albright, alight, all right, all-night, a mite, aright, backbite, backlight, bauxite, bedight, birthright, black light, bleed white, bobwhite, bombsight, box kite, calcite, campsite, catfight, cockfight, contrite, cordite, Cushite, daylight, deadlight, delight, dendrite, despite, dogfight, downlight, downright, droplight, dust mite, earthlight, excite, eyebright, eyesight, fanlight, felsite, ferrite, finite, fire blight, firefight, firelight, first night, fistfight, flashlight, fleabite, floodlight, foresight, forthright, fortnight, freewrite, frostbite, Gadite, gall mite, gaslight, gastight, goethite, graphite, green light, gummite, gunfight, half-light, halite, Hamite, handwrite, headlight, highlight, hindsight, Hittite, homesite, hoplite, Hussite, ignite, illite, infight, in-flight, incite, indict, indite, insight, in sight, invite, jacklight, jadeite, key light, lamplight, late blight, leucite, Levite, lighttight, lignite, limelight, lintwhite, lowlight, Lucite, Luddite, lyddite, marmite, Melchite, Memphite, midnight, millwright, moonlight, New Right, night-light, nitrite, off-site, off-white, on sight, on-site, outright, outsight, partite, peep sight, penlight, perlite, playwright, polite, preflight, prizefight, pyrite, quartzite, ratite, recite, red light, red-light, requite, respite, rewrite, rushlight, rust mite, safelight, samite, searchlight, Semite, Servite, Shemite, Shiite, shipwright, sidelight, sit tight, skintight, skylight, skywrite, slant height, smectite, snakebite, snow-white, sound bite, spaceflight, spotlight, stage fright, starlight, sternite, sticktight, stoplight, streetlight, stylite, sulfite, sunlight, Sunnite, taillight, termite, thermite, tonight, torchlight, trothplight, Twelfth Night, twilight, twi-night, typewrite, unite, unsight, upright, uptight, wainwright, watch night, wax light, Web site, weeknight, wheelwright, white flight, white knight, x-height, zinc white
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up ghostwrite? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).


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Get noticed and help
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We show you how to make a difference ...
Get noticed and help
others by sharing your knowledge
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Welcome to Health&Fitness
Kent Johnston on Why USCA
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15 Wildly Misleading Movie Posters from Around the World
Sometimes a movie poster perfectly conveys the spirit of the movie it's advertising, effectively capsulizing every reason you should see the film into a single engrossing image. Other times, poster designers get handed the title of the film and a note that says "Use your imagination" in their mother tongue. That's the only possible explanation for these ...
#15. Return of the Jedi -- Russia
Who can forget Return of the Jedi, the classic tale of the one-eyed purple Nightmare-Gonzo and the green goblin who took off his winking aardvark mask? This list is full of posters with no clear correlation to the movies they supposedly represent, but at least you can tell what dimension they're supposed to be in. But this one takes place in a world in which the characters are two-dimensional chalk sketches layered on top of one another, while the shooting stars from every NBC "The More You Know" segment in the '90s converge to do battle in a three-dimensional sky.
Actually, two-dimensional characters stacked on top of each other in an awesome three-dimensional universe? Maybe they did know what franchise they were trying to draw after all.
#14. Jaws 2 -- Poland
You should already know by now that Polish movie posters are insane. But we've never seen the essence of Polish jokes so perfectly captured in a piece of art. Picture it: The designer of the submarine screen door comes in with an assignment to draw the poster for a movie titled Jaws 2 that's about a shark. The Polish poster designer stops painting Wite-Out on his computer screen and asks how a movie about one shark could be called Jaws 2. After an all-night brainstorm session, they arrive at the above diagram of one shark with two jaws and join their 30 colleagues in charge of spinning around the guy who holds the light bulb that needs screwing in.
#13. Surrogates -- USA
Admit it: She's still hot, even with a terminal case of Terminator abdomen. Unfortunately, Angelina Jolie is never caught off-guard while stripping down to reveal her amazing cyborg breasts. In fact, it doesn't feature Angelina Jolie at all. Surrogates takes place in a futuristic world where humans remote-control androids to live their lives for them so as to avoid any harm or imminent death. The movie tanked, presumably because the studio couldn't figure out a way to monetize the sighs of disappointed men.
#12. The Godfather -- Spain
This Spanish poster for The Godfather was based on an early draft of the script, in which a young Michael Corleone must choose between a life of managing his family's world-renowned spaghetti restaurant and his dreams of becoming a world champion chess player. Needless to say, not much of this original draft made it into the final film, although the knight chess piece did spark one pretty good idea in the minds of the screenwriters.
Either that, or Spanish people are super racist and decided that their fellow Spaniards would know that this wasn't a movie about chess if you put a forkful of spaghetti on there, since Italian people don't possess the mental faculties to play anything above checkers.
#11. Saving Private Ryan -- Poland
Leszek Zebrowski via Polish Poster
This poster was clearly designed by someone who stopped watching the movie as soon as the first character was killed and misunderstood the realistic violence to be an insult. At least they deleted the word bubble coming out of his mouth that said, "Uh look, I'm the stupid idiot who got shot in the head like DUHRRR." Either that, or the Polish release of the film is an alternate Lord of the Rings tale in which Gollum joins up with the Allies and promptly discovers that Normandy was a lot like Mordor, only with way more brain bits flying about.
#10. The Rules of Attraction -- USA
People always talk about thinking outside the box like it's a good thing. And here we see the other side of the coin: ideas that are just way too outside the box, otherwise known as stuffed animals fucking in different positions. In case you haven't seen The Rules of Attraction, it's a cross between American Psycho (based on a novel by the same author), a Tarantino movie (stylized camera angles, nonlinear storytelling) and Dawson's Creek (Dawson is the star, for some reason), and it has nothing to do with teddy bears eating pussy.
We have to imagine that thousands of people with strange stuffed-animal fetishes were disappointed. But not as disappointed as the thousands of children who had no way of knowing what those adorable animals were doing to each other.
#9. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan -- Germany
Captain Kirk? Spock? Fuck those guys (you too, Scotty) -- Star Trek is all about the Chekov.
#8. The Big Lebowski -- Poland
Andrzej Krajewski via Polish Poster
Once again, the poster designers of Poland have betrayed their habit of only watching a single scene of the film they're trying to capture. In this case, we get a crazily detailed Bayeux Tapestry devoted to the 90-second scene in which Walter and the Dude visit a boy named Little Larry's house and mistakenly beat the shit out of his neighbor's red sports car. We can tell they've seen that portion of the film because all of the characters are meticulously labeled and vaguely look like themselves. They've even reproduced a single snippet of dialogue -- the neighbor shouting "I just bought that car!" a line that is delivered during the neighbor's only 15 seconds onscreen.
