God's Pencil

Verbum Domini

2010-11-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month the holy father released postsynodal apostolic exhortationVerbum Domini, the Word of the Lord.

Rome Reports explains, this is "the most important [Church] document on Scripture since Vatican II."

Carl Olsen of Ignatius Press describes why this is so.

Get it here at ZENIT or in Postscript format here from the Vatican website.

Intrinsic evil

2010-11-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

So, in a social justice discussion with a very smart, but theologically mistaken friend I brought up the fact that abortion is intrinsically evil. His response was: Isn't not caring for the poor also an intrinsic evil? The answer is in short NO!
The term intrinsic evil is a technical term. It has a precise meaning which is based on the theology of sin.
Now for a Catholic there are three conditions which must apply for a sin to be a mortal sin. They are:

The sin must involve a grave matter.
The sin must be committed with the full knowledge of the sinner.
The sin is committed with the full consent of the sinner.

So while cheating at chess might be a sin, it is likely not a mortal sin because it does not involve a grave matter.
The person must understand that the act is a sin. (This goes to another concept called vincible ignorance which I will not discuss here.)
The person must consent to the sin. A coerced act will not be a mortal sin.
It becomes obvious that many types of mortal sin are conditional. That is the conditions which surround the act determine whether or not it is a sin. When there is a disagreement about whether or not something is a sin and the Church has not taken a stance then the subject is said to be relegated to the prudential judgment of the faithful. The best way to fight poverty is a matter for prudential judgment, although there are methods, socialism, liberation justice methods and others which the Church has spoken out against due to their negative impact on human dignity.
There are a number of sins which the Church has declared are not open to prudential judgment. These acts are always sinful, irregardless of the situation. They are called intrinsically evil sins. The modern Church recognized five such classes of sins. Three of them have always been opposed by the Church from time immemorial. The other two are the fruits of modern science.
These sins are:

Abortion.
Euthanasia
Support for the normalization of intrinsically disordered sexual licentiousness.
Allowing innocent babies to be conceived for the purpose of scientific study or harvesting their parts, as in stem cell research.
Manipulating human DNA for the purpose of "improving" or duplicating another human being, as in cloning.

These are acts which are unsupportable in Catholic social justice. This means that they are not subjects upon which we can "dialog" or compromise.
A Catholic politician can not support any law which support any of these acts, nor can the any member Catholic faithful vote for any politician who has voted for such a law without themselves committing a mortal sin. That is not my opinion, but the opinion of the Holy Father.
There are no other acts by such a politician, no stand on another issue that makes it alright to vote for such a politician.
Politics is call the art of the possible. It expects compromise might sometimes be necessary in order to reach certain goal. Vote for a bad policy so that a greater good can be achieved.
Salvation does not work like that. It is never permissible to support an elected official who supports an intrinsic evil.
Note this does not mean that it is alright to vote for an opposing politician who would support torture or unjust war or racism. These are acts which are not intrinsically evil, but which are also sins because they impinge on the fundamental dignity of the human person.
The right of a nation to employ capital punishment has always been supported by the church. The Holy Father has said that in modern western society he believes that the use of capital punishment is unnecessary. This is a prudential judgment, and as the Holy Father himself has said it is neither morally equivalent to abortion, nor is support for a candidate who supports capital punishment a sin.
This is not a political fact it is a theological fact.
Could it be then that there may be no candidate in an election for which a Catholic can morally vote. Indeed that can be the case.
If there are two candidates in a race, one of whom is committed to expanding and ensuring the right of abortion under all circumstances, and one of who is committed to reducing the number of abortions while maintaining the "right" of women to kill their unborn babies it is permissible to vote for the second candidate, provided the vote is in spite of their stand on abortion, rather than in support of it.
In an election in which one candidate is a supporter of abortion and the other a foe of abortion, but would support the use of torture, then the prudential Catholic could not, in good conscious, that is without sin, vote for either of the candidates.
If we compromise on evil we sin.

Aftermath

2010-10-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

Now that the Holy Father's trip to Britain is several weeks done it is, perhaps, appropriate to review the trip in its entirety so as to aticipate it fruits. That it will have fruits I have no doubt. As Raymond Arroyo wrote:

In other words, the Pope sees his Anglican “fast pass” into the Catholic Church as the fruit of ecumenism — a chance for Anglicans to return to the faith of their fathers before the Reformation and to protect themselves from an insidious secularism that is plaguing society at large and their communion in particular.

With this understanding, the symbolic and stated message of Pope Benedict during his British sojourn comes into stark relief. His meeting with the Catholic and Anglican bishops at Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury for 800 years (the first 70 Archbishops of Canterbury were Catholics), his visit to Westminster Abbey (built by the Catholic king, Henry III and home to Benedictine monks until the Reformation), his moving speech at Westminster Hall (where Catholic martyrs Thomas More, Edmund Campion, Bishop John Fisher, and others were condemned to death for their refusal to disavow their faith), and finally his beatification of the 19th century Anglican convert to Catholicism, Blessed John Henry Newman suddenly all seems one piece. Benedict’s visit was a stand against relativism in the heart of Europe and a plea for Britain to return to herself — to return to her Catholic roots.

All of the Holy Father's speeches while in the UK, (and the speeches of others at each event) are available here. If you haven't heard or read them you should. He was at once orthodox and ecumenical. He gave away something for the cause of ecumenism, but gave away nothing which in any way was dogmatic or would compromise the Truth of which the Church is the guardian.
John Paul's visits to the United States produced many fruits, not he least of which were the strongly orthodox young priests often known as "John Paul priests." Benedict's visit to the U.S. has resulted in a wave of stronger public defenses of Catholic doctrine by American bishops, some who were not so anxious to speak out in the past.
One can only hope that a similar movement will be seen in Great Britain as a result of the Holy Father's visit.

Constantine and Modernism

2010-09-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

In a discussion recently about liturgy I was faced with the opinion that during the times between the the time of the Church Fathers and the Middle Ages that the character of the Mass was perverted in the name of clericalism and elitism, primarily by the Roman Emperor Constantine with the collusion of the Pope, who was Sylvester I (and not actually in attendance.)

Constantine did this, the narrative goes because he was seeking to accumulate power, or at least consolidate his power over the Roman Empire. So the narrative goes the laity were excluded from the sanctuary and Latin was enshrined in the Mass in an effort to exercise control over the faithful.

This is not a new narrative. It has been used by Protestants for centuries. In the pre-Vatican II era it was picked up by dissident Catholic theologians and widely used to justify everything form the wreck-ovations of the churches to the army of laity who now minister at Mass.

I will start by stating that contemporary pagan and Christian authors laud Constantine. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, and Church Father wrote a basically unfinished work on Constantine after his death, which was considered the standard on the Emperor's life until the Reformation, when later pagan sources were brought forward in an attempt to discredit him. They were written during the time of the Emperor Julian, called the apostate, who was a pagan and the last Emperor of Constantine's line. Modern secular interpretations of Constatine have ignored the contemporary sources and leaned heavily on the post reformation sources, in the interest of besmirching the Church, and traditional Catholic practices.
Certainly Constantine was interested in supporting orthodoxy, which was why he call for the First Council of Nicaea to deal with the Arian heresy. As far as I know, or have been able to find Nicaea had no role in liturgical practice at all, in either East or West (except for prohibiting kneeling during the consecration on Sundays and during the Pentecost season, and excepting the fact that the Creed was recited at Mass.)

As far as the use of Latin is concerned it was the vernacular for most of the western world until at least the 8th century. This is at least three hundred years after Constantine and Nicaea. Certainly Medieval Latin served the same purpose during the High Middle Ages as French did in the post Renaissance period and that English does today. For example English is used as the international language of pilots and air traffic control, as well as in the Mass in many countries where only a small number of people speak the local dialect, and for which no vernacular translation of the Mass exists. ( I should acknowledged that both Spanish and French perform the same funtion in regard to liturgy in differnet parts of the world.)
The Mass itself , as a sacrificial ritual, predates Constantine. We have records from as long ago as the second century, some written by Pope Clement I, who likely was alive during the time St. Peter and St. Paul were in Rome. Even the Didache describes liturgical worship. I would remind you that this document was unavailable to Renaissance writers and though found in 1873 was mostly ignored by modern historians unitl after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's definitive origin in the late first century, contemporaneous with the Apostles and the early church was only widely accepted in the 1970s, after the changes in the liturgy which were implemented in the Post Vatican II era.
As for the use of Latin in the Mass this also pre-dated Constantine, probably dating from the middle of the third century. Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, hundreds of years after Constantine made a major revision of the way the Mass was said, which was in Latin, at that time the vernacular. There were still many regional variations at this time. Charles the Great (Charlemagne), who conquered much of Western Europe during his life ordered that the Mass according to the Roman rite (that is the Mass as celebrated in Rome) be said throughout his realm. By this time the Romance Languages were developing and Latin was a distinct separate language. Spoken by most of the nobility for sure and in most places the only language which actually had a written form. It would be a hundred years or more later before the Romance languages were written and several hundred years later before languages outside of Southern Europe developed their own written language.
I think you can see how something which was ritualistic, like liturgy, that had a rhythm and cycle of readings required a language that not only could be written but was also commonly read in an international sense. Don't forget that for much of this period concepts of French or Italian or German as a national identity did not exists. At the same time there were areas of Europe that did not use the Roman rite. Ireland for example had its own rite, the Celtic rite, which lasted into the 12the century. It was also said in Latin, which was obviously not a vernacular language for that country, but considering that Ireland was Christianize by St Patrick, who was a British Roman I guess that use of Latin should not be surprising.

The narrative of the pre-Vatican II Mass as a exclusionary ritual where by the priest mumbled in Latin while the faithful, ignorant of what was happening, prayed rosaries is mis-guided simplification. The Latin responses were learned by eight year olds. I can attest to you that I certainly knew what Et cum spiritu tuo meant when I intoned it. In Europe and America Latin was taught in every Catholic high school and even many secular ones. I can attest to the fact my father who never never finished high school, could recite the standard prayers in both Latin and English, knew the Tridentine Mass probably better than most modern faithful know the Novus Ordo, and as an adult the Liturgy responses he no doubt learned as a boy. I don't doubt there were people who could not do this and did not understand what was happening at Mass. I would also maintain that many of the modern faithful have mastery of English ( or Spanish or French...) have no idea of what is happening at Mass. Indeed at a certain level no one truly knows, it is a mystery of faith, something we cannot know this side of death. The fact that they understand the words without grasping their meaning, or in many cases misunderstanding their meaning is not an improvement of the situation.
My last point is that the demonizing of Constantine by sources inside the Church as opposed to Protestants outside the Church is a something which has its roots in the mid twentieth century modernist movement. This is the same movement which used Vatican II's valid and specific documents as an excuse to do many things never called for by the council, one of which was the elimination of Latin as a liturgical language. The Vatican II document Sancrosanctum Concilium actually called for Latin to be retained in the Liturgy and required that the faithful (that's us) know all of the Propers of the Mass in Latin. It says:

1. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.
2. But since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended. This will apply in the first place to the readings and directives, and to some of the prayers and chants, according to the regulations on this matter to be laid down separately in subsequent chapters.

As can be seen Vatican II called for the retention of Latin in the Mass. Whether its elimination is good or not is another discussion. But whether good or not its elimination was not called for by the council. Books written by people in the group who implemented that change admit that it was an action taken to make the Mass more appealing to Protestants, not an action to either improve the quality of Liturgical Worship nor to edify the sacrifice which is taking place therein.
At many places the sacrificial character of the Mass has been completely subsumed in a paradigm of communal meal, so much so that a good portion of the faithful in those places no longer believe in the Real Presence.

I have been very fortunate at my parish to always have a priest who is faithful to spirit of the liturgical celebration, and one who follows the rubrics and forms of the liturgical worship. Not every parish has been so fortunate, resulting in large numbers of faithful who are more ignorant what is happening at the Liturgy than ever existed when the Mass was said in Latin.

The narrow way

2010-08-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

In 1534 John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester was arrested for refusing to swear to the Act of Supremacy. The Act was a law passed by parliament which required everyone to swear to its three clauses, which were: that any heir of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was a legitimate heir to the the throne of England, that the marriage between Henry and Catherine was null and void, irregardless of what the Church said, and that the Bishop of Rome (as the Pope was designated in the act had no more authority or power in England than any other bishop. This John Fisher could not do.

Thomas More, lawyer, former Speaker of the House of Commons, and Chancellor of Henry, also refused to sign the oath, and in 1534 he was also arrested.

It is said that both men arrived at the Tower of London, the place they would spend the rest of their lives, both being executed the next year, at the same time.

Looking at the tower's door Thomas said," My Lord I believe the door is wide enough for both of us."

John Fisher replied, "Thomas, it is narrow enough."

Of St. Thomas More in 1929 G.K. Chesterton said, "Blessed Thomas More is important today, but he is not as important now as he will be in one hundred years from today."

Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy sought to make the state supreme over the teachings of God. Of all of the bishops of England only St. John Fisher chose the narrow way of adherence to the Church over the state.

When he was to die St. Thomas More declared that he died, "the king's good servant and God's first," one among many who would be a martyr for following the path laid down by Christ against the power of the English state.

Marian Gifts: The Assumption

2010-08-15T07:50:00.001-07:00

The Angels, both holy and fallen have preternatural gifts. They have abilities beyond those of mortals, gifts of God at their creation.

Adam and Eve were also graced with preternatural gifts at their creation, infused knowledge, immortality of the body and integrity.

Infused knowledge is the ability to recognize the providence of God. Immortality of the body means that the body is immune to disease, incorruptible of body. Integrity is the perfect obedience of emotions to the intellect, to the will. It is the absence of concupiscence, the inclination to sin, though not necessarily to external temptation, as is evident in Adam and Eve's fall to the temptation of the serpent.

These preternatural gifts were lost by our first parents when they committed original sin. No human through the long history of humanity have regain these gifts. Not even Christs death on the cross restored them the humanity. Except for one. Except for the one created without the stain of original sin. Except for Mary.

The knowledge of Mary's sinless nature was not something created by the medieval Church, it was a belief common among the faithful from the second century. It only logically follows that Mary would posses those gifts which were integral to our humanity prior to their loss due to sin.

Infused knowledge is the ability to recognize the providence of God. Mary realized the supernatural significance of things others did not, so as Scripture says she “pondered them in her heart,” and eventually revealed them to St. Luke, where he recorded them in his Gospel.

Integrity is the perfect obedience of emotions to the intellect, to the will. Mary was not troubled by concupiscence, she had not inclination to sin, though she was tempted by external temptation as are all members of the human race, as were Adam and Eve. But though she was tempted she did not sin, not even venial sins.

Finally, immortality of the body means she was not subject to disease. In a very real way her Ascension into Heaven was a result of her preternatural gift of bodily incorruptibility.

The supernatural gift lost by Adam and Eve was to be in Gods family, that is to be Full of Grace. This is a gift that God returned to us through Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Baptism. It is the gift that Mary possessed without baptism, because of her Immaculate Conception.

None of these gifts were Mary's by virtue of any act that she committed. She did not earn them, no more than we can earn God's gift of salvation. They were Gift's of God to His Mother.

In a very real way Mary was part of God' plan from the beginning. She is prefigured in the Old Testament, her place in salvation history reflected in the Book of Kings and in Psalms, in the relationship of the King of Israel to the Queen Mother. She is the Queen in Ophir , the King's daughter, who will be the mother of the King, and whose sons will be the princes of the Earth, who the nations will praise forever.

Through God's gifts she, who was to remain a virgin, saved from the pain of labor, which was a punishment visited on Eve as a result of Original Sin, would have her heart pierced at the foot of the cross, she would never know the death of corruption of the body. She was the first to receive the gift of Her only Son's victory over death. the gift that we will receive at the Last Judgement.

In the Eastern Churches, including the Eastern Catholic Churches the Feast of the Assumption is celebrated as the Dormition of the Theotokos, that is the falling asleep of the Mother of God.

St. Teresia Benedicta of the Cross

2010-08-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1942, Edith Stein, along with her sister, Rosa were gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Stein was a member of the Discalced Camerlite monastery at Cologne. Her religious name was Teresia Benedicta of the Cross.

Born a Jew, she flirted with atheism as a teen but converted to Christianity. She was baptized a Roman Catholic in 1922. She was doctor of philosophy and a professor at Freinburg. She attributed her conversion to Catholicism to her reading of the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila.

In 1933 she wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI denouncing Germany's Nazi regime and asked to Pope to opening denounce them. that same year she entered the convent.

Because of her Jewish background her order transfered her to a monastery in the Netherlands.

In 1942, in the face of great acts of horror on the part of the Nazi regime the bishops of the Netherlands spoke out against them. The response was the arrest of all Jewish converts in the Netherlands and their shipment to Auschwitz. It is very indicative that these prisoners received no numbers. It was the obvious intent that they be executed immediately.

The situation of Edith Stein is a clear indication of what we can sometimes expect when the Church speaks out against evil in the world. It's lesson is not that the Church should not speak out against evil, but that we should be prepared to pay the price Our Lord paid for speaking out against the prince of the world and his minions. It is perhaps even a sign of what we can one day expect in our own lifetimes. It should be remembered that Henry VIII was declared "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope only years before he declared himself head of the Church of England and dissolved the monasteries, in the one of the greatest grabs of Church property in European history.

We may see it's like again.

Nagasaki

2010-08-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the anniversary of that horrific event, the destruction of Hiroshima by the atomic bomb Little Boy, dropped by the U.S. Army Air Corps B-29 bomber Enola Gay. On the next day the bomb named Fat Man was dropped on the Japanease port city of Nagasaki.
Brother Anthony Josemaria looks at this event in light of the large population of Japanese Catholics who died at Nagasaki in The Catholic Holocaust of Nagasaki—“Why, Lord?”
I had known some of the story of the evangelization of Japan before. Who has not heard the story of Paul Miki and the twenty-five martyrs? I even knew a little of the story of Fr. Petitjean and the Urakami Christian. Brother Josemaria gives a very elightening view of Christian suffering and the historical framework of these evnts. An article well worth reading.

Dedication of Saint Mary Major

2010-08-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

The Dedication of Saint Mary major is the liturgical feast celebrated in honor of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, which is the largest church in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Mother.

This feast commemorates the rededication of the church by Pope Sixtus III just after the First Council of Ephesus.

This council was called to answer the problems caused by the teachings of Nestorius. Nestorianism split the natures of the Christ into human and divine. So while believing that Jesus was God, it denied that Mary was the mother of God. Cyril contested this belief, and at the Council it was declared that Mary was indeed the Theotokos, the birth giver of God.

This church is also called the Church of Our Lady of the Snows. It is said that in the forth century, during the pontificate of Liberius, a Roman patrician named John and his wife, who were without child, pray to the Virgin Mary, that she might make known a way that they might dispose of their property in her honor. On August 5th, in the heat of the Roman summer, snow fell on the Esquiline Hill. The couple had a vision of this event, and on the spot on the hill side which had been covered with snow they built a church.

I Don’t Need your Catechism!�|�Catholic Exchange

2010-08-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

What is the basis of the Catechetical program in your parish?

I Don’t Need your Catechism!�|�Catholic Exchange

Prayer Time

2010-08-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

In our busy world it often seems very hard to find the time to pray. We wake up already having more things to do than time to do them in. The kids need us. We don't get spend enough time with our spouse. We have more work than can possibly be accomplished in the time we have to do it. Where are we suppose to find the time to pray?

St. Francis de Sales when asked how much one should pray said that you should pray for half hour a day, unless you are really busy. If you are really busy, you should pray for an hour.

The great doctor of the Church understood that in being busy we are concerning ourselves with earthly things. Like Martha, the industrious sister of Lazarus and Mary, fluttering around concerned with the tasks of hospitality, but missing the presence of the bridegroom. We must, like Mary, choose the better half and subjugate our earthly concerns to the transcendent.

Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: Chesterton on the real difference between Paganism and Christianity

2010-08-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Chesterton on Christian virtues by way of Ignatius Insight:

Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: Chesterton on the real difference between Paganism and Christianity

Warren Harding-- say what??

2010-07-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Not my usual fare, but the Center for Visions & Values has an interesting article on Warren Harding, 29th President of the United States. You'll find lots of facts you probably weren't taught in school. The center for Visions & Values is at Grove City College, a Christian Liberal Arts College associated with the the Presbyterian Church.

Demonic Faith and Angelic Warfare - from Catholic Exchange

2010-07-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

Rev. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. at Catholic Exchange frames the moral debate of the world against the Church.

Why avoid the buffet?

2010-07-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have been blogging I have done many posts about Cafeteria Catholicism. As a blog which more or less specializes in catechisis and catechists one might wonder why I spend so much time pointing out dissidence.
The answer is that truth matters. Even if it is inconvenient, difficult and carries personal costs, truth matters. One of the greatest problems with the modern world is the rejection of truth. This can most easily be seen by taking a look at classic literature of drama. Often in the best literature the story turns upon the personal conflict of the protagonist, not against an enemy, but against the truth, that is against the Right Thing. The protagonist knows what the Right Thing to do is, but the circumstances make doing the Right Thing inconvenient, difficult and full of personal cost. The dramatic tension comes from the fact that the protagonist knows what should be done, and the story revolves around the cost of either doing the Right Thing or failing to do the Right Thing.
One of the basic premises of such a story is that there is no question of what the Right Thing is. If the Right Thing did not exist, that is if there were no Truth, i.e. truth was relative, there would be no story. Indeed, one of the things that makes most modern movies and novels so forgettable and ultimately will prevent them from ever being classics is that they reject the concept of truth. That makes their stories at a deeper level uninteresting, and their characters undifferentiated.
Another aspect of this kind of story is the truth that there is not a world without consequence. That doesn't mean that doing the Right Thing is consequence free, it just means that doing something else has ultimate consequences which are even worse.
The consequence of death for standing up for the truth is a lesser consequence than eternal damnation for failing to stand up for the truth.
Cafeteria Catholics pretend they don't know the truth. They are not new or cutting edge or daring for challenging the Church. They are actually following one who is very old, doing something the first recalcitrant fallen angel did before mankind was even formed, rejecting the Truth, challenging the One who is Truth.

Excuses.

2010-07-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

One reason posts have been light lately (though not the only one) is that I have been away doing domestic mission work. My parish has set up a domestic mission program in an economically depressed area of our diocese. We have been doing this for over a decade and have finally broken out, so to speak, into the wider world. This year we are also supporting an international mission trip for our young adult group, as well as helping other parishes set up their own domestic missions.

The reason I say we have broken out is because when a parish queried the diocese on setting up a domestic mission they we told we were th go to guys in the diocese for domestic mission programs. Interestingly enough, at our mission location we work closely with the local county social services office. The office in a neighboring county has also asked us how to get a similar group to work there.

A lot of hard work goes into the weeks we are actually working. We start planning six to nine months ahead of the first group going. We just got back and we are not truly finished for this year until we do our post trip debrief meeting next week.

God's hand is always in our midst. Weather has never interrupted our work, not even when the forecast has been for huge storms. They always seem to hold off until nightfall, or happen on Sunday (which we, of course, take as a day of rest.) We usually plan each job well ahead of time, often visiting the sites a month before we do our work. This year we received a call with a request to put in a ramp the day we arrived. This ramp allowed a man who has not been able to leave his home for two years to join us for dinner at a local church the night before we left for home. Days before we got the call he didn't even know we existed. Coincidence? The result of a lot of hard work and marketing? Rather I would say that we have simply gotten out of the way and let God work.

Upon Peter

2010-07-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for its comer-stone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob a coward—in a word, a man. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it. All the empires and the kingdoms have failed, because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link.

Heretics -- G. K. Chesterton

Catholic Culture How?

2010-06-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

If Catholic culture is important,then how are we to pass it on to the ones in our care as catechists?
It would be foolish to think that someone who was ignorant of carpentry could teach another the art of making a house. Or that someone who lacked knowledge of biology could teach another the metabolic processes of a shrimp. How could it be expected that a catechist who is not seeped in Catholic culture could pass the knowledge of the traditions and Traditions of the Church to their students?
It is fairly obvious that to be a devoted minister of the teaching of Church doctrine and Tradition the catechist must pray, and pray often and with real intent. The style of prayer is not terribly important. Each person will prefer a specific style of prayer. The catechist should be familiar with as many styles as possible but in their personal prayer they should use whichever is most comfortable to them.
Likewise it is necessary to be familiar with the Saints. Our elder brothers and sisters have much to teach us. Intercessory prayer to the Saints is a strong component of Catholic culture. We learn from the example of the Saint's lives. We hope for the response of God to the prayers we request of the Saints in our own prayers.
Especially the lives of the martyrs should be studied and read. Their stories give strength and hope to the faithful, as well as a warning of the possibilities to come if the culture of death gets too strong.
We can not know God unless we know Scripture. As St. Jerome said, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of God." We must especially know salvation history as it is recounted in Scripture.
A knowledge of liturgy, especially of the general form of the Mass, the liturgical calendar, the significance of the specific seasons and High Holy days is vital. We, as Catholics live in according to a rhythm of prayer and sacrifice and feasting. Day by day we as a Church pray according to the Liturgy of the Hours. Church bells use to mark the passing of the hours. In many places the Angelus is still rung marking morning, noon and night. The seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter are still celebrated at the times set forth by the Church, even by those who deny her authority, even by those who fail to acknowledge the Lord's existence. The catechist should be familiar enough with the rhyme and reason of these facts, else how can they be passed on to the faithful.
Familiarity with the Sacraments is vital to the catechist. Not just theoretical knowledge, but also for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist a knowledge gain through the regular practice thereof.
It should go without say that regular Mass attendance on all of the Holy Days of Obligation, which includes every Sunday, is a given.
These activities will help prepare the catechist for their ministry. Only with the help and support of the Holy Spirit will success in the transmission of Catholic culture be accomplished. So of all of the above suggestions prayer is the most important.

Vaccines

2010-06-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

The use of fetal matter from aborted fetuses in the creation of vaccines is an immoral practice totally grounded in the wishes of vaccine companies to save money. Even they claim no therapeutic purpose for the practice.
Check out Mark Armstrong's article at Catholic Exchange.

Why Catholic Culture?

2010-06-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I had an interesting conversation with someone about why Catholics being apart from the prevailing culture is a good thing. The contrary position was that we should not try to isolate ourselves from the common culture. The argument was that Jesus did not isolate himself from sinners. That is true. It is also true that Christ always called sinners to repentance.

The point is that in this discussion this is a straw man. I could just as easily counter that Jesus said, as described in Matthew 18:15-17

"If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.

If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'

If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.

If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

The inference of this passage is that Christians are expected to live apart. In 1 Corinthians 5:10-12 Paul writes:

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people, not at all referring to the immoral of this world or the greedy and robbers or idolaters; for you would then have to leave the world.

But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person.

For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within?

As can be seen by Paul there is an assumption that there is a group of people who are within the Church and a group who are without. He assumes that our relationship to our brothers and sisters within the Church will be different than our relationship to those without.

As Christians it is our duty to Evangelize, that is to preach Christ to the world. We cannot do that if we don't know who we are. In a culture based on principles so apart from the principles of the Gospel it is almost impossible to be part of both worlds.

In 2009, in the wake of President Obama's ill conceived invitation to Notre Dame Jody Bottoms wrote impassioned essays on abortion and Catholic culture. Rod Dreher's response was to ask "What Catholic culture?" pointing out that a majority of "Catholics" in the United States help vote in the most pro-abortion president this country has ever had.

This is more a proof of why maintaining a Catholic culture is important that an indictment that it isn't.

It is incumbent on parents to instill Catholic culture on their children. They are the first teachers of their children. Unfortunately too many of them are themselves ignorant of authentic Catholic culture. So it fall to the catechist to introduce aspects of Catholic culture to their students, both child and adult.

For much of modern history the assumption has been that the catechist deals primarily with the child, the exception being those who are involved in RCIA. With an almost entire generation who have not been inculturated with the facts and Truths of Catholic culture it has fallen to the Church and its catechists to now look beyond their traditional students to the greater Church.

To stand against the modern culture of death we must be like the early Christians, who stood against the ancient culture of death that was the Roman Empire. We must, in some sense be apart. We must know who we are in order to stand in the modern marketplace of ideas.

In Isaiah God promises:

I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.
I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family;

This passage is referring to the king's steward. In the Church that is Peter, for, as St. Jerome said:

Where is Peter there is the Church.

So guided by Peter, and the Magisterium of the Church, we must stand against the culture a peg in a sure spot. Catholic culture is our peg.

Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: "St. Thomas More" by G. K. Chesterton

2010-06-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

On this feast of St Thomas More who could more clearly teach on St Thomas than the intellectual giant of the modern age, who might himself one day be among the great doctors of the Church?

Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: "St. Thomas More" by G. K. Chesterton

CCHD and bishops

2010-06-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is an organization which was founded by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1970. CCHD has always been controversial to some Catholics. The mandate of the CCHD prevents its grant money from going directly to the poor. Instead its suppose to support organizations which are working to eliminate poverty through social programs.
Most, if not all of its monies go to secular organizations, that is not to expressively Catholic or even Christian organizations. In its past monies which have passed through the national organization have gone to groups which do not support Catholic teaching.
The effectiveness and proper use of grants in individual diocese are very much a function of the level of oversight of the individual bishops. Where the bishop is orthodox and willing to take to time to ensure fund management is scrupulous in adherence to Catholic doctrine on the part of grantees funds donated to the CCHD can do much good. In cases where this is not so funds donated to the CCHD can at the least make possible the diversion of funds to support programs hostile to Catholic teaching and at worst actually support activities which are actually against Catholic teaching, such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality and hostility to the traditional family.
At least eight U.S. bishops have stopped taking donations for the CCHD in their diocese, instead using that same money to support charitable organizations locally, in some cases in programs which would not have been permitted under the CCHD program, such as support for a food pantry for the hungry.
One group Reform The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has sent a report to every bishop in the United States. It should be pointed out that this group is not calling for the elimination of the CCHD, but for meaningful reform. The information revealed in the report is chilling to any faithful Catholic. No less that 18 grantee organizations are revealed in the report to be supporters of abortion or same-sex "marriage." At least 31 are said to require further investigation. In many cases an even cursory look at the web sites or liturature of the offending grantees would show that they support positions at odds with Catholic teaching. No great amount of investigation needed.
It should be mentioned that CCHD has literally hundreds of grantees nationally and many more through the local diocese. One would hope that the vast majority of these groups are compatible with Catholic teaching, not involved in disallowed activities, such as political action or support of specific political candidates or parties and are compatible in their activities with Church teaching.
To count on more than hope, perhaps the USCCB should heed the call for an audit of grantee organizations.
CCHD was founded as a response to the plight of the poor in the United States, for it to fulfill its mission it must be grounded in authentic Catholic teaching.

Trinity Sunday

2010-05-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Trinity Sunday was instituted to honor the Most Holy Trinity by John XXII in A.D. 1334. Until 1960s it was celebrated as part of the Octave of Pentecost and marked the end of a three-week period during which weddings were forbidden.

Feasts to honor the Trinity, though not part of the liturgical calendar used for the Mass, were included locally in the Divine Office from the time of Gregory the Great as the Office of the Holy Trinity, with their own canticles, responses and hymns.

The doctrine of the Trinity is a central tenant of the Catholic faith and is excepted by most, but not all, of the other Christian faiths. This is revealed Truth which man could not come to through understanding of natural law. Though in Scripture there is no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together, they are separately described in several places. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus tells the disciples:

...go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In Luke (1:35) Scripture tells us:

And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

The Most High is the Father, described by a phrase used in the Old Testament, as in Sirach(Ecclesiasticus) 24:

Wisdom sings her own praises, before her own people she proclaims her glory;
In the assembly of the Most High she opens her mouth, in the presence of his hosts she declares her worth:
"From the mouth of the Most High I came forth..

The references to the Holy Spirit and the Son are clearly stated.

The early Church from Apostolic times taught the doctrine of the Trinity. The baptismal formula is ancient. It had its origin in the oral tradition that became Scripture and it's use predated Scripture.