This brings us to all the reasons they've clearly not seen a single frame of the rest of the film: The neighbor character getting the only speaking line on the poster for a movie in which he only has one speaking line. Depicting Little Larry as a sinister figure pulling the strings in a vast conspiracy, even though this is the last we ever see of him. Most baffling of all are the failed attempts to depict the major characters who don't appear in the scene: Maude, who is played by Julianne Moore, and not The Nanny-era Fran Drescher, as the poster suggests; Donny, who is not, as the poster would indicate, a tiny green red-headed alien; and the hilariously ass-backward Yosemite Sam-like appearance of the Buddha-like Cowboy. This is essentially the movie poster equivalent of telling a lie that just keeps building on itself until you don't know what you're saying anymore. Maybe just stick to drawing the first crazy Rorschach inkblot of madness that pops into your head upon hearing the title, Poland.


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1987 Dodge Ram D150 Drivetrain InstallationWritten by on July 1, 1999 Contributors: Jerry Pitt Installing Our 175hp Slant Six For Some Real On-Road Antics
Loose ends. They make up the majority of our projects, yet rarely does any magazine article do justice to those small, albeit important, components that are necessary to get the job done.
Our Project D150 was no exception. Certainly, rebuilding the engine to produce nearly double the horsepower and torque output of the Slant Six was a reasonable task. In doing so, it was well within the power range of a small-displacement Mopar small-block. Now the goal was to take the combination off the engine stand and get it firmly between the framerails.
Follow us through the minutiae involved with getting our D150 on the road, and see if our challenges assist you in getting your project further down the road to completion. Just click on the sidebars below to get the scoop.
Fuelish Endeavors
The lifeblood of any engine is gasoline. Functionally the original system would have worked fine, however, we needed a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement that also reduced the chances of vaporlock.
The majority of the work involved reforming the fuel lines from straight stock and efficiently routing them in order to gain both function and form.
Power Supply
From early on, we only considered Optima Batteries for supplying amperage. The aesthetic favorite not only looks good, but also fulfills the deep cycle needs of our D150, due to our audiophile status.
Detailing Details
A host of new wires to power the electric fan, signal the MSD Ignition, and route accessory cables required the use of wire loom covering. We turned to Techflex for the braided wire loom, which would give a finished look underhood.
Spark It Up
Proven ignition performance is easily accomplishable, thanks to MSD Ignition and its straightforward installation instructions, which incorporate factory components and aftermarket systems.
Cool Air
The nature of our accessory drives required simplification, as we added an aftermarket air conditioning compressor. Additionally, the opportunity to remove the water pumpmounted fan afforded us a way to remove the power-robbing effect of the cooling fan.
Even Cooler
Although the Slant Six is a venerable and efficient engine, it has a reputation for being a hot runnerand were not talking performance here. In order to alleviate the typical concerns of oil and transmission cooling, we added aftermarket coolers to reduce underhood temperatures.
Anyone who has attempted to replace a stock carburetor with an aftermarket unit has dealt with kickdown linkage. Fortunately for Mopar enthusiasts, they have a friend in Randy Bouchillon. Bouchillons Kickdown Cable Kit makes head-scratching completely obsolete.
Because we outfitted the Slant Six with a new Hooker header and Holley carb, the original kickdown rods would no longer work. Bouchillon sent us a TorqueFlite Kickdown Cable Kit that installed so easy, were still amazed. This kit works with most 62-and-later Chrysler rear-wheel-drive vehicles fitted with a TorqueFlite transmission and just about any carburetor, including our Holley 2-bbl.
We took the truck to TMEC, a local exhaust shop, to have our new Gibson Cat-Back system and Random Technologys high-flow catalytic converter installed. The experts at TMEC evaluated our exhaust system and the factory layout. The final result was clearly a custom exhaust system that looked good and cleverly evacuated the exhaust sound behind the passenger-side rear wheel.
Downright Polar
Creature comfort was definitely on order and as such, we opted for a little help from Vintage Air. We ordered a complete R134a systemwith the exception of the evaporator coil, where the original sufficed. Our kit even included all the fittings, barrier hoses, and brackets, as well as a pressure switch and expansion valve. To keep things in the engine compartment uniform and looking good, we ordered the polished compressor and chrome drier.
Be Cool
The tanks on our original radiator were shot, and while we had made repairs previously, new leaks were now appearing. Rather than continue to repair the down-flow radiator into service, we turned to Be Cool, which built us a custom cross-flow, four-row radiator. The result was better coolant flow and lower engine-operating temperaturescertainly part of the equation for additional performance from our Slant Six.
The Results
To be brutally honest, we were a bit reluctant to discover the actual output of our Slant Six at Vincis Hi-Performance in Orlando, Florida. Would we meet our goal of producing V8 performance from the six-banger?
On the chassis dyno, we ended up with 140.1 corrected horsepower at the rear wheels and 194.0 lb-ft of corrected torque. According to Vincis, this equals 175 hp and 243 lb-ft of torque at the flywheela whopping increase of 85 hp and 83 lb-ft of torque as compared to a stock Slant Six.
We also widened the rpm range of power, and now the engine maintains an average of 120.5 hp and 178.1 lb-ft of torque through 5,000 rpm. And yes, it will break the tires loose!
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To keep the engine bay neat, we rerouted as many lines and wires as possible—including new fuel lines—in order to avoid going over the top of the valve cover.A fuel filter was definitely a must, so we chose K&N's billet fuel filter. We snapped the filter onto its mounting bracket, located on the framerail.After we completed our conventional fuel routing and checked for leaks, our Holley 2-bbl was ready to go.We installed the MSD 6AL ignition on the firewall, only to have to relocate it due to clearance problems with the windshield wiper motor. An RPM Module Selector Switch (PN 8671) was added to control engine redline.We mounted the coil next to the ignition box in order to simplify the wiring arrangement and keep leads to a desirable length.Our factory assembly manual and a test lamp assisted us in locating a 12-volt, keyed power supply for the MSD 6AL.We lowered a Flex-A-Lite electric fan (Black Magic M150) in place of the original. The Flex-A-Lite fan will keep the engine cool without taking power away from the Slant Six.The wiring is found on the side of the housing, which contains an adjustable themostat to activate the fan anywhere from 180 degrees F to 240 degrees F. An accessory lead also activates the fan when the air conditioner compressor is functioning.
We mounted the Maxi-CoolTM oil cooler in place of the radiator overflow tank. Notice the three 3-1/2-inch holes we drilled through the radiator core support to accommodate airflow.A cable bracket was bolted onto the transmission using an existing hole. We made a small, 1/2-inch indentation in the floorpan for clearance.We ran the cable down the driver side of the truck frame and looped it back to the transmission. Here, we snapped the cable onto the throttle valve lever.Bouchillon supplied the bracket that mounts to the intake manifold flange using the rear carburetor studs. We mounted the bracket, then installed the throttle cable and the kickdown cable. The kickdown cable has a quick adjustment at the carburetor to adjust shift quality.TMEC first measured and cautiously fit all the pieces together, making many modifications and bends before doing any welding.Considerable work was done to gain a perfect fit from the header flange, around the oil pan, and to the Random Technology catalytic converter.The final touch: The Gibson chrome exhaust tip is welded coming out of the right side, behind the rear wheel.