At the time of the Arian Heresy in the fourth century, the Trinitarian dogma was already encapsulated in the doxologies in use:

Glory to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Ghost.

carried through to the present day as

Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

There are many passages in the ante-Nicene (that is before the Council of Nicene) Church Fathers which attest to the wide spread belief in the dogma of the Trinity; St. Basil tells us that when Christians lit the evening lamp it was their custom to give thanks to God with Prayer

We praise the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God

This is the consistent teaching of the Church Fathers.

In theological terms the Trinity can be described as a mystery. Theologically a mystery is a Truth which we are not only incapable of discovering apart from Divine Revelation, but which even when revealed remains hidden. That is it is a fact so enveloped by an aspect beyond our understanding that even when revealed it is necessary that it's acceptance be a manifest matter of faith. It is, in short, impenetrable to reason, although it contains no intrinsic impossibility which violates the laws of nature. It is incomprehensible, as God will alway be incomprehensible to us on a fundamental level. I leave you with St Jerome who said:

The true profession of the mystery of the Trinity is to own that we do not comprehend it.

Marian Prayers

2010-05-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

For the Lent and Easter season this year I used a book called Lent and Easter with Mary by Thomas J. Craughwell. A day by day guide through the Lent and Easter season this book includes a different prayer every day, many seldom prayed in today's Church. It also contains many stories of Saints throughout the ages with particular attention given to their Marian devotion.

I would highly recommend it.

Excuses and liturgy

2010-05-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

A very bad month for blogging. I am determined to blog more regularly, especially as I feel it will be more important as we in the United States and throughout the English speaking world are introduced to the new English translation of the Mass.

It seems almost certain that the USCCB will set Advent 2011, that is the Advent after next as the official date that the new translation of the Mass will begin being used in Catholic Churches in the United States.

I've discussed the new translation several times, as well as why the catechist should be interested and involved in this change.

It is important that the catechist understands the framework of the change. Beyond the very good reasons for a new translation, the facts of the translation itself should be known and be able to be explained by the catechist.

To begin with the previous ICEL translation is of the Roman Missile promulgated in 1975. In the United States the actual translation used is not the final approved translation, but still contains some parts, the creed for example, where a different translation based on an earlier draft was used.

In 2000 the original Latin edition, which contains some minor revisions, was approved. It was issued in 2002 and is called the Third Edition of the Roman Missal. In 2008 an amended version of this missile was issued which corrects some misprints in the original years 2000 version. This is the version from which the new translation is taken.

There are significant changes to some parts of the Mass prayed by the people and many parts of the Mass prayed by the priest. Without proper preparation many of the faithful will be unnecessarily confused by these changes. It is the responsibility of each pastor, using the resources provided by their bishop and with the help of his parish catechists to prepare the faithful for the use of this new translation.

We have what appears to be a long time to accomplish this catechisis. It will be many month before official volumes of the Sacramentary are available (though parishes should start thinking about budgeting for the new books they will need, as well as the training materials they will need.) However if we don't prepare for the tasks we will have to face next year in the preparations we will not be in a position to ensure a smooth transition.

So if you are a catechist seek out training on the new translation. many diocese have already started to hold training classes of their priest and catechetical leaders. Lots of information is available on line. Start with the USCCB site.

Get to work, time's fleeting.

The first Novena

2010-05-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

Novenas have, unfortunately, become rare in some corners of the Catholic Church in America. Along with kneeling, confession and a host of other ancient Catholic practices novenas somehow seemed to have gone "out of fashion" in the post Vatican II Church.
Certainly moving the celebration of the Ascension from its traditional day of the Thursday forty days after Easter to the following Sunday has confused the issue.
What does the day that the Ascension is celebrated have to do with novenas?
Far from being a practice originating in the Medieval Church the concept of the novena is based on the nine days of prayer and meditation practiced by the Apostles in the time between Christ's Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, a period of nine days.
Pentecost itself was a day which pre-dates the founding of the Church associated with the Jewish festival of Shavuot which commemorates the deliverance of the Ten Commandments to Moses, which occurred fifty days after the Exodus, and so fifty days after the celebration of the Passover.
In the later Church the practice of the novena often centers on Mary and in this period of the Early Church Mary was indeed present with the Apostles in the upper room during this period, and on Pentecost itself.
So movement of the date of the celebration of the Ascension does obscure the significance of this nine-day period and this relationship to later practice.

St. Landry Catholic Church Bell

2010-05-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

For hundreds of years the Church set the rhythm in villages, towns and cities through out the civilized world. In answer to the Holy Father's call to integrate the new media into the culture of our faith St Landry Catholic Church in Louisiana is once again tolling the Angelus, the hours and the call to prayer via the Internet!

St. Landry Catholic Church Bell

2010-05-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Over at National Review Online Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Sister Mary Prudence of the Religious Sisters of mercy of Alma. A very good interview which you should read.

One part which I found enlightening was the result of a question by Lopez:

And you did this of your own free will? Chose to be subservient in a patriarchal church?

Sister Prudence: The first part of this question is important. A simple answer is: “Yes.”

The sister then continues:

The second part of this question is framed within a feminist political ideology. As we say in Catholic philosophy, the mind receives according to the mode of the receiver. If the mode of the receiver is a political feminist ideology, then that is how he or she will perceive the Catholic Church. The word “subservient” as used in your question seems to imply serving in an inferior way, which is not what we do. We serve as Christ, who came “not to be served but to serve.”

The difficulty is that, throughout history, there has been a struggle between basically three different positions about the relation between women and men: 1) traditional gender polarity, which viewed men as naturally superior to women, and its modern counterpart, reverse gender polarity, which views women as naturally superior to men; 2) unisex positions, which claim that there are no significant differences between women and men; and 3) complementary positions, which argue for the simultaneous fundamental equality and worth of women and men and their significant differentiation.

Sister Prudence has a PhD in philosophy, and it shows. Read the whole article and you'll understand why, while some orders are dying others prosper.

Red Tape???

2010-05-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

So recently I was fortunate enough to hear a talk by a speaker from a pro-life organization which really opened up an area of the pro-life struggle of which I was unaware. I touched me so deep in my soul with its importance that I felt it an imperative that others in my parish and region be made aware. While my ability to play Paul Revere is as good as the next obnoxious loudmouth often when the message is important enough it is best to get it from the horse's mouth. So, I thought, why not invite this speaker to come to the parish and speak on the subject?
A quick inquiry to the Director of Religious Education(DRE) and I found myself routed to the diocesan theologian. So I found I needed a letter from the speaker's bishop, a CV (curriculum vitae), concurrence with the USCCB Dallas Charter on the protection of young people, etc.
Why so much red tape???
Well for good reasons actually. The bishop as the pastor responsible for all of the teaching in the diocese has a responsibility to ensure that every person who teaches anywhere in a Catholic facility under his control is a orthodox teacher. That is they must teach what the Church teaches. They must also be qualified to teach or speak on the subject that they are presenting. And the bishop must be sure of these facts, hence the requirements.
So many requirements might make some unenthusiastic about bringing in speakers from outside the diocese. But on important matters the extra effort is worth it. So I'll be rolling up my sleeves and working out the details of getting all of this information to the diocese. As an added benefit the next time my speaker is invited to speak in the diocese all of this will have been done.

Queen of Heaven

2010-04-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest, last, barriers for those converting to Catholicism is often Catholic devotion to Mary. For many of those coming from the Protestant faith an authentic understanding of Mary and her place in salvation history is a difficulty. One that is often hard for Catholics to help them overcome, because they themselves do not have a sufficient knowledge of Scripture to explain this devotion in a biblical framework.
A statement one often hears from those raised in the Protestant traditions is that honoring Mary is not biblical. This is an understanding that is not based on biblical fact. A prime understanding of the new covenant, the new kingdom is that during biblical times the Davidic kingdom is a model for the eternal kingdom. That is, God uses Israel and its Davidic dynasty to model what the proper relationship is between a king and his people and our Heavenly King and his people. So just as David was a shepherd and a king, so too is David's decedent, Our Lord, Jesus Christ both a Shepherd and a King. As David was a father to his people, so too is our God a Father to his people.
Now in the Davidic kingdom from the time of Solomon until the very end of the kingdom the Queen Mother was a position of unique power and authority. The cultural reasons for this extend beyond Israel to all of the nations of that part of the world...Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Persia. It is easy to see why. Polygamy was a common practice and the king might have many wives, but he would only have one mother.
In 2nd Kings it says:

Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king's mother, who sat at his right.

This was not a one-time act. The positioning of the Queen Mother at the King's right hand was an indication of her relationship to the king. It was a position of power, down to almost the present day, when the prestige position is at a leaders right hand, so the phase "right hand man." Further, throughout the rest of the books of Kings whenever it lists the name of the king in the genealogy of the Davidic Line it also lists the name of his mother.
So this is model of our proper relationship to Mary and her Son. The Queen Mother holds no power or authority through her own person, but only through her son. So too does Mary hold no power or authority on her own, but only though her Son. Still in the ancient kingdom the Queen Mother was often brought petitions so that she would intercede with the king on behalf of others.
An authentic relationship with Mary includes the understanding that Mary always directs the penitent to her Son. In the Magnificat Mary says:

Magnificat anima mea Dominum,

My souls does magnify the Lord,

In every word spoken by Mary in Scripture it is evident that she points to her son. Nowhere is this more evident than in her final words in Scripture, in John 2:5

Do what ever He tells you.

The mark of an authentic Marian Apparition is always "how does it point to Chris?" for Mary never points to herself.

St. Gianna Molla

2010-04-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading Fr. Z's incomparable blog where he was covering the Wisconsin shrine installation of a St. Gianna Molla relic. He linked to an earlier blog post from 2008 in which he describes St. Gianna's second miracle, the one which resulted in her canonization. I found it so inspiring that I just had to link to it.
Especially important is the bullet list at the end of the piece.

Don't be bitter.

2010-04-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

Catholic Exchange has an articel that gives a bit of perspective to the Church's latest problems.

Better than Bitter

I have to say it is very easy to get disheartened at all of the slop that is being shoveled on the Church and our great German Shepherd. Sometimes those of us who work in lay ministries in the Church face challenges from our families, friends and neighbors for our continued faithfulness to the Church.

I would say the historical perspective mention in the article is very important. I love my country. I hope for it a long history, but I know intellectually that it is unlikely in the best of circumstances to last for hundreds and hundreds of years into the future, let alone thousands. I also know that, barring the second coming, in that time that the Church of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, will still be, in that future. I suspect when English is a language barely recognizable, that Latin will still be chanted, perhaps mixed with a dialect of some modern language I would not dare to name, at a Mass which will still reach its high point when the words are uttered: Hoc est enim Corpus meum, For this is my body.
So don't let the troubles of the day distract your soul from the message of eternity. This too will pass.

Why all priest are not called to celibacy

2010-04-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

It is not a surprise to most members of the Catholic Church to hear that in the western world the majority of the faithful live in a Roman Catholic bubble. That is, they are most knowledgeable about and when dealing with Catholics from outside their own parish have almost exclusive contact with other members of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. In this rite most priests are under a vow of celibacy. Many do not know that there are some 22 other rites , many of which allow married men to be ordained to the priesthood.

In the universal sense it is not necessary for a man to be celibate to be ordained a priest. It is, however, a discipline of the Roman Rite for a priest to be celibate.

Ordinarily, married men are not permitted to take orders under the Roman Rite if they are married. In no rite is a priest allowed to marry once they have been ordained. Just as for a married deacon, if a priest's wife dies he is not permitted to remarry.

Even in the Roman Rite there are exceptions to this otherwise mandatory discipline. these exceptions are primarily the result of a pastoral provision authorized by the Venerable John Paul II to allow men who had been Anglican(Episcopal) priests before converting to Roman Catholicism to be ordained. This was done for many reasons, one of which was, as might be expected from the title of the provision was pastoral. In some cases these men did not enter the Church alone, but brought along their congregations. JPII allowed these individuals to continued to minister to these flocks, after a suitable period of training and guidance. In fact he created a whole new version of the Roman Rite for them known as the Anglican Use.

Since that time other Anglicans have been accepted into the Church, and because of their experience have been allowed to serve as priest even though previously married., even serving in ordinary parishes, though seldom or never as pastors.

It is likely that we will see a small influx of such men in the near future. Benedict XVI has authorized the creation of a brand new structural entity, the Ordinate, under which parishes, and even diocese, of Anglicans may (re-)join the Catholic Church. Like military diocese these Ordinate will span diocese, their parishes under the pastoral control of their Ordinary, rather than the local bishop. The Ordinary many be a bishop, or he may be priest, abet one who will have some of the prerogatives of a bishop. Initially many of the priest of these parishes, and even the Ordinaries will be drawn from those who have up until now been married Anglican priests.

Such men will have to be in valid marriages, that is they can not be divorced, unless their previous marriage has been validly annulled. They will also have to be ordained, since their Anglican orders are not valid. But they will be priests of the Roman Rite, though they might celebrate according to the Anglican Use, or not. Such details are still being worked out.

They will undergo discernment, so the validity of their call to the priesthood will be determined as carefully as any other candidate. They will be part of a very small group, priests of the Roman Rite not called to the discipline of celibacy. They do not represent a change of heart on the Church's part. Merely a pastoral approach to true Christian unity, so that we may all be one..

Blessed St. Joseph, Husband of Mary

2010-03-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

In a very few minutes the Feast of St. Joseph will start. Well actually, in a way it has already started, for anyone who prays the Liturgy of the Hours. This is because the Feast of St. Joseph is a Solemnity.

A Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church is a principal holy day in the liturgical calendar. On a Solemnity prayers for the day begin at evening of the previous day, just as they do on Sunday. This is primarily because in ancient times (meaning before they had clocks) days started at sundown. We Catholics call this the vigil of the Feast.

So this evening was the Vigil of the Feast of St Joseph.Now most people know (at least those in the United States) that when St. Patrick's day falls on a Friday the local bishop will often dispense the faithful from the discipline of abstaining from meat on Friday. That's because green beer would just not be the same without a nice plate of corn beef. It is also because on St. Pat's day we celebrate the life of the Saint and you aren't doing much celebrating when you are engaged in penitential acts, like abstaining from meat.The bishops have to do this individually because the Feast of St. Patrick is not a Solemnity. It's just a plain old feast.

Now the Solemnity of St. Joseph is different. It is a major feast of the Universal Church. In Rome, where all ten Holy Days of Obligation are still celebrated, the Feast of St. Joseph is a Holy Day of Obligation. On such a day Catholics are not required to abstain from meat when it falls on a Friday. (For those paying attention, in Ireland St. Patrick's Feast Day is a Holy Day of Obligation, and so would not require special dispensation from the bishop when it falls on a Friday.) So the gist of this is that tomorrow, because it is a Solemnity you are not strictly required to abstain from meat. All other disciplines of Lent are still in force. So if you've given up broccoli for Lent I guess you'll have to have carrots instead with your steak.

Catechal Responsibility

2010-03-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned again and again and again that the primary responsibility of the catechist is to teach what the Church teaches. Now it is true that to teach well the catechist must be able to relate to the student in an appropriate way. All of the teaching techniques, that is the pedagogical skills necessary to any teacher, must be mastered. The catechist should inspire their students, just as any sucessful teacher will inspire.
But the most inspirational catechist in the world will not be doing his ministry well, or at all, if they do not teach what the Church teaches.
Case in point:
He Said What?

The primacy of Catholocism

2010-03-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

So at one time I was facilitating a class on Biblical study and the area being covered was on judges, which ends

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best.

This passage can be a reflection of the way in which Protestants view Solo Scriptorum, with the Bible the only source of faith, interpreted by each person themselves.

Sometimes in the modern ecumenical spirit members of the Church forget that the purpose of ecumenism is not just one church or a group of churches which play nice, but the reunification of Christ's Church, that is the separated Protestant communities with the Catholic Church.

Sometimes one will hear from individuals who are well meaning, but have been poorly catechized:

Shouldn't a church be open to anyone who wants to come? It wasn't like Jesus founded the Catholic Church. He founded His Church. If the Catholic church had stayed true to the teachings of Christ and His mission on earth, there never would have been a need for Protestant religions.

This kind of statement shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Catholic doctrine. As it states in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

*811 *"This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic."
These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission. The Church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these qualities.