The condenser was installed with four brackets, one in each corner. Here, a hole is drilled through the bracket and into the radiator core support.We had Best's Lakeland Hose Service crimp all the fittings onto the hose ends. This photo shows a crimping press securing the fitting to the hose. This local service came to our door and handled the hose end installations.Because we used the original evaporator coil, we cut the fitting off the old hoses and, as shown here, Best braised new ends to fit our hose.If we had made the swap simply for aesthetics, we would be applauded. The Be Cool radiator easily replaced our original factory core and routed the lower return hose away from other rotating accessories.


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Based on this post, I'm hoping to create good categories now, that I won't have to change much later.
Can you change a category name later, without having to go back and re-categorize all articles?
Using the category "Information Technology" as a challenging example, would you call it: a. IT b. I.T. c. InfoTech d. InformationTechnology e. Information Technology (in other words, is shorter better? any downside of long category names? any problem with a space in the category?)


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Children's Health
Teens Exposed to Less Secondhand Smoke in Cars
Feb. 6, 2012 -- Secondhand smoke exposure in cars declined among U.S. middle and high school students between 2000 and 2009.
The number of young people who reported riding in a car with someone who was smoking cigarettes "within the past seven days" during the study period fell from about 48% to nearly 30% over a 10-year period, a new study shows.
This downward trend in secondhand smoke exposure was seen across all ages of middle and high school students, genders, and ethnic groups.
During this stretch of time, the number of teens who were nonsmokers rose. Kids who said they had not had a cigarette within the last 30 days went from a low of about 80% in 2000 to a high of about 88% in 2009.
For the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, researchers analyzed data collected for the National Youth Tobacco Survey. American students in grades six through 12 from public, private, and Catholic schools across the country completed the survey five different times during a 10-year span. Between 18,000 and 27,000 students participated.
The researchers admit that considerable progress has been made over the last decade in reducing students' exposure to secondhand smoke while in cars. Still, they found that nearly 23% of nonsmoking students had breathed in secondhand smoke in motor vehicles in the week leading up to the survey.
How Secondhand Smoke Harms Kids
"Enhanced and sustained efforts are needed to further reduce secondhand smoke exposure in this environment," the researchers say.
They credit smoke-free laws in restaurants, bars, public buildings, and workplaces with helping to clear the air. These bans mean that kids come in contact with nicotine and other dangerous particles from a burning cigarette less often and in lesser amounts.
People's attitudes toward smoking around children have also changed, and fewer Americans are taking up the smoking habit.
Other studies have suggested that young people who are more frequently around secondhand smoke have more respiratory infections, middle ear problems, and severe asthma.
In an enclosed space like a car, kids are particularly vulnerable when parents or peers smoke. It's hard for them to avoid tobacco-burning products in a motor vehicle during a period of their lives when their lungs, immune, and nervous systems are still developing.


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Its official!!
April 20th 7pm Haiti Benefit Concert with The Lonesome Atlantic!
tickets are only $8 and half of all the ticket sales will go to the haiti relief effort!
Tickets can be purchased from either band, at the church or online at http://vesselnh.com/product/april-20th-haiti-benefit-show-tickets/
Online sales are subject to a $1.25 processing fee per ticket
We have enough room for 300 people at this event. Only 300 tickets will be sold. THIS IS AN ALL AGES EVENT So tell everyone and get your tickets. The money goes to a great cause and our money can do alot more in haiti than it can here. .


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Do you get oil changes at the dealership?
I've had had a 10+ year old used car my entire life... still used, but much less old, last year I bought a 2008 Ford Escape... it was "certified preowned" yadda yadda. I'm under dealer warranty 'till the end of 2014.
My question is, is there a real benefit to going to the dealership for oil changes?
I believe that they charge $40-$50 for it. I think they say "we check all the hoses and top off all the fluids" but the dealership takes an entire morning or afternoon to get this accomplished... when the Jiffy Lube across the street is $20 cheaper and I've never waited more than 20 minutes.
I've heard the scare tactic of "you'll void your warranty by going outside the dealership"... but as far as I know, that's not the case with normal maintenance work like oil changes. (and keep all the paperwork)
Any input on the issue would be much appreciated.
20 Answers answer
I use the dealership simply because I can generally secret shop them. But I have never had it cost more then $30 at the dealership. Unless your vehicle needs a synthetic oil.
My dealership does oil changes for $19.99, with every 5th one being free. I also asked about the warranty, and they said it will not void it if I go elsewhere or do it myself.
my dealership says that since i bought my car there i get a discount for life on oil changes (be sure to ask your dealership about that option). it didn't cost more on the purchase, and it's cheaper than if i go anywhere else (seriously $10 at dealership versus $20 at walmart). my dealership does that hole list of "we also check" and it takes about 30 minutes if i have enough head notice to make an appointment (if not figure two days)
If I go to the dealership, I'm there for two hours. If I got to an independent shop, I'm out in 20 minutes or less. That's really the big difference!
Nope. Change my own. Much cheaper and no waiting.
I have been changing my own oil for over 30 years, and plan to continue to do so. It saves me the trouble of having someone try to sell me car repairs/maintenance that I don't want, is (marginally) cheaper and I have the satisfaction/knowledge of a job done correctly.
My dealership is 45 minutes away, and I drive by my wife's brother-in-law's station every day going to work. I shop local. :)
On my newer cars, I bite the bullet and go to the dealer. Reason being it creates a record of what's been done to the car and they are supposed to report anything else they happen to notice is messed up. Also, if I brought it to them every 3,500 - 5,000 they can't argue I was in there screwing with things myself. On my older cars, just do it myself because it's much less money, quicker, and probably the least of the car's problems.
I do my own and if I'm away from home the wife will hit up jiffy lube. They do very good where I am, topping all my fluids off.
I drive a Ford Taurus, the warranty on which expired over a year ago.
However, even before the warranty expired, the only repairs I ever did at the dealership were those that were completely covered by the warranty.
All other work, including oil changes has been done at my local mechanic, who is about a two minute walk from my home and on my way to work. The dealer is a 40 minute drive (without traffic; easily an hour plus with traffic).
My dad does the oil changing for the family.
If he isn't available, my sister's got a few friends who are mechanics.
On my new car I usually do since its every 5k miles and I am to forgetful to check my car fluids.
I initially did when I got my car since free ones were thrown in, but that was only for the first 3 years. I change my own and most of family's cars now though.
Some dealerships offer reduced price or even free (for a while) oil changes on new cars. Others actually have competitive prices and are quick. If your dealer doesn't fall into either of those two categories (say, 90% of them) don't go. I either change my own or go to JiffyLube or the like. They are faster and much cheaper. And I'm noticing that Groupon/Amazon Local/Google deals seem to have coupons for oil changes fairly frequently.
3 months ago I had to move into an apartment after living in a house for 20 years. I normally did my own or had Jiffy-Lube do it. Since moving to a place that doesn't allow maintenance in partking lot (which I do agree with) and purchasing a new Xterra I plan on using the dealer. First one is free, they are $35 after that. They have a awards program with 5% accruing with every purchase. I had window guards order and installed by them for a very reasonable amount. (these are in-channel guards, not stick ons). It was done quickly (called for apointment). This is the first time I am going to have the dealershp do the maintenance so we'll see how it goes...
No actual benefit to oil changes at dealership. That being said, I only get mine done at the dealership. I bought a lifetime oil change pass for $300. Even at $20 an oil change, it will only take 3.75 years at an oil change every 3 months. All my future oil changes on my car are FREE!!
Only used a dealership many years ago when I could afford new cars (& kept them for a decade!). But now that I only drive used cars I have mine changed at a local place. Live in a small town and like to support small businesses here, plus they don't overcharge and do all the "checking of levels" free to keep customers. And most of their repairs are much, much cheaper!
I usually don't, but I also have older cars so it's not like a part of my deal or anything. My friend just bought a new Honda in Denver, and she can go in and have a mechanic check it out for free. http://www.toyexusdenver.com/honda-auto-repair.html
what happens when a dealership takes that long for your oil change even with toppping off fluids and checking belts/hoses is one (or more) of the following
1. they are backlogged with other cars/understaffed
2. they are lazy
3. they are trying to find SOMETHING wrong so they can overcharge you to fix it
4. they are stalling in hopes you'll buy a car (especially if your car is not new)


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What We Don't Already Know
When I read in the National Catholic Reporter blog that thirteen German moral theologians and pastoral theologians signed a document critiquing Catholic moral teaching on sexual issues, it did not surprise me or raise my expectations for the Synod on the Family. After all, theologians have been reflecting on sexual morality in various thoughtful and rigorous ways for years. Not all of their conclusions match those which have been proposed by the magisterium. But almost no one in the hierarchy seems to listen to those whose conclusions do not match theirs, so it has virtually no effect on deliberations in Rome.
To be sure, the theologians made some worthwhile suggestions. These included a "new paradigm for evaluating sexual acts" that would consist of at least three dimensions: a caring dimension to protect what is fragile; an emancipatory dimension which takes "the side of those who lose in relationships, the ones who are left and hurt to the core;" and a reflexive dimension which honors the joy of intimacy along with the vulnerability it entails. All good thoughts. But who is listening?
The recent observations, on the other hand, made by Martin Gächter, auxiliary bishop of Basel in Switzerland and published in his diocesan newspaper and the Swiss Catholic publication KIPA, did surprise me—both for their candor about the extent of the problem and for the bishop's admission that the Church doesn't have all the answers. He said we must seek a common understanding through respectful, open exchange and patient listening. In his own words:
There is today, within and outside the church, no common understanding of marriage, family, and sexuality. In order to arrive at one, we presently need much exchange, openness, and patience. Each must listen closely to others. Every life experience must be taken seriously. It is important in this that we not reject or judge others. Only God can rightly evaluate a person. And also the Church can never say of someone that God condemns them, or certainly not that they are going to hell. (HT and tr. Anthony Ruff, OSB)
Can you imagine an American bishop saying something like this? I can't. Our episcopate may contain bishops who think such thoughts, but they would never say so in public. The expression of anything other than total affirmation of traditional magisterial certitudes concerning sexual morality has been taboo for decades. And indeed many give the impression that they are fine with this state of affairs. Why listen, if you already know all the answers? You'd only be encouraging error and false hope of changes in Church teaching.
In fact, so cold has been the deep freeze on free discussion around such topics that when I first heard about the Synod on the Family I wondered who would speak any words at all, except to echo the Church's already-decided positions. I thought everyone who had a different point of view had been silenced or dismissed long ago.
It certainly is true that Pope Francis has been attempting to change the frame by the pastoral priorities he embodies and the words he speaks. In his worldview, the experience of the poor is important. Mercy is important. Advancing a bishop's career is not important. Speaking the truth is important. Listening is important. Maintaining appearances is not important.
What I have been waiting for, however, is some sign that there are bishops out there who are ready to step into that new frame. Because if they don't, the Synod on the Family will be nothing more than an echo chamber, another chance to reaffirm What We Already Know.
One Swiss bishop does not a discussion make, of course. If Bishop Gächter is the only one convinced there is something bishops must discover by means of listening, we might as well resign ourselves to a lot of surveys filled out in vain. But maybe there other bishops too who believe that "Each must listen closely to others. Every life experience must be taken seriously." If so, the Synod might actually turn out to be interesting.
About the Author
Rita Ferrone is the author of several books about liturgy, including Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Paulist Press).
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No, I cannot imagine a U.S. Catholic bishop saying anything like that.
I can imagine Thomas Gumbleton saying such things, and although I don't have any ready references, he may already have said such things.
Thanks Ms.Ferrone:
Perhaps there are few comments because as you wonder about the Swiss Bishop's statement, what is there to say. One priest I know just rolls his eyes and says it's such a mess he doesn't say anything; he just tries to listen and do the right thing. I had asked him what I should say to my young women granddaughters? To them the Church is a religion not a way of life.
I've learned more about sex and family and church from someone like Stanley Hauerwas than anything proclaimed by our Church. Sometimes I wonder if there is a creeping Gnosticism in American Christianity: with an implicit fear of the body.
Maybe all we can do is try to remember the future and hope for the best.
Rita - think that we have to both trust and hope that Francis is planting seeds to get to what you express well. It will not happen overnight; there will be resistance/opposition (fear always is alive and well with those who think they have certitude).
Let's work to support; let's allow for the listening; allow the *mess* - then, let's see what happens.
From the NCR article:
Moving to their proposal for a new paradigm of evaluating sexual acts, the theologians [...] state that such a paradigm would have at least three dimensions: (1) A caring dimension to "protect that which is fragile." Marriage, the theologians state, "could then be understood as an institution that protects this fragility, not as an institution of obligation." [...]
Would that the magisterium heard their suggestions!
institution that protects this fragility.
Perhaps the conclusion would be no divorce, which obviously harms the fragility...
terrific piece, Rita--many thanks
I also can't imagine any US bishops saying the kind of thing the Swiss bishop has. In a video talk I saw by Fr. Helmut Schuller, he was asked why priests in Austria and Germany were not afraid to dissent while in the US they were. He said that in Europe, the priest shortage was so bad that the hierarchy didn't have the same power to threaten them.
Divorce ACCEPTS the fragility of so many marriages. It's time to accept that fact that a priest witnessing two people pledging their vows to each other is NOT the same as God joining them together.
I wonder if understanding would be easier if an analogy were drawn between divorce on the one hand and a religious member leaving his or her order on the other hand.
Protecting fragility is a good term, because it acknowledges that people can get hurt in all sorts of ways: hurt from lack of commitment as well as hurt from, say, an abusive marriage. Divorce is a legal reality. What the theologians are talking about is ethics.
This topic relates to our recent discussion about the development of doctrine. The church cannot and, I fervently pray, will not implement this proposal, which in my view would amount to simply deleting existing doctrine wholesale and replacing it with something new and ostensibly more popular. The key obstacle for change of this nature is identified in the article: the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responding to a proposal to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion (apparently, in that instance at least, he really did listen, and took the trouble to write a lengthy response), noted that "the "entire sacramental economy" could not be swept aside by an "appeal to mercy.""
What might gain some traction with Francis and the bishops, in my very humble opinion, would be an appeal to mercy that doesn't sweep aside the entire sacramental economy. The system of annulments - which can be understood as exercises in mercy - can be calibrated to be relatively more or less merciful. It's said that many more annulments are granted in the US than elsewhere; apparently, the church here takes a more merciful approach than much of the rest of the world. Perhaps the world can learn from us. This, it seems to me, is something that Pope Francis and the bishops can do. What they can't do is take the Christian doctrine of marriage and just run it through the shredder and then print up something new and shiny.