*817 *In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame." The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do not occur without human sin:

The Church does not deny that members of the Church, even popes, bishops and lay ministers are sinful. The fact that some in the Church sin does not excuse the sin of heresy practiced by the original Protestant schismatics. The Church has also stated that modern members of Protestant congregations, raised in those traditions, are not guilty of the sin of heresy. This does not apply to those members of the Catholic Church, who for reasons of disagreement with teachings of the Magisterium, have left the Church.

Last year the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a document, un-named as far as I have been able to find, which was meant to clarify the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium. In that document it states:

"In fact, precisely because the Church willed by Christ actually continues to exist (subsistit in) in the Catholic Church, this continuity of subsistence implies an essential identity between the Church of Christ and the Catholic Church. The Council wished to teach that we encounter the Church of Jesus Christ as a concrete historical subject in the Catholic Church. The idea, therefore, that subsistence can somehow be multiplied does not express what was intended by the choice of the term “subsistit”. In choosing the word “subsistit” the Council intended to express the singularity and non “multipliability” of the Church of Christ: the Church exists as a unique historical reality."

The Church's stance on whether the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Christ is pretty clear.

The consequences of sin

2010-03-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

One of the points often made by atheists is how can a loving God exists in a world with so many bad things?

The explanation for this is often framed in the principle of free will, and indeed that is a major part of the answer. The extension of this point is that we do not live in a consequence free world.

What exactly does that mean? At its most basic it means that if you step off a cliff the natural laws which God has seen fit to enforce in his created universe will cause you to experience a world of hurt as your body makes contact with the ground below.

So in reality the Commandments and teachings which God has given us are warnings about how to avoid bad consequences. Many people point to the Ten Commandments and describe how they are the rules by which a society must live for a community to be able to live together. Certainly a community can not survive if the people in it steal from one another or commit adultery or bear false witness against each other.

In the new age the Church has illuminated the meanings of the original Ten Commandments to tell us about many other things which just seem to have bad consequences when we do them. Most of these consequences are present in this world, so that it really isn't necessary to talk about the dire consequences that will occur in the next.

Sometime the consequences don't seem to follow so directly from our point of view, but the Church has had centuries to think about and see the end results, and knows where individual actions will lead.

That is also why there is no such thing as a private sin. A sin hurts the whole community. There are consequences for the whole community.

This is not a popular stand today. People want a consequences free world. That ain't going to happen!

Live a promiscuous life and there will be consequences. There's heartbreak, low self esteem, using others as objects, which results in loneliness, possible pregnancy, guilt for "taking care" of that "problem", disease, and on and on.

Follow the cult of instant gratification and find a life bereft of meaning.

Cheat on your spouse and destroy your family, lose the respect of your children, your friends, possible even consign the woman you said you loved and your children to a life of poverty, since being from a single female parent household is the greatest indicator of poverty in the U.S.

The God who loves you wants you to avoid bad consequences. He wants it so bad that He has told us how to minimize the chances of making decisions which will cause us to experience a whole bunch of bad consequences. To do that avoid sin. Respect and follow the teachings of the Church. Teachings not created because the Church is anti-this or whata-phobic that, but because these actions, those lifestyles are bad for you. Thaey are bad because they have consequences, in this world as well as the next.

History lesson

2010-02-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

John Henry Cardinal Newman once wrote "To know history is to cease to be Protestant." What Newman meant was that to anyone who read the Church Fathers, who was familiar with Scripture, who knew of Roman history and the history of Europe the truth of the Tradition of the Catholic Church was obvious.

The Bible itself is primarily the story of Salvation History. As such it has depth. I've written about compenetration before. Compenetration refers to the fact that biblical prophecy has an immediate fulfillment while simultaneously having a more ultimate meaning as well. So when Jeremiah talks about the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile he is also talking about the ultimate return to God which will come though the salvation of Christ.

A different kind of depth in Scripture is the way in which ordinary objects, things and concepts in the mortal world reflect or mirror things either spiritual or Divine. The relationship between God and his people, Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament, is mirrored in marriage. Some would even go so far as to say that marriage is a sacrament because it mirrors God's relationship to his Church. So we see in the Song of Songs the relationship of a lover as the relationship of God to his people. We see in Hosea Israel compared to an unfaithful wife, who takes other gods to the sorrow of the true God.

The Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies in which it was kept was believed to mirror Heaven, or at least the Holy Throne Room of God.

Israel itself was to mirror the Heavenly Kingdom. Remember in Scripture God originally did not give Israel a king, even though Moses made allowances for a king in the Law. God was their king. As a matter of fact when the people asked the prophet Samuel to anoint a king for them Samuel was angry. He knew God was their King. But God knew what was best for the people. So he gave them their way, because he knew ultimately he would get his way.

So as God often does he wrote strait with crooked lines. He took many bad and some good kings and paved the way for the Eternal King, Himself.

Along the way he used the trappings and traditions of Jewish royalty to model his Eternal Kingdom and his Church. So a careful reading of the two Book of Kings shows that in the ancient kingdom the king ruled, but the other power in the kingdom was not his wife, for the ancient kings had many wives, but his mother. Read 2 Kings. Note that for every king there is an entry identifying the queen mother, for the queen mother had real authority in the kingdom.

In Isaiah 23 the prophet describes the office of the steward, second only to the king. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus uses the same words when appointing his steward, Peter, the first pope.

So the concept of Mary as the Theotokas and Queen of Heaven are Scriptural in origin, not some post Roman innovation. Likewise the Magisterium and the power of the Pope to bind and loose is a legal concept based on the Scriptural description of the officer of steward in the ancient kingdom of God's people, not some offshoot of Roman government or Catholic power grab.

As Christ said Let those who have ears hear, and I might add let those who have eyes read.

Franz Werfel and Bernadette

2010-02-22T19:53:00.000-08:00

So its amazing the way sometimes things just fall into line. Today I was looking up something on Wikipedia and the article included a quote from Franz Werfel. Werfel, was a Jewish poet and play write who wrote against the Nazi's in the period prior to their take over of Austria. As the National Socialist Party came to power he fled to France, only to have to flee again when Germany invaded that country. Unable to procure the necessary documents he fled across France, finally hiding with various families around Lourdes.

While there he learned of the story of Bernadette Soubirous. Werfel made a promise to God that if he and his wife escaped to America he would write a song about Bernadette. With the help of American journalist Varian Fry he managed to escape. In 1941 he wrote Song of Bernadette, a novel about the young girl and the apparition of the Blessed Virgin which appeared to her.

Though Werfel never converted to Catholicism his book was very Catholic in tone.

Amazingly at the present time I'm doing a Lenten reflection on Mary. Today's reading was on Bernadette Soubirous and Our Lady of Lourdes.

Just moments ago someone sent me a factoid. It seems that this year Lent and Easter correspond exactly with those of 1858, the year Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette in Lourdes.

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was last week, on Feb 11. Somehow that date passed without my really noticing it. For some reason today the Spirit seemed determine to bring it to my attention

The danger of the mystic

2010-02-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

We live in a society where it has become common to face the spiritual with skepticism or indifference. Even in the Church it is not uncommon to find even priests who deny the actual existence of Satan, angels, or demons. Often these same people deny, if not the existence of sin, its power to eternally separate us from the presence of God.
This has resulted in a situation where our youth are exposed to many false and dangerous beliefs. Some of these beliefs are considered harmless or even silly by secular culture, when they are in truth dangerous. Dangerous to the soul and sometimes even dangerous to the body.
Take Wicca. Basically a made up religion with its historical origins in the 19th century. Based upon vague fantasies of a non-existent ancient witchcraft Wiccans themselves do not believe that they worship the devil. However many do call upon powers from beyond this world, attempting to affect happenings in the physical world through the exercise of power.
Now there is a real spiritual world. It is a plane of existence inhabited by the angels and demons, that is fallen angels, and includes the heavens and hell to which those who die go awaiting the final coming of Christ. There is a power in this spiritual world. It is the same power that exists in the mortal plane. The power of God. But God also allows other forces to reach from that plane into the world. Some actions occur through His own power, as when God answers a prayer, or allows the Blessed Mother or a saint to appear to a mortal. Other forces God also allows to enter the world, as when Satan is allowed to tempt the living or when a demon is allowed to possess a person's body.
It has become unfashionable to talk of such things, but they are as much a part of our Catholic teaching as the Sacraments or Original Sin. It is true that not every mentally unstable or epileptic individual is "possessed." But just as most wild bears are not man eaters, that does not mean that there does not exist a man eating wild bear or two. It also means that its a bad idea to dance with the bears.
So in the present secular world its very likely that if you work with a youth group that some of the members of the group have friends who are either dabbling with Wicca or even from families where it or other pagan practices are considered the norm. It is also likely that they have been exposed to Ouija boards, tarot cards or other spiritually dangerous items.
Think this is a silly thing to worry about? Let's look at it this way. Do you believe in the efficacious power of prayer? That is, do you believe that praying to God or to the Saints or the Blessed Mother actually has the result of causing an effect in the physical world? If you do is it then unreasonable to believe that Satan and his fallen angels can also respond to "prayer." God has allowed Satan power in this world, at least until Christ's second coming. If someone is using an object or ceremony or ritual in a way to reach out to a higher power, and the intent of that individual is not directed toward God then does it not make sense that another power could respond?
Even if such a power does not manifest physically it is dangerous to soul to dabble with such things. It is especially dangerous for the young, those who are not fully formed in their faith and the weak willed, those already seeped in sin, to fool with such things.

New Media

2010-02-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

Now I am of an age where I can say that there was a time when I had a familiarity with literally all aspects of computer and network use. There was, quite literally, no application or protocol used to communicate between computers that I did not have at least a passing relationship with. As an example, several years ago the Smithsonian had an exhibition on computer technology at which were present all kinds of computer hardware from the famous ENIAC to the more pedestrian S-100 bus based PC, Atari, Pet and of course the IBM PC. I took my son though the exhibit, who was in high school at that time and heard, "Dad, don't you have one of those?" at far more of the pieces than I would have expected, starting with the S-100 unit.
On this extensive array of computer hardware I managed to communicate with computer bulletin boards over phone modems, moved onto first AOL and CompuServe, and eventually to the Internet. Once on that world spanning network I found myself using email, Internet Relay Chat, FTP with its ARCHIE search engine, GOPHER with its equivalent VERONICA search engine, and of course Usenet.
Somewhere around the time the WWW came into existence I started to fall behind. Second Life was an environment I only heard about at a Systems Controls conference, where the other programmers had pretty much the same disinterested response I did to the presenter's enthusiastic endorsement of Linden's virtual world. I grabbed onto blogging after a fashion, though my lackadaisical update of this blog shows I'm certainly not in the league of the great Catholic bloggers who typically post a dozen times a day. I found Instant Messaging a total distraction that prevented me from getting any work done. MySpace and Facebook seem to require a much greater level of exhibitionism than I am comfortable with. Twitter? Does anybody really care where I am and what I'm doing?
So how does this great glut of social communication tools effect the ability of the catechist to carry out the mission? The Holy Father has said that it is important that the Church use the new media to evangelize, teach and proclaim the Good News. So it is incumbent on us to think and investigate how it is best to do that.
We must also remember that social media can be a two edge sword. Just as thoughtlessly placed photos on Facebook can cost you a job, it can also cost you the respect and trust of young people placed in your charge. IM or email between adults and young people must be carried on according to the highest standards of propriety.
When youth invite you to their IM buddy lists or friend you they should be made to understand that while you might indeed be their friend, you are also an adult who has a responsibility to report certain things to authorities or parents.
Any kind of relationship which could lead to scandal must be avoided. Remember any piece of information which travels through the Internet and including information which transverses the cell phone system never goes away. It is never private.
Provided that new media is used in a way that enhances human dignity and supports the commission laid on us by Christ it, like writing, radio and television before it can be used to the greater glory of God.

Is America a Christian Country?

2010-01-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

Last April America's president stated in a speech given in the principally Islamic nation of Turkey, "America is not a Christian nation." This is a statement for which Barack Obama took a lot of heat, from conservatives, from Christians and even from some Democrats.
Though I personally disagree with Mr. Obama on almost everything this particular statement is one to which I must reluctantly agree. How can that be, you might ask? The United States was founded on Christian principals. The Declaration of Independence appeals to the Creator and natural law for the authority to throw off the bonds of tyranny. Freedom of Religion is enshrined in our Constitution. 76% of Americans identify themselves as Christian.
To that I would say:
How can any nation which allows over one million innocent babies to be murdered a year call itself a Christian Nation?
50 million abortions since Roe v. Wade made abortion the law of the land. To bring that number in perspective 50 million people is the combined populations of the states of California and New York. It is the population of the Union of South Africa, and greater than the population of Spain. It is nearly the population of Canada and Australia put together. It is nearly the number of people killed in every country which participated in WWII. It is greater than the number of people killed by Hitler and Stalin put together.
It is a carnage which is so great that it is in truth beyond normal human comprehension. A moral stench that is truly sickening and that will condemn us all in the minds of our descendants, when finally this Satanic inspired travesty is finally recognized for what it is and is banned as the crime against humanity which it is.
So today when we congratulate ourselves that 300,000 people have descended on Washington to speak out for life, to once again be ignored by the Supreme Court, Congress, the White House and most of the Main Stream Media, we should remember more children died in the first six months after Roe v. Wade became law than will stand in the cold in D.C. today.
It is sobering thought. I pray that God can forgive our nation, else we are surely doomed.

New Year, Same Old, Same Old.

2009-12-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

Just before the holidays I was facilitating a bible study class for adults. One of the particular lessons of secession was obedience to God. Specifically for the Catholic this comes down to obedience to the Magisterium. Out of the blue one of the students said, " I don't believe the Church is always right. I don't believe the Church's teaching on birth control"

Now this is the catechist's greatest fear. Sometimes we know a lesson will be controversial. Plan a lesson on annulments, or abortion or even when to kneel during Mass and the astute catechist will be prepared for a lively discussion. Talk about obedience to God and one expects a discussion of the difficulty of living up to the commandments or mercy verses justice. So of course God in his infinite wisdom throws out the 1 200lbs gorilla of modernist heresy to be dealt with.

Now the speaker was a post menopausal single woman. I mention this only to point out that this was not a personally relevant belief, at least not in the conventional sense.

Now I have no doubt left to my own devices I would have felt a deep sense of panic moving in. This is the kind of rabbit hole that can derail an entire group. The rest of the lesson gets buried and half the group refuses to return, because the facilitator is not "pastoral" or "understanding."

Luckily I had prayed before the lesson, always a vital part of the preparation for a teacher or catechist before performing their ministry. So I know it was not me, but the Holy Spirit who responded with, "What part of Humanae Vitae do you believe Pope Paul got wrong?"

"I..I don't know I've never read it.."

"How about Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body?"

"No..."

"So what you're saying is that you're prepared to challenge a teaching of the Church without knowing the moral and theological underpinnings of those teachings?"

"Well when you put it like that..."

"So why not read Humanae Vitae before you decide you disagree with it?"

I pointed out that the document was easy to find with a simple Google search, and promised we'd discuss it once everyone had an opportunity to read it. We then smoothly continued with the lesson.

I don't know that everyone in that group will take the time to read Humanae Vitae before our next session, after the holidays, but I do know that I'll be rereading it, just in case.

Marry Christmas

2009-12-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas has come and gone. We celebrate today the Feast of the Holy Family. In the coming days we will finish out the Octave of Christmas and move into the Christmas season.

Next year promises to be challenging for the Catechist, as we move closer to the new English translation of the Mass. Now for some of you I have no doubt that you've been told it won't happen, or that it won't effect your parish. Now based on the past forty years, I have no doubt that some priests, or even bishops, might believe that they can finesse this. Have no doubt. A new translation is coming.

The transition will be easier if the faithful are properly instructed in the reasons a new translation was necessary and how the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) and the Vatican arrived at this new translation. Sour grapes about the quality of the translation (It is actually much better than the old translation taken from the 1975 version of the Missale Romanum,) ala Bishop Trautman is not helpful. It can be more theologically challenging for individuals who are not knowledgeable about the precepts of their faith. It contains words of more than one syllable to declare complex theological concepts that can't properly be stated without using such words. These are concepts medieval peasants understood, including quite a few of little formal education beyond catechetical instruction, and this mostly at the hands of their parents. Surely modern Americans and other English speakers, who can master the terminology of football or cricket can likewise master this special vocabulary of liturgical worship.Some instruction may be necessary, mostly account of the forty years of bad catechetical formation that has occurred in some diocese of the Church. The better the faithful are prepared for the transition the smoother it will go, and the better the liturgy will be for it. so if you haven't yet visited USCCB - Roman Missal check it out. The USCCB have made a substantial effort to support the transition. We need to also.