What is interesting is how one could use the 3 dimensions of caring, emancipation/concern for the less powerful, and reflexivity to *explain* much of Catholic sexual teaching. Pope John Paul 1, in his excellent "Letter to Pinocchio" (see http://www.papaluciani.com/eng/teachings/letters/illustrious/pinocchio2.htm ) hits some of the same notes. Even prohibitions against masturbation and pornography can make sense in the context of reflexivity and protection of what is fragile, namely in these cases the ability to really be present and available to another person.
Re: the number of annulments granted in the US compared to elsewhere; does anyone know the statistics of how many annulments are actually sought in, for instance, European countries? If one compares the rates of those sought vs those granted, the church in the US may not be so different from elsewhere. The greater raw numbers of annulments in the US are sometimes used to prove a point of our being more lax and permissive on divorce here. However, fewer annulments being sought elsewhere could just a easily be used to argue that fewer people care whether or not they are in the good graces of the church. And neither conclusion is necessarily valid.
I don't see anything specifically Christian about those three criteria. They sound more like pop psychology.
Martin Gächter, auxiliary bishop of Basel:
There is today, within and outside the church, no common understanding of marriage, family, and sexuality. In order to arrive at one, we presently need much exchange, openness, and patience. Each must listen closely to others. Every life experience must be taken seriously. It is important in this that we not reject or judge others. Only God can rightly evaluate a person. And also the Church can never say of someone that God condemns them, or certainly not that they are going to hell.
I don't know that this is straying very much from the 'official talking points'. This seems to be very much in the spirit of the New Evangelization: listening respectfully to others, both within and outside the church, not condemning others. It doesn't really indicate that this bishop is willing to reconsider anything doctrinal or even any of the disciplines of marriage as the Catholic church understands it. And I think that many American bishops would endorse this approach and wouldn't have any problem saying so. The American bishops, as a whole, are not a condemnatory lot when it comes to marriage. What I see is that they set up programs to help couples understand Catholic marriage before they marry, and programs to help sustain marriages after marriage.
For that matter, the priests that I know and work with, without exception, take couples 'as they are' and do their best to guide them from wherever they are, into a Catholic marriage. The only way that can possibly work is to not be condemnatory and to engage them and listen to their story. That's been my experience, anyway.
To my reading, this doesn't seem the same sort of thing as what the German theologians are proposing. Unless I am misunderstanding them, the theologians' proposal is a good deal more radical: that the church should recognize as sacramental any sexual union that encompasses intimacy and vulnerability.
Here are the full descriptions of the three dimensions proposed by the German theologians. In case I'm not the only one who has been attempting to puzzle through what they are proposing.
- a caring ("palliale") dimension to protect that which is fragile. As a "pallial" ethics, Christian sexual ethics has to beware of the insisting focus on acts in its moral tradition and demand discretion and protection from the glaring light of normativity. Marriage could then be understood as an institution that protects this fragility, not as an institution of obligation.
Such Christian sexual ethics would have to show again and again the need for interpersonal boundaries that counter late romantic rhetoric of fusion. Finally, this pallial dimension creates possibilities for an ethics of pregnancy as a phase of life in which parents and child are exceedingly vulnerable.
- an emancipatory dimension that liberates and opens new perspectives when vulnerability has become violation. As an emancipatory ethics, Christian sexual ethics has to take the side of those who lose in relationships, the ones who are left and hurt to the core. It rejects all forms of sexual violence.
- a reflexive dimension that accepts vulnerability and counters the banalization and routinization of sexuality. As a reflexive ethics of vulnerability, Christian sexual ethics know the ontological value of vulnerability. The joy of intimacy can be experienced only when it is possible to be vulnerable without being violated. Sexual ethics of nudity and vulnerability react to the abyss of suffering through sexualized violence, which the Church has seen in the past years. Here it becomes painfully obvious that the Christian moral teaching that limits sexuality to the context of marriage cannot look closely enough at the many forms of sexuality outside of marriage. Furthermore, we are of the opinion that more programmes and input is needed to support the reflective and communicative competences of partners. Marriage preparation as a communicative process should bepromoted.
About annulments - according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, only 15% of divorced Catholics ever even applu for annulments ... http://nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com/2013/09/divorce-still-less-likely...
Crystal, thanks - that is a great article! (And there are a number of links and references to other articles that look equally interesting.)
Katherine, that article to which Crystal referred us contains these numbers on annulments by country:
49% of Church annulment cases introduced globally in 2011 were from the United States followed by Poland (6.4%), Brazil (5.6%), and Italy (5.1%).
I agree with the various caveats you mentioned in your comment. Still, these raw numbers on annulment cases are pretty striking.
Charles Morris, in his outstanding book American Catholic, suggests that the US may be unique as the place where the Catholic 'model" of what discipleship should be, actually works in practice (kinda/sorta, anyway). These numbers may be evidence of that. And it may help explain why someone like me finds the German theologians' proposal so alien. Germany may have largely given up on traditional marriage. I don't think that is the case in the US (despite the deterioration in traditional marriage that statistics illustrate). The US may be a real problem for people who claim, as the German theologians and perhaps the Swiss auxiliary bishop seem to be claiming, that sexual practices among people bear almost no relationship to what the church teaches or desires.
Jim Pauwels, thanks much for all o your comments here (and elsewhere, as well). Let me say something about why I find the proposals of the German theologians intriguing. A disclaimer. I am not sure that I understand the full force of what they propose. Nor have I read things like Sr. margaret Farley's work. Nor do I have any significant information about what goes on in confessionals. But here is what I find intriguing, and attractive.
In my limited expeerience, the "standard" Catholic line holds that all sexual relations or activity by Catholics outside of marriage is gravely sinful and ought to be confessed with a promise to avoid subsequent "occasions of sin. If there are any exculpating circumstances, they are presumed to be rare. The model for this prevailing line is legal: "Did you or did you not do such and such with him/her?"
It appears to me that the German tjeologians are saying something like this. The following sorts of questions are always relevant in sexual matters as the ought to be in all other serious personal matters. Consider Jack and Jill or Jack and Jim or Ann and Bertha.
How old are they? Are they married or not? How long and well have they known each other? What dependents do they have? And on and on.
Can it be that not only are there "exculpating circumstances" in such cases, but could it even be that, under circumstances that are by no means rare, sexual relations or activity between either heterosexual or homosexual pairs is actually good?
I grant that, old as I am and having grown up with the "standard" line so firmly insisted upon, I am emotially queasy about what the German theologians appear to be proposing. But intellectually it does seem to me that they are on the right track. And for what it's worth as anecdotal, I'm pretty sure that my children and their spouses, all of whom are practicing their faith reasonably well, would find these proposals far from objectionable. I don't know what they are telling their children, ages eight to 14 about sex, but I doubt that they are hueing rigorously to the "standard" line.
In any event, in all moral matters, I think that it is important to avoid a heavily legalistic catechesis.
I don't know what they are telling their children, ages eight to 14 about sex, but I doubt that they are hueing rigorously to the "standard" line.
What I tried to impart to my teenage children: (1) Sex is a big deal. It's important, emotionally and otherwise. It can be overwhelming. It's not something to do on a whim. Casual sex is not a good idea. (2) If you're going to have sex but are not ready to have a child, then it is a moral imperative that you use contraception. Doing otherwise would be irresponsible. (I also made sure that they had access to contraception.) (3) Whatever you do and whatever happens, I will be there for you if you need me. You can always count on me.
That sums up my parental teachings on sexual morality, adapted to the times!
So Herr Muller of the CDF believes the "entire sacramental economy" outweighs any "appeal to mercy". In Matthew's gospel, Jesus is quoted twice as saying, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Mt 9:13; 12-7). Luke has Jesus saying, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36). I think I'll go with the understanding of our primitive ancestors in the Christian faith, not with some CDF prefect concerned with the "entire sacramental economy". On this point, I think Orthodox Christians have it right. Maybe Muller, his CDF duties notwithstanding, has a thing or two to learn from Matthew and Luke.
I give up. What is "the entre sacramental economy"?
And as you answer, be ready to explain it in the name of a God who originally offered his Son's death on the cross in hopes we would figure out, by seeing it in action, an entire human economy.
Müller (CDF) said a number of disturbing things in that article he wrote on marriage ...
- that it ... "withdraws the partners from caprice and from the tyranny of feelings and moods .... Love is more than a feeling"
He also said that people in a marriage with domestic violence can live apart but must still remained married for life, and that people cannot trust their own consciences to decide about whether they should stay married.
I'd link to the article but it seems to have been taken down. John Thavis wrote about it here ... http://www.johnthavis.com/deja-vu-on-divorced-and-remarried-catholics#.U...
Crystal: so it appears that the head of the CDF is ready to butt heads with the pope. Well, that's exciting! Wouldn't it be good to have a public, even televised debate, where they exchange arguments, call in experts to support their views, have witnesses offer testimonies, and tongues would become untied and Catholics would suddenly be free to speak their mind? How liberating that would be!
It is excellent that the CDF head is speaking up directly against the pope, and that he is not being called for a talking-to, like Cdl Schönborn had been a couple of years ago. Even if I don't like what he is saying, I enjoy the nascent diversity of voices.
Claire, that's a positive way to look at it. But I'm wonering if Muller is actually saying what the pope himself believes, and that's why Francis has not spoken against Muller's views nor supported Marx and the others who have been opposed to Muller. And the pope *did* just make Muller a cardinal.
Oh Crystal, what a depressing thought. I hope you're wrong.
I am starting to take the attitude with/about Francis that I'm not paying attention to his words but to his actions. He's not batting too well in that respect, except in the touchy-feeley, non-controversial matters.
I do not believe that most Catholics want to redefine marriage as a contract to be entered into and left at will. The idea of marriage as permanent and lifelong is very important to most Catholics, I daresay, as well as to others. Marriage as a sacrament, as something sacred and blessed by Christ, is important to people.
Holding fast to this goal is the reason why they try so hard to solve problems, make marriages work, and do not abandon a marriage lightly. In short, couples aim for and desire what the Church holds up as normative: a permanant, lifelong commitment between the spouses.
The question is, what is the response when despite best efforts, a marriage breaks down and cannot be sustained without injury to one or both of the partners, and subsequent to this, the person wishes to marry again. Especially in the event that the second marriage IS capable of being permanant and lifelong, what is the appropriate response?
I myself am not satisfied by the tribunal system. Legal processes, despite all the claims of being "pastoral" are very limited as a vehicle for reconciliation, healing, and communal support. Our imagination is shrunken, and inadequate, with respect to what can happen. We too often think we respond either by changing a definition, or by going to a court. We have to expand our imagination. There is more than one answer here.
Sacramental and pastoral processes should play a much more healthy role in what we do, istm, because that is how we communicate our primary commitments and how we say what is important to us in faith. I think that many Catholics would welcome this approach as an alternative to the legal approach.
What I find interesting that priests can resign their priesthood and its vows, apply for laicization and then get married.
The laity, however, are bound to their marital vows forever unless the semi-charade of annulment is undertaken.
The Catholic Church effectively gives tacit approval to divorce with what has become the charade of annulment. In their 2002 book, "Catholic Divorce: The Deception of Annulments", Joseph Martos and Pierre Hegy state:
"Because the grounds for annulment have become so broad that practically anyone who applies for one can obtain it, many observers now regard annulments as 'virtual divorces.' After all, the same grounds for divorce in a civil court have 'become grounds for the nonexistence of marriage in an ecclesiastical court.' (Page 23) To add to the deceit, many couples who receive annulments do so believing that their marriage was, in fact, sacramentally valid – that the marital bond did exist but that, over time, it began to break down. These couples, understandably, choose not to disclose this part of the story to marriage tribunals so that they can qualify for an annulment."
In other words it is the Catholic game of nudge-nudge, wink-wink.
There was an recent article at NCR about annulments ... "Pope Francis should consider the churcj's outdated annulment process" by Fr. Peter Daly ... http://ncronline.org/blogs/parish-diary/pope-francis-should-consider-chu...
I think people do want marriage to last forever, but it isn't rules and penalties that make marriges last despite difficulties, it's love. You can't legislate love, which is why I think the church tries so hard to redefine it as duty or obligation. But no amount of obligation can take love's place in a relationship that is no longer about getting an heir and a spare or melding kingdoms, but about living out love in companionship.
What I find interesting that priests can resign their priesthood and its vows, apply for laicization and then get married. The laity, however, are bound to their marital vows forever unless...
I agree. There is something unsavory about the clergy holding the laity to a higher standard of commitment than they hold themselves to.
Actually, I read a past article by a Jesuit priest at NCR about him leaving his order and the priesthood - he wrote that it *was* a lot like getting an annulment. He was asked to prove what divorced people are asked to prove .... that their relationship was never valid in the first place, that no real commitment ever existed .... and like so many divorced people, he said that was just untrue, that people can and do make serious and valid commitments that sometimes later fail .... http://ncronline.org/blogs/examining-crisis/surely-rome-can-do-better
Point taken, Crystal.
Claire, I never realized that either until I saw that article. It does seem like that guys making all the decisions about marriage/divorce are the one who have no actual experience with it.
Oh, but I wonder how this plays out when the Vatican defrocks priests ... B16 defrocks 400 priests in 2 years ... http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/apnewsbreak-pope-defrocks-400-pri...
Bernard - thanks for your comments as well. I often wish I could think of something worthwhile to say in response to your comments, because they are always so thoughtful and honest, and such contributions should be encouraged. I just want you to know that I read every comment of yours that I run across and usually find something to think about, even if it doesn't prompt a response. Please consider this my cumulative acknowledgement. :-)
I haven't read Sr. Margaret Farley's work, either, save the short excerpts that have been published at dotCommonweal when we discussed the controversies around them. But I also noticed a commonality between what the German theologians have proposed, and descriptions I've seen of her work. Perhaps this vindicates her work?