Now there's a shepherd!

2009-11-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

Just think how much different U.S. history would be if thirty years ago American bishops had done this.

The expression of faith

2009-11-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

As many people who follow Catholic news know yesterday the Holy See released Anglicanorum Coetibus the Apostolic Constitution concerned with the reunification of Anglican individuals and groups with the Catholic Church. There are many interesting pastoral provisions in the document and its supporting Complimentary Norms document that will lead, one hopes, to the joining of many Anglo-Catholics to the barque of Peter.
One interesting point in the document, which may have consequences beyond the Anglican communion is in section I.5:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by members of the Ordinariate.

The legal structure under which individuals, parishes and diocese of the Anglican Communion, and other Anglican groups not now associated with the Communion is the Ordinariate. An Ordinariate is a kind of non-territorial groups headed by an ordinary, probably a bishop. It is most often compared to the way Military diocese are organized, with its own priests and lay members, not under the jurisdiction of the local prelate.
So for members of the Anglican Community who desire to become members of this Ordinariate the standard is that they must believe all that is professed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is not so extraordinary. Anyone who becomes a member of the Church through the process of RCIA is suppose to make this same profession.
So lets think about this... To become a Catholic one must profess belief in the tenets embodied in the Catechism. The Catechism is the authoritative expression of the Catholic Faith. This constitution actually elevates the status of the Catechism.
So how long before the question is ask: What about people who claim to be Catholic, but do not adhere to this authoritative document? Might their status as Catholics be questioned, or at least their self-description as Catholic? This goes for organizations as well as individuals.
As important as adherence to the Creed is, the beliefs of the Catholic Church engenders much more than is stated in those 214 words of the Nicene Creed. Maybe its time we started holding people to them.

The feast of the dedication of the Lateran

2009-11-09T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast of the dedication of the Lateran or as it is known by its official title The Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran. The Lateran is the mother church of the whole inhabited world. It is the cathedral of Rome. And while many believe, erroneously, that St. Peter is the Holy Father's cathedral, that honor goes to the Lateran. It was built by the Emperor Constantine during the pontificate of Sylvester I, and dedicated on this day in the Year of Our Lord 324. It is the oldest of the four major basilicas of Rome.
The actually patron of the church is not either of the St. Johns, but rather the Most Holy Savior himself, Jesus the Christ.
The basilica itself has been rebuilt many times over the ages. All four the Rome's major basilicas are assigned archpriests, who are usually cardinals. Agostino Vallin, who is also Vicar of Rome is the current Lateran archpriest.

All Souls

2009-11-01T04:49:00.000-08:00

The Feast of All Souls is a fitting time to talk about Purgatory.
We will start with the Four Last Things. They are Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven. These are the things we all will face at the end of our mortal life.
It is not possible to speak of Death and Judgment without speaking of sin. It is divinely revealed truth that sins bring punishment inflicted by God's justice. These must be expiated either through sorrows, miseries or calamities in this life or else in the next life. For those who die in isolation from God due to mortal sin the Church teaches that damnation is the result. For those who, through the blessing of the sacrament of Confession, have garnered the forgiveness of their sins there is still punishment, though of a transient and purifying nature.
Christians have always understood that sin is not just a transgression of divine law but also a contempt of the friendship between God and man. It is a rejection of the love that God has shown us through Jesus Christ.
Therefore for the full remission of sins, it is necessary that not only that friendship with God be reestablished, but that also some voluntary reparation be accomplished. Sin effects not only our relationship with God but also our relationship with the whole communion of the Church. Because of this the vestiges of sin may remain to be cleansed after remission of guilt. This is clearly demonstrated by the doctrine on purgatory

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come. -St. Gregory the Great
--Catechism of the Catholic Church

Sin is never a personal matter. By sin not only is the individual's relationship with God hurt, but also the solidarity of the Christian Community. However just as the sin of one harms others so to does the holiness of one benefit others. Thus the Christian faithful give each other mutual aid to attain the supernatural aim of the acceptance of salvation, which originates in Christ.

The very ancient dogma of the Communion of Saints thus explains how the efforts of both those already in Heaven, those still undergoing the purification of Purgatory and those still on Earth can be joined in the work of atonement for sin.

So we as Catholics both pray for those undergoing the purification of Purgatory and ask the saints to also pray for them. Because the most perfect prayer and worship of God is contained in the Mass we also offer Masses for the repose of the souls in Purgatory.

A mention on the term “in Purgatory.” The Church does not maintain specifically that Purgatory is a place such as Heaven or Hell or even as the physical Universe is a place. As already mentioned the word Purgatory is used to describe the process of purification that the dead, who are destined for heaven, undergo prior to their entrance to heaven. Informally it is easier to talk of individuals being in Purgatory, though it is prudent to remember that we are not necessarily talking about a concrete place.

Good works, particularly those which people find difficult can also be offered to God for the salvation of sinners. Since the sufferings of martyrs for the faith are considered of great value their work in union with Christ himself is considered to form a repository, a treasury of spiritual merit, which the Church can apply to the perennial debt owed by individuals.

This remission of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven is called indulgence. In an indulgence the Church is making use of its power as minister of the Redemption of Christ, which allows it to authoritatively dispense this remission from the treasury which Christ and the saints have won. This is part of the power of the Pope and the bishops to bind and loose on Heaven and Earth as successors of the Apostles.

The aim of ecclesiastical authorities in granting indulgences is not only to assist the faithful in remission of the punishment due sin but also that of urging them to perform works of piety, penitence and charity.

In the past the practice of indulgences have not always been well understood by the faithful, nor even sometimes by members of the clergy (even high ranking members.) It is forbidden to either sell indulgences or to deny their efficacy.

In the days before Vatican II it was common to talk about indulgences in term of periods of time. The object being to compare a specific indulgence to the equivalent period of penitential work by an individual. Unfortunately this practice often caused confusion among the faithful whereby it was correlated to time spent in Purgatory, which was understood to be a place rather than a process. We no longer speak of indulgences in such a way.

Instead we speak of partial and plenary indulgences. An indulgence is partial if it removes part of the temporal punishment due to sin. A plenary indulgence removes all of the temporal punishment due to sin.

Remember indulgences are only effective for removing the punishment for sins which have already been forgiven, either through the sacrament of Reconciliation for mortal sins or for venial sins through another penitential act, such as the penitential rite at Mass, saying the rosary, etc..

We can always apply an indulgence to the dead either to a specific individual or to the known or unknown dean in general as well as to the living. Specifics on indulgences are given in the Apostolic Document Indulgentiarum Doctrina.

Those who die in God's grace and friendship, once they are perfectly purified live forever with God. As it says in the CCC:

This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called 'Heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness. -CCC 1024

We of our own accord do not have the power within us to enter this blessed state. It is only through the power of God manifest in the salvation brought by Jesus Christ that we can attain entrance to communion with God.

So on the Feast of All Souls remember those who are still undergoing the purification of Purgatory and pray for them.

Ut unum sint!

2009-10-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Huge news today from the Vatican:

With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion.

Or as John Allen reports at New Advent:

In a move with potentially sweeping implications for relations between the Catholic church and some 80 million Anglicans worldwide, the Vatican has announced the creation of new ecclesiastical structures to absorb disaffected Anglicans wishing to become Catholics. The structures will allow those Anglicans to hold onto their distinctive spiritual practices, including the ordination of married former Anglican clergy as Catholic priests.

Yes the Catholic Church is setting up structures to accept not just individual Anglican converts, but whole parishes, diocese, and communions.

Inside Catholic
Get Religion
Whispers in the Loggia
The Anchoress

I hesitate to call it the most important move in true ecumenism since the reformation until I see its fruits. Still even at at its worst it positively dwarfs John Paul's amazing largess in creating the Anglican Use pastoral provision. That is saying no small thing.

"Grant that in your glory..."

2009-10-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

In today's reading the Sons of Thunder, James and John asked Jesus for a special favor. They request that Jesus "Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus answers:

You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

They assure Him that they can and He continues,

The cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.

Now we know what the Sons of Zebedee did not know. That Jesus would enter into his glory on Calvary, nailed to a cross. Those destined by God to be at his right and left hand, revolutionaries against the Roman government, thieves at the very least, probably much worse. One destined for Heaven, the other most likely for Hell.
But we know much more. Of the two brothers both would face the possibility of martyrdom, but only one would do so on the day of Jesus' death. James, like all of the other Apostles, even loyal Peter, would abandon Jesus on that day. Eventually he would, like all the other Apostles but one, return to see the risen Christ. And eventually he would face death and drink from the cup of which Jesus drank on Calvary. As did all his brother Apostles, but one.
John, however would stand at the foot of the cross, with the two Marys, one the Mother of God, the other the holy woman from whom Jesus cast out demons. Can anyone believe that was a safe place to stand on that day? Peter feared to be linked to Christ, so much that he denied Him three times. The others ran away, one so in a hurry that he left his tunic behind.
John stood at the cross in sight of all the Romans. Likely mere feet from the centurion who pierced Our Lord with a lance. If a sword pierced the heart of Our Lady that day what fear, and pain and sorrow must have cut into his heart?
It appears that God must have taken note, because by his willingness to take up the cup of pain from which Jesus drank, John received into his care the vessel of Christs entrance to Earth, his Blessed Mother. And John was blessed with long life, and a peaceful death. The only Apostle not called to taste the cup of martyrdom.
Was this because he was the Apostle whom Jesus loved? Or was it because he was the Apostle who loved Jesus enough to face death even before Pentecost?

Compenetration

2009-10-14T05:53:00.000-07:00

We are at the very beginning of a Scriptural study which is based on Salvation History. Catholics do not, generally know Scripture as well as our Protestant brothers and sisters. This is even true of those who are well catechized, themselves a small minority.
One of the interesting thing about Scripture is that it has many layers. I have in the past compared it to an Onion (and an Ogre, for you Shrek fans.) This property is called Compenetration. Compenetration refers to the fact that biblical prophecy frequently has an immediate fulfillment while simultaneously having a more ultimate meaning as well. It is valid for the time in which it was written and for the here and now, often also having a part in the description of Salvation History.
Don't you just love learning a new word?

The song remains the same

2009-10-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been reading The Mystical City of God by the Venerable María de Jesús de Ágred. Now sister Maria lived over 400 years ago. It is amazing to me that she could have written something so timely as this:

The order which religious souls should maintain in their desires should be: that they strive to be punctual in fulfilling the obligations of their vows and all the virtues, which are connected with them. Afterwards and secondarily they may engage in voluntary practices, such as are called supererogatory. This order some of the souls, who are misled by the devil to entertain an indiscreet zeal for perfection are wont to invert; thus, while they fail seriously in the obligations of their state. they are eager to add other voluntary exercises and practices, which are usually of small use or benefit, or arise from a spirit of presumption and singularity. They secretly desire to be looked upon as distinguished in zeal and perfection, while in truth they are very far even from the beginning of perfection. I do not wish to see in thee a fault so reprehensible: but first fulfill all the duties of thy vows and of community life, and then thou mayest add what thou canst, according to thy ability and the inspiration of divine grace. This together will beautify thy soul and will make it perfect and agreeable in the eyes of God

Now this brought to my mind the the response to the Holy See's Visitation to the Women Religious orders of the United States by some members of these orders. Seeing some of the things that some women religious are involved in one might wonder if the Venerable Maria, herself a member of a religious order might not have some insight.
I'm just saying.

To teach what the Church teaches

2009-09-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Many have noted an inclination by some, especially in the media, to describe members of the Church using terms which are more suited to political discourse than to religion. It is true that there is often a relationship between an individual's stand on Church teachings and their political leanings. In this worldview Catholics who adhere to Church teachings are often called conservatives, when what they really are is orthodox, Those who are dissidents, that is they do not follow, or believe or support Church teachings are called liberals, when what they often are is heretical.
One can certainly be politically liberal and be orthodox in their beliefs. One can also be conservative and be heretical. It is unfortunately true in the real world that one who is politically liberal is more likely to be a supporter of questionable theological stands. That, at least, is my experience. Why is this?
My belief is because both those who are liberal and those who are dissidents from Church teaching have in common a lack of historical perspective. John Henry Cardinal Newman once said, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." Many if not most of the changes that Catholic dissidents desire are changes which some Protestant denomination somewhere has already tried. Starting with denial of the primacy, and infallibility of the Pope and the Magisterium to the ordination of women some Protestant group has already tried it. Indeed at its heart any Catholic dissident movement requires at its heart a denial of the teaching authority of the Church.
Not to be misunderstood, conservatives are just as capable of taking a stand in opposition to Church teaching. How many otherwise faithful Catholics argued that waterboarding was alright because we got "useful information that prevented another terrorist attack"? A stand which denies Church's teaching on the principle of intrinsic evil.

Intrinsic evil refers to actions that are morally evil in such a way that is essentially opposed to the will of God or proper human fulfillment. The key consideration here is that intrinsically evil actions are judged to be so solely by their object, independently of the intention that inspires them or the circumstances that surround them.

To support torture is to support an intrinsic evil and is in most cases a sin. As for all such cases support must be proximate, that is it must be an actual effective support for the act, not an unintended consequence.
So how does this touch the catechist? The mission of the catechist is to teach what the Church teaches. A catechist who teaches at odds with the teaching of the Church corrupts souls. He leads others astray. Millstones come to mind, along with other ultimate unpleasantness for the individual catechist, as well as for any others who knew and supported such acts, even if only by a sin of omission.
All are sinners. At least all of those left in this land of exile. No matter how faithful the Catholic there is almost certainly some Church teaching which grates. It is the duty of the catechist to ignore their personal feelings on the issue and teach what the Church teaches. That is our ministry.

New start

2009-09-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

In many parishes throughout the Catholic Church in America this is the time that catechetical programs are starting. In the long hot days of summer many parishes wind down their programs. Not that things stop entirely. Many parishes participate in Summer Youth Conferences, such as those sponsored by Franciscan University, and held throughout the United States and Canada. Many also participate in work camps through Sacred Heart or another group. Many diocese also hold diocesan youth conferences. Bible youth Day Camps, a concept borrowed from our Protestant brothers and sisters, have also made inroads in many places. The summer is not without church related activities, but few parishes run their regular weekly catechetical programs through the summer. Hence at this time of year they must wind up their efforts to restart their youth and sometimes adult catechisis programs.
In my own parish we have instituted a very large shake-up by moving to a full parish catechetical program. That means whole families, adult youth and teen programs, which meet every Sunday for several hours. We have even gone so far as to move our Mass times in order to support this. At this point we are unsure of just how many parishioners will regularly attend these sessions. We can be fairly sure those with young children will come. Our Director of Religious Education has made it quite clear that, being that parents are the primary teachers of their children in the faith, that is expected that parent will participate. Strong support of the pastor has prevent misunderstandings about the duties of these parents.
Teens, especially those who can drive themselves, and adults are another matter. We have very little leverage, other that the pastors support for the program, to make adults attend these sessions.
A good sales pitch helps. We are studying the Bible this year, but don't intend to limit this program to "Bible Study." Next year the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is already on our schedule.
In a world where far too many post VII Catholics are ignorant of the teachings of their own religion adult catechisis is the answer. We had already tried the parish wide weekday evening programs. They mostly attracted the same hand full of parishioners who were already familiar with the tenants of Catholicism, the Bible and often prayer forms such as the liturgy of Hours. We were reaching those who least needed our efforts, though of course all progressed in their faith as a result of these programs. The programs themselves were not wasted, but reaching thirty to forty people out of a parish of 800 families is pretty dismal. By placing our sessions between Sunday Masses we hope people will be willing to come early or stay late to attend.
This is also majorly impacting our youth program. We have used Life Teen for years. We have never done a Youth Mass as part of our program. We have met every Sunday evening separate from Liturgy and have been, I think, moderately successful at filling the Youth Group room every week. Now that teens will be meeting in the morning we have scaled Life Teen back to twice a month, and will spend more time addressing issues rather than strait catechisis.
As can be expect not everyone is enamored of the program. A certain number feel set upon because their favorite Mass time has changed, Others simply don't want to spend more time at Church. (These tend to be the same ones who complain when their is a Baptism at Mass or when the homily goes more than 8 minutes.) I don't expect to see them at any of our programs, and perhaps not any more at the Masses, there being several other Catholic parishes within a short distance.
So we set out on a brand new course. I ask for your prayers and will post on how its going.

Roman Missal @ USCCB

2009-08-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops(USCCB) has launched a new web site devoted to the new translation of the Roman Missal used in the English version of the Mass.
Still nothing from the Congregation for Divine Worship on when the new translation will start being used.

2009-08-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

So what should the Christian perspective on health care reform be? To start with it must be rational. That means it must look at the facts as they are, not as we wish them to be. It must be informed by faith, that is the center of any reform must be the inherent dignity of the individual and their right to life.
In my last entry I ran through some numbers on health care and pointed out that the "health care crisis" is in reality a money crisis. A rational look at our health care situation demands that we start by looking at what our present situation is. We have already done that. Then we must lay out the principles that we can, as Christians, accept as the goals of health care reform. Then we must face the requirements that exist which takes us from where we are to where we need to be to meet our goals.
I would propose the following principles must be applied.
Medical care must be available to all Americans. Than means from conception to natural death. Abortion is not health care, neither is euthanasia.
The quality of the medical care must be equitable.
Equitable means that care, of a quality now enjoyed by those who have good health insurance must be expanded to all, not that everyone receive less car through the practice of rationing.
Business must continue to carry their fair share of health care coverage. That means they must either continue to pay their portion or they must give that money to their employees so that they can use it to purchase health care. No windfalls by dumping employees on some government health care program. Health insurance is part of a benefit package for most employees, that is part of their compensation for doing their job. To withdraw that compensation without replacing it with cash is equivalent to a pay cut.
If those are our goals then we must face one fact. We will be spending more on health care. Not just "We the People", that is the government, but we the individual. We pay more for a car in 2009 than we did in 1965. We can not realistically expect to pay the same for health care in 2009 that we did in 1965. No one expects that in 2015 cars will cost less. Is it rational to expect that health care will be less?
We also know that as we get older we will need more health care. We should expect that our health costs later in life will be more than when we are young. Just as we plan for retirement, those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to invest and save for retirement must expect that some of this money will go to increased health care costs.
We must also face that there are those who either don't or are not financial fortunate enough to be able to save for this period. We must accept the fact that we will have to pay for them. Either through private Christian charity or government mandate. If we refuse to do it through the former method we should not be surprised if we are force to do it through the latter.
We must also face some other facts. We do not have enough doctors to give equitable care to everyone. This is one of the reasons care is rationed in Canada and Great Britain. The other is investment of too much of their health care dollar(pound) in bureaucracy instead of health. That is the natural result of a single payer system.
So how to get there from here?
Continuance of health savings plans is one way. This is set for the ax under the House's Health care bill. Health savings plans encourage individuals to save for their health care needs. They should be allowed to carry over from year to year amounts that are not spent. At the present time any amount not spent goes to the administrator of the plan.
13% of Medicare is lost to fraud. The way to stop that is not more rules and tighter constraints but more investigators, prosecutors and jail sentences.
Not all of the uninsured are equal. There is a difference between a family which truly cannot buy food, shelter and clothing and afford health insurance and one which chooses to live in a better house or buy nicer things rather than pay for health insurance. Each group must be addressed individually and it must be admitted that it will cost the rest of us money, either through taxes or fees. We cannot cover these people for free, and pretending that we can merely means we are not paying for someone else's care.
Efficiency can make it cheaper to cover these people. When deciding how this part of health care should work looking at whether government or industry is more efficient should tell us how we will get the most for the money we have to spend to cover the uninsured. I doubt anyone would claim government is more efficient.
If we want to lower the cost of insurance we must broaden the insurance base. Insurance is a risk easement game. A group of people pool their money through an agreement that if someone gets sick the money for care will come out of the pool. Since the company that manages the pool is a business they skim a portion off the top and then use the remaining assets to pay for the care. The more healthy people that are in the pool the less each member must pay.
There are two ways to lower the cost to individuals. One is to limit the amount the managing company skims off. This is a finite amount. At some point the venture becomes unprofitable and the managing company goes out of business. So only a finite amount of savings comes form this method.
The other is to increase the number of healthy people in the pool. One way to do that is to allow insurance companies to sell anywhere in the United States. That way not only can they increase the number of people in the pool, but they are incentivized to keep their operating costs low, so as to be competitive.
At the bottom we should expect that some people will just not play. They will not get health insurance. Even under single payer they will remain outside the system, by accident or deliberate choice. When they get sick the more bureaucratic the system the less well it will deal with them. There will always be a need for Christian charity in the care of these people.

Health Care

2009-08-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

The need for health care reform is a subject upon which in principle all men of good will in the United States can seem to agree. It is almost universally agreed upon that our health care system is in trouble and that action must be taken to fix the problem. As always the actual problems are masked in flurry of political posturing.
The problems with health care in the United States can be divided into several key areas. First, the number of uninsured continue to grow. Second, the majority of U.S. Citizens above the age of 65 have health care either partially or entirely provided by the government funded Medicare program. Third, a majority of Americans receive their health insurance through their employers, most commonly through a cost splitting arrangement. The increasing cost of this arrangement is causing increased overhead for employers and financial hardship for workers.
Approximately 45 million people in the U.S. are uninsured. Of this number approximately 11 to 12 million of these people are foreign born, the majority of them in the United States illegally. The population of the United States is estimated to be approximately 305 million people. So approximately 15% of the population is uninsured.
About 9 million of those who are uninsured could afford insurance if they so chose. Another eleven and a quarter million is eligible for coverage under existing government health programs, should they apply. The rest are simply unable to afford health coverage. As many as a tenth of those could afford regular group coverage but due to pre-existing conditions cannot afford, or will not be accepted for individual health insurance.
The fact that so many people can not or will not get health insurance coverage is a problem because, quite apart from the Christian principles that call for access to medical care for every individual based upon their inherent dignity as a being created in God's image, most of these people are not unable to get health care in an emergency. The law requires that any hospital receiving public funds care for anyone who shows up at their emergency care facilities, whether they have insurance or not. Of course emergency care is some of the most expensive health care available. Members of this group are also likely to be sicker and live a lower quality of life because they wait to receive medical attention until their problems are acute. This also requires that more expensive treatments be used, because chronic conditions, which can sometimes easily be treated with drugs, not themselves always cheap, must instead be treated with expensive invasive procedures.
The number of people covered by Medicare is approximately 45 million people, the majority of whom are over 65. As of last year Medicare is 14% of the national budget. In the next few decades the number people on Medicare is expected to almost double, while the number of people paying in to support the program is not expected to rise consistent with this increased funding need. Medicare is a unfunded liability which will require a larger and larger percentage of the GDP. It is a program which is basically unsustainable. In 2007 Medicare cost $440 billion of which approximately $60 is thought to have been the result of fraud. In other words over 13% of the cost of Medicare is wasted.
In the last eight years the cost of employer provided health care has increased 78%. There are several reasons for this increase in cost. Advances in medical technology add to the cost of health care. New diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals and methods add to the cost of care. Liturgical considerations, that is the cost of malpractice insurance and litigation which results in reimbursements and penitential awards have some effect. The increased care required by a culture which tends to promote both overeating of unhealthy food and lack of physical exercise is arguably the greatest contributor to cost.
Note that in the above discussion problems with the actual quality of care, the ability of medical organizations to carry on research or for researchers to deploy new treatment options are not negatively impacting American health care, which is seen internationally as the best in the world.
The huge health care crisis is a money crisis. It is also no wonder that solutions being proposed by congress and the Obama administration are solutions based on improving the bottom line, not on improving care. Like old style efficiency experts and corporate managers their goal is a hard nosed cost analysis based change, not a change based on Christian social values. The end game is not the highest quality care for all, but something called “equitable” care, a euphemism for health care rationing. Everyone will have health insurance, but that health insurance will be as meaningless as the “universal” care possessed by citizens in Canada, Britain or France. Though I have no doubt members of Congress and the President will continue to enjoy the best health care America can provide.
Such a financially centered modification of our health care system would enjoy dubious support of Christian organizations on its best face. The fact that the present effort in health care reform is actually using the financial justification as a distraction to hide the real agenda of the Administration which is to use reform to push federally financed and mandated abortion support which will be used as a club against Catholic hospitals and medical professionals who oppose abortion. Also being hidden in the plus 1000 pages of the reform bill are attempts to destroy the private insurance industry, the one part of the American health care system which provided freedom from the tyranny of a government run health care system. Efforts to control and collect medical information about patients, who as U.S. Citizens should be protected from government intrusion in their private lives.
The cost of continuing to support the existing Medicare system, while effectively doubling the number of people covered is only the down payment. If Medicare is unsustainable how can doubling the size of the program be sustainable? Of course the 85% of those now covered by private insurance will not remain so. I have seen nothing in the bills rolling through Congress that will in any meaningful way prevent employers, large and small from dumping their employees onto the public health care system. This is the almost sure result and barring other factors the cost of health insurance continues to rise. In the present environment of high job turnover even if employers were prevented from dumping present employees, if they were allowed to simply not cover new employees, in a very short time, measured probably in years not decades a majority of the workforce would almost certainly land in the government program.

So what's the Christian answer to these problems?

Worldview

2009-08-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"
He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

A scholar of the law was called a scribe, and in Matthew's version of this Gospel the questioner is identified as a Pharisee. The first law is from Deuteronomy 6:5:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

The second law is most clearly written in Leviticus 19:18:

You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Perhaps the most important aspects of these laws is that they are about personal relationships. One does not love with all their heart, soul and strength a force, no matter how powerful or omniscient. That kind of total devotion can only be applied to a person. An immensely powerful being, but one with whom a personal relationship is not only possible but welcomed.
And upon that turns the world view of a Christian. Because when morality is based upon the relationship between God and humanity then moral decisions become clear, if not easy. If human dignity is based upon the relationship that exists between the person and God, in whose image the person has been created, then there is no question about when a pre-born baby becomes a person or what death with dignity really means.
This means that morality is never something that is decided by cultural norms. Morality is based on the unchangeable relationship between God and man.

If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

This is a worldview with implications far beyond interpersonal morality for it touches upon the core difference between the Christian and the modernist. It is why relativism and the relativistic viewpoint is irreconcilable with the Christian worldview. It is also why the secularist denies the provable scientifically based theory of natural law, as well as other moral choices based on science. Science is quite clear about when a baby becomes a unique individual. No one would claim that a pre-born elephant or dog or whale was anything other than a member of one of those species. A pre-born baby will never be any thing but a human being with unique DNA from the moment of conception. Science shows that, but science is easily ignored by the relativist.
The study of science is based upon the premise that the universe was created and is subject to the rational order imposed by it creator. Without that premise science is basing on blind faith, rather than rational faith, the belief that natural laws behave the same everywhere in the universe. There is certainly no rational reason to expect such behavior and only tenuous experimental support for such a belief.
If such is the case then there is no reason to expect that morality should be any more changeable than the laws of nature. One would not expect gravity to have behaved differently in the nineteenth than in the twenty-first century. If immoral behavior was bad for an individual in 1854 one should expect it would just as bad in 2009. Anyone looking at the results of immoral choices on the person making them can easily see that despite what relativist would like to believe this is not a consequence free universe. Bad things happen to people who make poor moral choices. Perhaps that is why they are bad choices, because our Creator wants us to be happy. He has laid out a pathway through Scripture and the Magisterium to lead us to good moral choices because He wants us to act in a way that is good for us, rather than in a way that is bad for us. Because when you love someone with all your heart you want whats best for them, and that is how our Creator loves us.

"You are a priest forever..."

2009-08-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

I have been blessed these past years with a pastor very scrupulous in his adherence to the books of the liturgy, and orthodox in his beliefs. Soon he will be retiring. With the state of the American Church being what it is, whether the bishop will be able to find us a new pastor or whether we will be clustered or have to undergo a period under a pastoral coordinator is unknown.
Meanwhile we are fortunate to have a visiting priest to aid father in his last few months. This priest, not strictly a visiting priest, but rather one who is on sabbatical from his own parish for a year also seems to be a very prayerful priest, who seems very careful in his celebration of the Mass.
His homily touch very much on his own experience as a priest as he talked about the meaning of the holy Father's declaration of the Year of the Priest. His example reminded me very much of the experiences I had heard related by those priests who were in New York in 2001. How strangers, seeing the Roman Collar, knew that there was Christ in their midst, and ran to him for comfort during a period which exceed the capacity of any earthly comfort. I was reminded of the letter of His Holiness, which was published in June to announce the Year of the Priest.

The Curé of Ars was quite humble, yet as a priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people: "A good shepherd, a pastor after God's heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy".[3] He spoke of the priesthood as if incapable of fathoming the grandeur of the gift and task entrusted to a human creature: "O, how great is the priest! ... If he realized what he is, he would die... God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host...".[4] Explaining to his parishioners the importance of the sacraments, he would say: "Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put him there in that tabernacle? The priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest, always the priest. And if this soul should happen to die [as a result of sin], who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again, the priest... After God, the priest is everything! ... Only in heaven will he fully realize what he is".

Yet how many of us give little thought to the man in the collar, until disaster strikes! So in this Year of the Priest don't forget to offer prayers for your priest. But also don't for get to thank him and help see to his worldly needs too. Dinner, suitable thank you gifts and appropriate donations are always welcome Remember here is a man who puts on Christ daily, not for his own glory but for the salvation of souls. Be grateful.

The Principle of Solidarity

2009-08-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

The term “solidarity”, widely used by the Magisterium, expresses in summary fashion the need to recognize in the composite ties that unite men and social groups among themselves, the space given to human freedom for common growth in which all share and in which they participate.
-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

By virtue of their participation in the society that surrounds them individuals are debtors. They owe a debt to the others in society who through their efforts

make human existence liveable, and because of the indivisible and indispensable legacy constituted by culture, scientific and technical knowledge, material and immaterial goods and by all that the human condition has produced.

Promotion of division of the classes, division into employer and employee, haves and have-nots, along racial or ethnic or other lines is a violation of the Principle of Solidarity. Likewise it falls not just to the rich to promote justice, engender charity or bankroll government programs.
Class warfare, the principle upon which the idea of redistribution of wealth is based, as well as most modern interpretations of employer/union relations is based upon an adversarial relationship which violates the idea that we all have a responsibility to contribute to society.
The employer and the employee together work to make the business enterprise successful. Both benefit as does society. When demands of the employee become an unreasonable burden on the business, such that it becomes unprofitable, the employee is not a contributor to society, but a burden. Likewise for the employer maximization of profits, to the exclusion of the common good is un-Christian.
This does not mean that profit in and of itself is an evil.

Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.
-Caritas in Veritate, BXVII

Solidarity makes it the responsibility of those who are well fed to feed the hungry, of those who have a riches of blessings to help those who do not. In this context it should be remembered that wealth is relative. Generally speaking the $22,500 which is the designated poverty level for a family of four in the United States is more income than the balance of the human population on Earth sees in their entire lifetimes. Most of our poor enjoy luxuries which are unthinkable to people in most of the world.
In this context the inequalities which exist between most Americans pale in comparison to the inequalities which exist between even our poorest and most of the world.
This leads the conclusion that every member of American society should be willing to contribute to the well fare of those less fortunate than ourselves and to the common good.
So what is the common good?
The Church speaks about that throughout the Compendium and indeed through many other documents throughout the ages. It is also very specific about what does not contribute to the common good.

No legislation, no system of rules or negotiation will ever succeed in persuading men and peoples to live in unity, brotherhood and peace; no line of reasoning will ever be able to surpass the appeal of love. Only love, in its quality as “form of the virtues”[456], can animate and shape social interaction, moving it towards peace in the context of a world that is ever more complex.
-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Charity is not something which can be imposed by government. Attempts to do so are disruptive to Solidarity.

Support for fringe activities, such as homosexuality, homosexual "marriage", pornography, contraception, abortion, in short activities which undermine the family are not just detrimental to the individuals involved, but also to society as a whole. To the common good.
Governments, and the individuals in those government which support such activities fracture the Solidarity of the society and work against the Common Good as understood by the Church. Such a government or administration is not acting in conformance to Catholic Social Teaching.