I think the sort of approach you describe, in which there are 'extenuating circumstances' that prevent people from achieving the church's ideal of a sacramental marriage, would strike a lot of people as both practical and merciful. It seems to me that what happens in real life within the church is what should happen, given the reality of what goes on on people's lives: the church should search for ways to beckon, guide and welcome such couples into sacramental marriage - when that is possible, as quite often it is. When it turns out that it is not possible, then I think we would agree that condemning these couples certainly should not be the church's response; this is, I think, the meaning of "who am I to judge?" The church, in its mission, should have a certain boldness but also a certain modesty. It should be bold in proclaiming what has been passed on to it. It should be modest in its ackhowledgement that there are many things in our lives and in creation that are mysterious, the keys/answers/explanations to which haven't been granted to our sight or knowledge.
I myself am not satisfied by the tribunal system. Legal processes, despite all the claims of being "pastoral" are very limited as a vehicle for reconciliation, healing, and communal support.
Rita - I do agree. The tribunal system addresses the legal (church-law) aspects of the marriage. It is not really intended to be a vehicle for reconciliation, healing and communal support. It's great when these things can take place as part of the annulment process, but we shouldn't burden the legal process with expectations that are extrinsic to its purpose and character. My view is that there is a church-law legal dimension to marriage, and the tribunal system should attend to that legal dimension in as pastoral a way as possible. We all realize that there is also a need for reconciliation, healing and communal support when a marriage breaks down, as there is in so many areas of our lives. The church should be providing those good things in addition to, not through, the tribunal process. Just my view.
Thanks very much, Jim, for your comments. I ought to reiterate that I realize that what I have said above is certainly incomplete and almost certainly less that wholly accurate. As Rita has said above, the importance of the Christian conception of the sacrament of marriage is immense. No institution dealing with sexual conduct comes near to it in nobility. And, from another aspect, human sexual desire is and has always been hard to live out responsibly. Every historical society that I have eever heard of has its sexual taboos and regulations. But perhaps the Church's (clergy and laity) role is not to be the enforcer of these needed regulations. The state and civil society have that task. Rather, the church is to be the patient, caring community that, in Pope Francis' striking metaphor, provides the "field hospital" for the many wounds so many of us suffer, not least of all from our assorted failures to live our sexuality in fully constructive ways.
Jim McCrea - the process of laicization can be just as frustrating, demoralizing, and difficult as an annulment. For more than 10 years, JPII refused to allow any laicizations - no other choices.
And, echoing Rita above, laicization and annulments share lots of *ridiculous* things that have nothing to do with reality. Guessing that less than 30% of all priests who left, sought laicization.
There usually is more than one "Jim" who is posting here. I hate to preen from comments such as Bernard posted when I realize that he is most likely referring to Jim P.
My ego needs chastening on a regular basis.
For more than 10 years, JPII refused to allow any laicizations
Bill - I don't know how well-known that is - I didn't knot of it until I just read your comment. That's pretty mind-blowing and seems the opposite of merciful.
It was one of the most harsh, cruel, and fruitless, exercises of authoritarian reaction of John Paul II.
As Jon Sobrino once pointed out, the making of victims is a sure sign of the worship of idols. Idols require victims.
The absolutizing of vows -- setting them above the yardstick of humanity -- is idolatrous. Of course this creates victims.
What a thoughtful post and good discussion. I had read Joshua McElwee's piece on the NCR site, but had not read the accompanying translation of the German bishops' responses to the Vatican's questionnaire. Their answers to the questions were so sensible, wise, and humane. And I noticed that other signers included lay theologians and even a few women. God bless them all.
In our diocese the questionnaire was not even distributed, and though individuals could register their input directly online through sites like Voice of the Faithful, it would be interesting to know how, absent consultation, our views were represented to the Vatican.
Sadly, Rita Ferrone, there are NO American bishops out there who can speak with such compassion and humility as your Swiss prelate does.
Isn't it about time that American Catholics face reality that we are on our own when it comes to the very survival of our faith community? Our shepherds have all made their beds with the wolves, it would seem?
For decades now, those qualities of compassion and humility have been leached out of the American hierarchy in favor of right-wing ideological lap-dogs. Papa Francesco will have to really huff and puff to stem that tide. [ Our only hope in mimicking the Little Engine That Could struggling up the mountain: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can ...]
The most significant ray of hope - and we're talking a very weak spark indeed - is the recent removal of Cardinal Raymond Burke from the Congregation for Bishops. Thank-you Jesus, Burke will no longer be in a position to promote the careers of his ideological acolytes. [I guess they will all have to have their ecclesial hierarchs fashion shows conducted in the privacy of their vacation homes.]
Right across the Bay from me sits the US hierarchs' go-to-guy for "the sanctity of marriage," his excellency Salvatore Cordileone. He's only 57 years old. The people of San Francisco will be stuck with this stinker for a long, long time. Since his patrone Burke's star has fallen in the Vatican, the people of Chicago were spared his acquisition of that red hat - but remember there are many roads to top of the heap. Cordileone is only just one pathetic hierarch among many out there upon the fruited plain.
Catholics must take matters into their own hands: LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE!
I wonder if the basic theological problem is that matrimony is seen as a sacramen, and sacraments cannot change their efficacy -- once bestowed sufficient grace comes is promised by God Himself to meet the challenges, or so the theory goes. Such a view implies, it seems, that there is no excuse for failure in marriage, and so no marriage can be ended.
i also wonder (and this seems quite heretical) about matrimony being a sacrament. I've read that it wasn't until Augustine that it was recognized as a sacrament. Hmmm. Is it really a sacrament? If so, what is the difference between it and plain secular marriage. (I was taught that matrimony, the sacrament, is something more than plain marriage.)
It seems to me that this discussion should also include consideration of what divorce does to children. No doubt some children are better off without a particular parent, but it seems that they are very, very few.
Can children be said to have a right to two parents, married or not? Or a right to two married parents?
Lutherans don't see marriage as a sactement. Why do Catholics see it as one? About children of divorce - as someone who was one, I think the important thing is not necessarily that one's parents are married but that both parents have a good relationship with the child.
Grant or Dominic or whoever is moderating this thread: Is there any way tomake a printed version of the comments on this thead. They have been good and I'd like to share them with some friends and family members, but I havenot succeeded in printing them. I can print Rita's opening remarks, but not the comments.
Bernard - I just highlighted the entire thread, starting at the bottom and highlighting through to the headline of the original post, by dragging my mouse. Then I copied it to the clipboard (CTRL+C if you're using a Windows based system), opened a new document in Word, and pasted it (CTRL + V) into the document. I didn't try to print it, as my computer isn't connected to a printer, but I don't know why it wouldn't work.
Unless someone else is commenting as I write this, this will be comment #50. So with the next comment, because this site limits to 50 comments per screen, you'll have to do two copies and pastes :-).
Ann, the question of how marriage came to be understood as a sacrament, and what is entailed by such an understanding today, is (as you might imagine) complex. Augustine indeed led the way in the West by referring to marriage as a sacramentum, but this is the Latin translation of the Greek term in Ephesians, mysterion. In Latin, the word sacramentum means oath, which made an easy bridge to the idea of permanance in terms of lifelong fidelity of the spouses, but other sorts of depth are called to mind by the word mysterion. In any case, Paul's objective is Christological; he is not defining marriage so much as using it as a metaphor for Christ's relationship with the Church.