Caritas in Veritate

2009-07-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

Caritas in Veritate, Charity in Truth is out today. You can find it at the Vatican web site, here. I haven't gone through it yet, and since in the morning I'm off on a mission trip to someplace I definitely won't have blog access it will be next week before I can comment on it.
Mean while read it before you believe all that the blogosphere is saying about it.

Interlude II

2009-06-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

Very soon, perhaps within days, the Holy Father's third encyclical Caritas in Veritate – Charity in Truth, will be released. Since we are going through the principles of Catholic social justice, and specifically how the teachings of Catholic social justice relate to the, what I consider overreaching social agenda of the present U.S. administration, I expect that this new encyclical will have much to say that is relevant to this discussion.
I will indeed cover the document once I have had a chance to read it. I will also modify or extend the statements already made on Catholic social doctrine in light of this new document. Stay tuned.

The Principle of Subsidiarity

2009-06-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

185. Subsidiarity is among the most constant and characteristic directives of the Church's social doctrine and has been present since the first great social encyclical[395]. It is impossible to promote the dignity of the person without showing concern for the family, groups, associations, local territorial realities; in short, for that aggregate of economic, social, cultural, sports-oriented, recreational, professional and political expressions to which people spontaneously give life and which make it possible for them to achieve effective social growth[396]. This is the realm of civil society, understood as the sum of the relationships between individuals and intermediate social groupings, which are the first relationships to arise and which come about thanks to “the creative subjectivity of the citizen”.-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

According to the Principle of Subsidiarity acts of charity should originate at the lowest level possible. That is charity is a personal responsibility, not a responsibility of the state.

186. ...“Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.

187 ...“By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending”-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

According to Church teaching it is not the business of the state, that is the federal government, to provide for people what they can provide for themselves. The Church does recognize that there are certain circumstances where civil society is incapable of achieving social balance or equality.

188. Various circumstances may make it advisable that the State step in to supply certain functions[401]. One may think, for example, of situations in which it is necessary for the State itself to stimulate the economy because it is impossible for civil society to support initiatives on its own. One may also envision the reality of serious social imbalance or injustice where only the intervention of the public authority can create conditions of greater equality, justice and peace. In light of the principle of subsidiarity, however, this institutional substitution must not continue any longer than is absolutely necessary, since justification for such intervention is found only in the exceptional nature of the situation.-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

In the present age, in the United States, a country to which millions of immigrants stream every year because it is a land of opportunity it is hard to believe that such an exceptional situation exists. Such intervention by the state might be necessary in a society in which there exists a frozen class structure or failure of the rule of law at the local level. Such conditions do not exists in the U.S.

The Universal Destination of Goods

2009-05-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

171. Among the numerous implications of the common good, immediate significance is taken on by the principle of the universal destination of goods.
-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Combined with:

177. Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute and untouchable.

leads some to the conclusion that the mandatory redistribution of wealth by the state through the use of taxes or other methods of property confiscation is in conformance to Catholic Social Justice Doctrine.

In Rerum Novarum Pope Leo XIII outlines why this is not true. Such actions rob the lawful owner, hurt the recipient in the long run and distorts the role of the state.

The wealthy have an obligation to the poor, but this is a personal duty which must be exercised through just treatment of ones employees, fair treatment of tradesmen and acts of personal charity.

One hundred years after Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum John Paul II wrote Centesimus Annus, which is Latin for "hundredth year", supporting the continued relavence of Leo's encyclical. He had already in 1987 published Sollicitudo rei socialis which addressed authentic human development, the true solution to poverty.

Socialism envisions wealth as a zero sum game. As such its distribution always comes down to redistribution of existing wealth from the rich to the poor. Authentic economic theory understands that wealth is related to productivity. That is, wealth is produced from a confluence of materal and labor. Wealth is not like a finite bag of beans, which must be divided, but rather like a field of bean plants, which will, with proper cultivation, produce a never ending supply of beans which is available to anyone who is able to harvest the field. The efforts of the wealthy on the part of the poor consists of helping to provide beans in the short run and enabling the poor to engage in the harvest in the long run. This is a personal responsibility and under the principle of Subsidarity (to be discussed next) is not the responsibility of government but of citizens.

Interlude

2009-05-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Is this how Catherine of Siena felt when she looked at the Church?
Is this how Saint Francis of Assisi felt when he looked at the Church?
Is This how St. Dominic felt when he looked at the Church?
Could ever Our Lady look on so disheartening or discouraging an entity as the Catholic Church in America and not be moved to tears?
It is enough to make a man want to look for a cave somewhere and try to follow St. Benedict in his flight from the city, but even he found that God called for him to be out in the world proclaiming the gospel rather than hiding from the world.
At this time when the orthodoxy of American Catholicism seems so low, and Christianity itself is under attack it is perhaps time for us to follow the examples of Sts. Catherine and Francis.

The Principle of the Common Good

2009-05-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

What is the Common Good? According to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church it is:

the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.

According to the CSDC it is the duty of government to:

The State, in fact, must guarantee the coherency, unity and organization of the civil society of which it is an expression ...(it must) make available to persons the necessary material, cultural, moral and spiritual goods.

But it must be remembered that this is not merely a goal based on materialism.

A purely historical and materialistic vision would end up transforming the common good into a simple socio-economic well-being, without any transcendental goal, that is, without its most intimate reason for existing.

That reason is Jesus. Any effort by the State which fails to take into account that transcendent dimension fails in its attempt to promote the Common Good.

While the CSDC requires that the State support

a sound juridical system, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights: food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation, basic health care, the freedom of communication and expression, and the protection of religious freedom.

It is a prudential judgment whether a specific government policy will actually promote the demands listed here. Does greater access to health care require that the government directly manage and support health services? How much should a State invest in the prevention of an environmental problem which may not exist at all? Is it better to foster an economic climate by which individuals can afford their own housing or subsidize housing, thereby perpetuating dependence on government assistance?
I think it is easy to see how framing assumption can allow different individuals to draw different conclusions on specific policies.

What is the Church's stand on social justice

2009-05-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

One of the statements that seems to be said by his apologists every time the present president of the United States is criticized for his stand on life issues (abortion, fetal stem cell research, etc.) is that "at least he is with the Church on social justice issues."
Is this a fact? Does the policies which are verbally supported and actually attempted by this president reflect the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church?
How would one know? The Church's position on social justice issues is very clearly explained in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The Principles of Church's Social Doctrine are covered in detail in Chapter 4. They are

The Principle of the Common Good
The Universal Destination of Goods
The Principle of Subsidiarity
Participation
The Principle of Solidarity
The Fundamental Values of Social Life

In so far as this president and his administration supports these principles it supports Catholic social teaching. As far as it supports agendas at odds with these values it does not.

Why it isn't politics

2009-05-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

There is a very strong partisan battle going on now in the United States. It is a fight between progressives on one side, most notably embodied in the Democratic Party and conservatives on the other, mostly represented by the Republican Party, although Libertarians also seem to fall on that side of the issues also.
The Catholic Church is not totally on either side of this conflict, though many conservative Catholics will tell you that on right-to-life and family issues the Church supports their views.
One area that is highly politically charged is the so called "enhanced" interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects held at GITMO. Supporters of the policy point to the danger existent in the terrorists, and quibble over the legality of the methods used. They appeal to an outcome based standard, supported by the fact that the United States was able to avoid various possible terrorists attacks using information gleaned through the use of these techniques.
As a Catholic Christian the evaluation of the permissibility of these techniques are not based on their legality, but on their morality. Though not a lawyer I have spoken to enough of them on this subject to be convinced that under existing U.S. law the techniques used were indeed legal. This places any talk of prosecution of anyone involved in the process in the area of base political posturing.
But once again, I repeat, legal does not, necessarily translate into moral. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is quite clear:

2297 ...Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.

A detailed examination of the techniques permitted, based on the released documents make it fairly clear that while no permanent physical harm was intended, physical violence was indeed included in the allowed techniques. Moreover, though most of the techniques did not include actual physical violence they constituted a planned program of moral violence with the intent to "extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents."
Professor Christopher O. Tollefsen at MercatoNet explains quite clearly why this is so.
This subject is too important to be addressed with a knee-jerk partisan response. Life long conservatives as well as anti-Bush progressives should be together on this. Our country made a bad mistake. It is not the first mistake in our history. Slavery. Native American dislocation. Japanese- American Internment. Nor is it likely to be our last. But let us not wait half a century to recognize and correct our mistake.
Note this does not mean it is necessary to release men who have sworn to attack us into our streets. It does mean that such tactics should never again be employed by our nation. It might even mean publicly and officially admitting before the world that we were wrong. Not criminally wrong, but morally wrong. For any Catholic involved it is probably time to consult a priest.

A fun book meme

2009-04-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

The term Internet meme is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Interne
-- wikipedia

The Anchoress has passed on this meme from Happy Catholic.

include up to 3 answers each if you like. We won’t tell. If you’re religious, consider The Bible or other religious texts a gimme, particularly for question #15.

1. Most treasured childhood book(s)?
The Last Planet by Andre Norton(The first real book I ever read)
A Wrinkle in Time
Have Spacesuit Will Travel.

2. Classic(s) you are embarrassed to admit you’ve never read?
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Brothers Karamazov
Ulysses

3. Classics you read, but hated?
Wuthering Heights
1984
The Lord of the Flies

4. Favorite genre(s)?
Science Fiction
Religious
Historical

5. Favorite light reading?
Andre Norton
Harry Potter
Arthur Conan Doyle

6. Favorite heavy reading?
G.K. Chesterton
Joseph Ratzinger

7. Last book(s) you finished?
Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

8. Last book(s) you bailed on?

9. Three (only three!) books on your nightstand?
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Christian Prayer:The Liturgy of the Hours
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

10. Book(s) you’ve read more than once, twice or three times?
The Lord of the Rings
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

11. The book(s) that meant the most to you when you were younger (ie, college/young adult)?
The Lord of the Rings
Camelot by T.H. White

12. Book(s) that changed the way you looked at life?
Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours
Rome Sweet Rome: Our Journey to Catholicism

13. Book(s) some would be surprised to know you’ve read
Remo Williams, the Destroyer

14. Book(s) You Mean to Read this Year
The Last Lecture

15. Desert Island Book
The Lord of the Rings

Desert Island Book for Your Worst Enemy
V by Thomas Pynchon (because I'm not a good enough Christian to want my Worst Enemy to enjoy his reading time on a desert island.)

Scope

2009-03-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

Now right about now one of the biggest issues in American Catholicism is the invitation of the U.S. President, staunch pro-abortion advocate Barack Obama, to speak at the 2009 commencement exercises at the Catholic University of Notre Dame. This subject has caused Catholics of every political persuasion and orthodoxy to come forth with an opinion, from bishops and cardinals to theologians and Catholic bloggers.
Now some, including Fr. Jenkins, UND president, say that we can't just talk to those who agree with us and that the privileged of have a sitting President of the United States overrides any personal problems the incumbent might have in relation to Catholic teaching. The USCCB obviously doesn't agree with that because in their "Catholics in Political Life" document passed in 2004 they say, speaking of pro-abortion politicians, that "They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
Now some might ask why the bishops took such a position. More over the Church itself has an even stronger stand for those who procure or perform an abortion.

Canon 1398: A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.

So a person incurs an abortion is excommunicated by their act. Further a May 23, 1988 ruling of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts ruled as the result of the dubium, that is a request from a bishop for a clarification of a point of canon law, that others who are instrumental in procuring an abortion, like a husband or father of the baby who pressure a woman to get an abortion or pay for it, nurses and doctors who perform an abortion, and those who help them in any way, are also under latae sententiae excommunication.

But it is not so hard nosed as it seems because Canon 1323 says

Can. 1323 No one is liable to a penalty who, when violating a law or precept:

1 has not completed the sixteenth year of age;

2 was, without fault, ignorant of violating the law or precept; inadvertence and error are equivalent to ignorance

3 acted under physical force, or under the impetus of a chance occurrence which the person could not foresee or if foreseen could not avoid;

4 acted under the compulsion of grave fear, even if only relative, or by reason of necessity or grave inconvenience, unless, however, the act is intrinsically evil or tends to be harmful to souls;

5 acted, within the limits of due moderation, in lawful self-defense or defense of another against an unjust aggressor;

6 lacked the use of reason, without prejudice to the provisions of canon. 1324, ß1, n. 2 and 1325;

7 thought, through no personal fault, that some one of the circumstances existed which are mentioned in nn. 4 or 5.

As can be seen below all cases of latae sententiae excommunication are the province of the ordinary. You'll note that while Canon 1356 says only the bishop can remove the excommunication that canon 1357 gives a pastoral loophole that should prevent a penitent from having to undergo a lengthy and demeaning process to have the excommunication lifted. The priest has to ask the bishop but true to the seal of confession doesn't even have to name the penitent.

Can. 1356 ß1 A ferendae or a latae sententiae penalty established in a precept not issued by the Apostolic See, can be remitted by the following:

1ƒ the Ordinary of the place where the offender actually is;

2ƒ if the penalty has been imposed or declared, the Ordinary who initiated the judicial proceedings to impose or declare the penalty, or who by a decree, either personally or through another, imposed or declared it.

ß2 Before the remission is granted, the author of the precept is to be consulted, unless because of extraordinary circumstance this is impossible.

Can. 1357 ß1 Without prejudice to the provisions of canon. 508 and 976, a confessor can in the internal sacramental forum remit a latae sententiae censure of excommunication or interdict which has not been declared, if it is difficult for the penitent to remain in a state of grave sin for the time necessary for the competent Superior to provide.

ß2 In granting the remission, the confessor is to impose upon the penitent, under pain of again incurring the censure, the obligation to have recourse within one month to the competent Superior or to a priest having the requisite faculty, and to abide by his instructions. In the meantime, the confessor is to impose an appropriate penance and, to the extent demanded, to require reparation of scandal and damage. The recourse, however, may be made even through the confessor, without mention of a name.

It all seems pretty hard nose to some. Won't we get farther by being kinder? Wouldn't Jesus want us to have compassion for a young girl who, under the pressure of economic hardship or an abusive relationship seeks abortion as the bad answer to a bad situation? After all rapist and murders and child molesters aren't excommunicated.
To really understand the situation we must analyze it. Abortion itself is a simple issue. As a friend of mine says abortion is nothing more than big people killing little people. Trying to prevent abortion has become much more complicated.
Somehow in the social and theological chaos of the post Vatican II period we, that is orthodox Christianity, lost the ability to set the moral framework against which abortion would be discussed. Somehow a truth which was once acknowledged by the whole world, that human babies have intrinsic worth from the time they are conceived, a Truth which goes back to the very foundations of Christianity in the first century, has been overturned. Perhaps if the Church had spoken out strongly, and consistently from the very time that Roe v. Wade was illegitimately made the law of the land things would have been different. But they did not.
So now we have the situation that exists in our society. Abortion is legal. Catholic politicians, some of who claim to be personally against abortion, but are unwilling to let their public acts be guided by their conscious claim to be Catholics in good standing with the Church. Plus there are other Catholic politicians who do not even acknowledge the teaching of the Church and actually support the killing of the unborn. There are even some who attempt to publicly mis-state the Churches position, out of either ignorance or malice. At least half of those seeking abortion in the United States can be said to be economically disadvantage and very young. A good percentage are likewise single, most of these never married.
So how is the Church to react? In charity the Church has done what it always does. It has created missions to help with pre-natal care, consoling and adoption services. It has even founded post abortion ministries, to help those who have realized the great abomination that they have been involved it and to bring them healing and reconciliation with God.
But there is more to the problem than young, troubled girls. Almost half of the women who abort are not teenage mothers. They are not poor. They are not abused. What they are is women who are inconvenienced by a pregnancy which has resulted by the failure of their favorite method of birth control. They seek to avoid the most probable result of the life style they have chosen. How should the Church see after the souls of these women? Because make no mistake, that is what is at stake here. The deaths of the unborn are a tragedy beyond calculation. The threat to soul of the aborting mother even more so.
Beyond these women are those who have created the situation which has allowed these victims, for so many of them are, give into the temptation for a quick fix to the "problem" of a life created in the image of God. This group includes the abortionists, those who fund and finance them, and often make large amounts of money off of the death of children. And those jurists and politicians who have created the legal frame work that has allowed abortion to be made legal. An immoral act protected by the law.
How should the bishops handle them, especially the ones who claim to be Catholic? Should they dialog with them? Has that not already been done? They reject the 2000 year old teaching of the Church in this matter. What then? After all it is only their soul they put in danger. But the bishop must see to that soul. If dialog doesn't work what should the bishop do then? The pro-abortion Catholic is in a state of mortal sin. This prohibits them from receiving Communion What if their conscious is too malformed to know that? Then the bishop must tell them. First in private and then in public if they refuse to heed. Because it is to the detriment of their soul if they receive when not in a state of grace. More they lead others to sin by their bad example, unadmonished. In the long run the bishop must look to the souls of his other sheep, if he cannot save the one.
So why is it bad for Notre Dame to invite a pro-abortion Protestant to speak? Because it gives him a platform. It makes some Catholics believe that abortion and the support for abortion is no big deal. After all how bad can it be if you support it but the most famous Catholic university in America still invites you to speak and gives you an honorary degree? It must not be that important. It gives cover to Catholics who know the Church's teaching but choose not to support it because it would make it politically difficult for them.
That's why it's important.