Leaving aside St. Paul for a minute, the contrast between patristic and scholastic understandings with respect to the indissolubitilty of marriage is also important to note. It was usefully pinpointed by J. Martos in his book on the history of the sacraments as follows:
Following the lead of Augustine, the scholastics argued that this metaphysical bond [of matrimony] was unbreakable since it was a sign of the equally unbreakable union between Christ and the church. It was not, as in the early church, that marriage as a sacred reality should not be dissolved; now it was argued that the marriage bond as a sacred reality could not be dissolved. According to the church fathers the dissolution of marriage was possible but not permissible; according to the schoolmen it was not permissible because it was not possible. Thus the absolute prohibition against divorce arose in the twelfth century both as a canonical regulation supported by a sacramental theory, and as a theological doctrine buttressed by ecclesiastical law. The two came hand in hand.
(Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church, revised edition, Ligouri/Triumph, 2001, p. 377)
So, in brief, the history of the sacraments holds more than one way to understand the phenomenon of marriage. The sacramental-legal synthesis which we have inherited is venerable, but is itself the result of development which can and must be revisited when pressing pastoral realities demand it.
I think we can all agree that within the context of revelation that marriage is intended as a stable, permanent union that provides the foundational building block of society. Further, Jesus affirmed the indisolubility of marriage especially for those seeking to live in the kingdom of God. These principles say nothing about how people who fail in marriage should live their lives, nor about how members of the church are to deal with this sad but irreversible fact of life. Interestingly, the clerical class with their belief in celibacy as a superior state in life established laws which forbad remarriage while the prior spouse is still alive. Is this not clearly a teaching that has not been received by those most affected by it? How did we arrive at a sacramental economy which treats remarriage for those whose prior unions are irretrievably lost as an unforgivable sin? The obvious solution for those still seeking God's love is for pastors to be generous dispensers of God's mercy. And that solution has been available from pastors for a very long time. There is nothing novel about it. Our own experience of God's unconditional love demands it.
Thanks, Jim P. I'll try it.
And thanks too to Rita and John Feehily for their comments. I learned something helpful from Riita's comment on the difference between the patristic and the scholastic views and appreciate John Feehily's perspective.
Ann and Crystal: I think that children deserve care by people who love them. Ideally this will be a couple who either birthed or adopted them, but there can be other arrangements that, if they are capable of lovingly raising children, that is good, too.
Regarding the necessity of a mother and a father: don't forget that most people were born into that situation and look at some of the horrible results! As my father told me: any damned fool can breed (any way too many do), but it takes good people to be parents.
Jim P and Rita - thanks for following up on JPII and his lack of mercy toward resigned priests. If my sources are correct, various key bishops/cardinals worked on him for years to change his stance (one thinks of what he learned by observing the communist appartchiks) and that what finally moved him was the argument that these men's wives and children were left in *limbo* - obviously, most of these men moved on; married; had families and yet many of these children and wives were left in a sacramental void - thus, they argued from one of his passions, family support, that his stance did more harm than good.
This may be a *church myth* but remember that my canon lawyer gave this explanation.
Sorry, don't have and can't locate any documentation around this process or decision.
Rita --
Thanks a bunch for all that information about the early fathers' and the scholastics' views on marriage. I had no idea they were so different. I was taught the straight scholastic view as if there were no other. And I wonder if they're really compatible.
For instance, it would seem that a contract that is essentially a mystery (in *any* sense) would be impossible, at least not a contract in the ordinary sense of the term. And if it's not being used in an ordinary sense, then just what does/did it mean?
As to the analogy of the relationship of Christ to the Church and Holy Matrimony == which is the primary analogate? I mean which is the relationship which tells us something about the other relationship? And regardless of which is which, metaphorical uses of terms in theology are very dangerous because metaphors are *always* dangerous in argumentation.
And isn't that word "mysterion" always an admission of a lack of knowledge and some sort of uncertainty?
Obviously, the conception of marriage as a lifelong commitment, sacramental or otherwise, is incredibly important even if it is no longer ubiquitous. It is still normative, even if it is not exactly "normal." So my complaint isn't so much with the ideals or definitions surrounding marriage, but with the ferocious coupling of marriage with all sexual activity in a way that makes it difficult to counsel or even just to be honest with one's children in how to behave ethically and responsibly outside of marriage. Most people are sexually active before marriage, and for most of these people, this sexual activity not only doesn't ruin their lives, but if it forestalls early and improvident marriage, it probably is pragmatically helpful. I know the rejoinders, what about unwanted pregnancies and the Church's dogma surrounding contraception and on and on. But that's sort of my point -- to a certain extent the Church has locked itself into a stance on marriage that is itself the pragmatic (or even essential) outcome of not wanting to revisit anything related to sexuality, rather than an organic understanding of the married state. Arguing about who has the right to get married in the church is so far afield from is really at stake in this debate that you can't really blame people for seeing the withholding of sacramental blessing as being an increasingly meaningless stigma -- look at how many people don't get married at all, even when they have children.
Rita - one of my scriptural and sacramental profs used the term - *covenant* to describe both the relationship of the Trinity to the Church and then the relationship in marriage.
As they described and drilled down on *covenant* you learn that the core of this relationship is not *legal* (in the western sense) nor is it a *contract* (again, in the Western sense).
The defintion has much more to do with loving trust; forgivenss; walking together on a journey; etc.
Many of these discussions appear to completely ignore this reality - would call this a ressouorcement.
There's been a lot of talk since the announcement of the October meeting on the family about divorced people and the Church extending mercy to them. I can't help but feel that there needs to be some talk about mercy towards the children of problem marriages, not just discussion of mercy towards the parents. Who, if anyone, will speak for the children at the meeting?
My best friend is a lawyer and a law school honor graduate. Years ago she attempted to start a practice that specialized in representing children. To her surprise she found that there was relatively little law which required that a child have legal representation even when the child seems to need it. For instance, as I remember, no states require that children have their own lawyers to represent their interests in their parents' divorce proceedings. And there apparently wasn't a demand for lawyers for children in other matters, so the practice went nowhere.
I just can't see separating the interests of children from the problems of their parents.
Interesting development here: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/21/colorado-proposal-would-require-pre-marriage-education-classes/
"Colorado proposal would require pre-marriage education classes
Published January 21, 2014
A California group has proposed a ballot initiative in Colorado that would require couples who want to get married to take mandatory pre-marriage education classes. "
The question, of course, is would this kind of class be equal to or better than the results that come from Pre-Cana and Cana classes?
I can imagine a U.S. Bishop saying this: Walter F. Sullivan, late of Richmond, Virginia. But he has been dead now for over a year and we will never see his like again.
Judith, thanks for remembering Bishop Sullivan. Let's hope he is praying for us.
It's interesting to me that the two American bishops named in the thread are Sullivan and Gumbleton, both "peace" bishops, and both iconic figures of a style of leadership which is now rare to the point of extinction in the American episcopate.


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