2009-03-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

By now I'm sure everyone has heard of the move by certain members of the legislature of Connecticut to take control of Church finances away from the Hierarchy and place it in the hands of lay members of each parish, who would be appointed by the state. The massive response of the Catholic faithful of Connecticut, along with the support of the members of some other faiths (who realized they could be next) has pretty much stopped that effort for now.
Laying aside the unconstitutionality of such a move, and even the intrusion of the state into the affairs of the parish, why shouldn't members of the parish control parish finances. Don't they donate the money? Why shouldn't they control how its spent?
Such a method of parish governance has a name. It's call congregational governance, and is the method used by many of the separated Protestant Christian sects. Such a method is not in accordance with Catholic Tradition. Tradition which has as it's heart Scriptural roots.
Now most Catholics realize that the Connecticut law, which would take control of Church assets away from the bishop, is onerous and a thinly veiled plan to suppress Church teaching. There are other, good Catholics, who come at this, that is congregational governance, from a different angle.
In much of the United States there is a priest crisis. Many diocese are being force to close or cluster parishes. In some of these diocese deacons are stepping in to manage parishes while priests become less involved with each parish because they may be responsible for as many as four. I've heard it said that having a deacon in such a position is a waste. "Why not just hire a business manager to run the parish, and let the priests and deacons do the stuff only they can do?" is sometimes said.
Such a statement shows a real lack of understanding of the traditional role of the deacon in the Church. From the earliest times the deacon was charged with the handling of Church finances. As the member of the clergy most involved with the care of the widows and orphans the deacon was often deeply involved in collection and administration of the Church's money. It is said that St. Lawrence, a deacon of the third century, was martyred for failing to turn the wealth of the Church, collected for the care of widows and orphans, over to the Roman Government during the persecutions of Valerian.
The position of the clergy in managing the wealth of the Church can perhaps best be seen in Acts. Ananias and Sapphira decide to make a donation to the Church. They sell a piece of land and claim to donate the entire amount to the Church, while actually donating only a portion. To whom do they make this donation? Peter. It seems that from the beginning the Apostles were the ones who administered those monies donated to the Church for its work. Further Peter called Ananias on his lie, where upon the man died.
The point here? Ananias was not struck down because he failed to donate all his profits to the Church. He was not required to donate anything. He was attempting to garner public credit for his fraudulent act.
In Connecticut the agenda was to place persons in boards to control the finances of the diocese with an eye to pressuring the bishop and his priests from talking out against gay marriage. If the bishop does not control the finances of the diocese what does he do when those who do refuse to fund his Seminary because they don't like his defense of Church teaching? The parish priest even more so. What does father do when the parish finance board refuses to pay his rent because he won't marry Joe and Bob? Or speaks out against Contraception, or Abortion?
There is a reason that Christ did not found the Church as a democracy. In the secular realm, as Churchill said, democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all of the others. Still a democracy is no better than its citizens. We already know that spiritually we are very poor indeed. Marked with the stain of Original Sin, even after baptism we seem unable to avoid the falls of actual sin. Christ was not willing to place his Church in the hands of a democratic mob. He instead trusted it to the Holy Spirit, working through Peter and the Apostles, and their successors.
Not that democracy has no place in the Church. Many religious orders elect their leaders. The pope himself, the successor of Peter, is elected by the college of Cardinals. But a process of discernment is injected into these elections, a process likely to be lacking in elections centered primarily around the control of finances.
Certainly transparency has its place in parish finances. One of the excuses for the Connecticut actions was actions of a prominent Darien priest, Michael Jude Fay, who walked off with $1.4 million to bankroll a luxurious lifestyle of New York trips and Florida vacations with a male friend. No doubt there was a lot of bad stuff happening in Darien. The answer to that was fiscal responsibility on the part of the bishop, that is the requirement that parish finances be handled in a transparent way such that no single person, clergy or laity, can withdraw that kind of money without getting caught, caught before the luxury vacation makes the money vanish.

What are these kids on about?

2009-02-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Just when one is concerned about this younger generation they go and prove you haven't been wasting your time...

Out of Harvard -- who knew?
Now the pre-teens are on the ramparts!
Oklahoma. It ain't just wind on that plain!

A Philosophical Refutation of Reductionism

2009-02-16T04:26:00.000-08:00

Apologetics is a separate discipline from catechesis, but in today's world the catechist, especially one dealing with older teens or adults, is likely to face the same questions as the apologist. Many teens come from a home where parents have not themselves been properly catechized, and so hold beliefs contrary to Church teachings. Or they come from a home of a mixed or no religious tradition. Then the catechist finds himself straying into the territory of the apologist. An exposure to apologetics is therefore useful.
Peter Kreeft writes at the Catholic Education Resource Center on A Philosophical Refutation of Reductionism.

The Call

2009-02-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

Now it is my experience that many of those involved in catechetical and youth programs are parents whose children are in those self same programs. This is proper and just. The first teachers of any baptized child are his parents and God parents, who bare the responsibility for instructing the child in the faith.
Successful youth catechesis programs require others to also take an active part. The involvement of young adults, especially single young adults living their Christian vocation, is vital, especially for high school programs. The continuing interest and efforts of graduates from a youth program is one of the best indicators of its success. They provide real and visible role models for the youth.
Even the best, that is most devout and spritual, young adults are sometimes reticent to become involved. They often feel, as do older potential catechist, that they are not fimiliar enough with Church teaching, or will not relate well to their students, or lack the teaching skills necessary to do justice to those under their care.
To them I repeat what my deacon says, "God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called."
They must teach that in deacon school.

Outside the Church

2009-02-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

Outside the Church there is no salvation.

Is a Catholic who converts to another Christian faith damned?

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches CCC 818:

However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers . . . . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church.

Ah, but does this apply to someone who was either was baptized as a baby and raised in the faith, or converted to Catholicism at a later time and then leaves the Church?

I would say rather that CCC 2088 and 2089 apply:

2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith: Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."

This section of the CCC concerns sins against the faith. To be clear such sins are mortal sins. What is a mortal sin?

1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."

What does the Catechism say about someone who dies under the burden of mortal sin? (CCC1861)

1861 Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.

Someone I know contends that many who have left the Church have done so because they were never properly catechized. That is they do not have full knowledge and so cannot be in a state of mortal sin.

A case could also be made that a child who has been baptized, but is subsequently moved by their parents to another faith community lacks, for this purpose the ability to refuse to change denominations because they do not have the ability to exercise or withhold deliberate consent in this act.

They further point out that (CCC 847):

This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

So if that is true and an atheist who is a really good person could go to heaven how could someone who still believes in Christ but leaves the Church be punished?

This is what I call the NBA clause.

Every American boy of a certain social economic class would like to believe that if they can play basketball well enough, that even though they are not stellar academic performers, nor do they have the social or political connections to become economically successful through other means, they can be the next Michael Jordan.

Of course the truth is that most will never be NBA players and they would be much better spending their time studying math than playing basketball.

So while the atheistic or agnostic equivalent of Mother Teresa might have a shot at heaven I would say that most will have as much chance as your typical inner city youth at making the NBA.

That being the case, while, as CCC says we must "entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.," it is not helpful in my opinion to sugarcoat the matter.

In the time since Vactican II (indeed since and even before the Reformation) there have been those who, guilty of the sins of Incredulity, Heresy, apostasy, and schism, have confused the faithful and besides placing their own souls in jeopardy have also placed the souls of others in peril. Some of these have been priest, some members of the laity, some even bishops or theologians. Most cannot be considered to have been "badly catechized" or to have lacked the power of deliberate consent.

Their fate lies with God alone, but I wouldn't take odds on their final destination, and I don't see how lying to others on their probable fate is in those other's spiritual best interests

Precious Blood

2009-01-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Most Catholics know that when someone is ill and unable to attend Mass that they may receive Eucharist. When they are in danger of death and it is likely to be their last time it is also called the Viaticum. This is usually in the form of the Precious Body.
What is not generally realized is that in cases of special need, for example for a person who cannot swallow, it is permitted for them to receive the Precious Blood. This requires special preparation on the part of the consecrating priest, because it is generally not allowed to retain the Precious Blood, and then only for a very short time. Unlike in the case of the consecrated Host there is not an equivalent to the pyx for transporting the Precious Blood. In most cases only a few drops are really necessary. Except in the case of Celiac disease, most who can't receive the Body of the Lord will only be able to take as much Precious Blood as can be absorbed in the mouth, since they cannot swallow.
If you know someone in this situation discuss the option with their priest. Many believe that there is no option that will allow them to receive the Lord if they are unable to swallow the Host.

Sometimes the numbers tell...

2009-01-14T15:04:00.000-08:00

Last year the Knights of Columbus asked the Marist Collage Institute for Public Opinion to conduct a nationwide survey on the subject of abortion. The survey showed that 65% of the Catholic population attend Mass at least once or twice a month. Of that group 59% describe themselves as "pro-life." Of the rest only a small percent of those who consider themselves "pro-choice" would allow abortion in all circumstances, the stand of Roe v. Wade. More telling to me is the fact that of those non-practicing Catholics fully 46% also support same-sex marriage.
Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said:

It seems clear that Catholics who are no longer practicing their faith hold positions that are far outside the mainstream of Catholicism and have significant disagreements with the moral teachings of the Church on Fundamental issues.

This would seem to indicate to me that the reason many, if not , most, of these non-practicing Catholics are non-practicing is precisely because they have significant disagreements with the moral teachings of the Church on Fundamental issues.
At least most of these folks aren't pretending be practicing Catholics while publicly disagreeing with Catholic moral teaching. That act is reserved for politicians and some heretical theologians.
So how does that impact the lowly parish catechist?
One statement that every catechumate makes at his Baptism or Rite of Acceptance is that they accept without reservation the full teaching of the Catholic Church. That means more than accepting the articles of the Creed. That means accepting the Church's stance on Contraception, and Abortion. It mean accepting the Church's stance against the ordination of women. It means accepting the practice of the discipline of celibacy for priests of the Roman Rite. It means accepting the Church's stance on the disorderliness of acts of homosexuality and against same-sex marriage. Most of this comes under the heading of sanctity of life issues.
If we expect our candidates to be able to honestly answer to accepting what the Church holds we must insure they understand what the Church believes. More they must understand the issue of dogma, the Magisterium and the laity's place in the Church. We must also expect to perhaps have to defend the Church's position, and have to explain, to the best extent possible why the Church holds these positions.
Don't expect to be able to defend contraception if you haven't read Humanae Vitae. Don't expect to be able to discuss why the Church doesn't ordain women if you haven't read Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.
In other words be prepared. But don't be afraid to say," I'm not prepared to discuss that tonight. We'll talk about it next week." Then run to the CCC or Vatican web site to get doctrined up.

New translation of the liturgy

2009-01-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

While someone who hangs around St. Blog might think you'd have to be living under a rock not to know it, most people in the pews in the United States are completely unaware that a new translation of the Roman Missal has been in the works.
Prior to Vatican II the Mass, in the Latin Churches, at any rate, was always said in Latin. Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium said that while the use of Latin was to be preserved in the Latin rites that it was permissible to use the Vernacular where ever approved by the particular Ordinaries, that is, the bishops, for the purpose of pastoral sensitivity. It also provided that translations into the various vernaculars should be accomplished over the greater regions where each language was used.
The text of the Mass is always published by the Vatican in Latin. International organizations have been formed by the various Nation Bishop's Conferences to carry out the actual translations to the various vernaculars, Italian, French, Spanish, English, etc. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is the Vatican department which handles affairs relating to liturgical practices. They issue the Latin version of the Missal. The International Commission on English in the Liturgy(ICEL) is responsible for the actual translation of the Missal into English. This translation is then approved by the National Bishop Conferences and then sent to Rome for final approval. This review by the bishop's conferences has just been completed and the results sent to Rome. It should be remembered that Latin is the official language of the Mass, and that Rome has verified that any Priest anywhere in the world has the right to say Mass in Latin. He also has the right to combine Latin and the vernacular in pretty much any way that he wants, provided that the respective parts are faithful to the respective translations of the applicable editions.
The most recent official text of the Mass was promulgated in the year of Our Lord 2000, and officially published in Latin in 2002. English translations of that edition are in production. The English translation used in the United States is of the 1970 version of the Missal, which was published in 1972. This is one of the reasons, but not the only one, that there will soon be a new translation of the English version of the liturgy used in the celebration of the Mass.
As I've already stated this translation has been approved by the USCCB and the Vatican, who has reserved the right to decide exactly when that version will start to be used.
Meanwhile the bishops are suppose to be preparing the faithful to use the new translation, through catechesis. In my own diocese the bishop's official house organ (the newspaper not the instrument) has announce the new translation is coming.
That probably means about one percent of those in the diocese actually know there is a new translation coming.If the DREs at the various parishes really push they might reach another couple of dozen adults per parish. It is likely that most of the teens and middle school students will have a better idea that this is coming than their parents, provided this information is included in the religious education program.
Eventually a note will be put in the parish bulletins and a larger number of people will get the message. Still I expect that many people will never hear about it before they stumble in to a Mass where to their surpise the words will be different.
My point is that last time a very poor job was done catechizing the faithful about changes to the liturgy. This new translation promises to be more faithful to the actual meaning of the Latin. Some people will not understand why prayers and responses are now different.
It will be the job of the catechist not only to transmit information about the specific changes, but also to explain why the new translation is better.For those who themselves want a better understanding of why this is so click the link for What Does the Prayer Really Say and look at some of the archived blog posts on what the Latin really says.

What we did.

2009-01-05T16:18:00.000-08:00

The next time anyone asks you what the Catholic Church has ever done for them, point them to this video from Catholics Come Home

Liturgy of the Hours in the Octave of Christmas

2008-12-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

Saying the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church's prayer, during many seasons can be complicated and challenging to the novice. Use of a liturgical calendar can be very helpful.
In the past it seemed that just about every household displayed a calendar upon which were listed all of the saint's feast days as well as the Solemnities and Holy Days of obligations,as well as the national holidays and more mundane fare. In the present time, it seems that many Catholic households do not follow this practice, and it is few and far between the student who can name the particular saint's feast of any given day.
The Octave of Christmas is rather unique in the Liturgy in that the Invivatory, the Morning prayer, and other readings are taken from the feast days, but the Evening Prayer is taken from the seasons. The antiphons and psalms for the evening are taken from Evening Prayer II on Christmas day, while Night Prayer is taken from Sunday Prayer II.
So except for Holy Family Sunday, which has its own readings, during the Christmas Octave, for the Church, time effectively stops. In our joy we repeat the Evening Prayers, or at least parts of them through the whole Octave. Our joy at the birth of Our Lord, His Incarnation into human flesh is so great it cannot be constrained to single day or even a single week.
And so one must keep in mind the day, the date and the position of Christmas and Holy Family Sunday in the rythm of the Calendar.

Excommunication of a schismatic priest.

2008-12-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

I wrote previously about Monsignor Dale Fushek and the Rev. Mark Dippre, once both heavily involved in Life Teen and now at odds with their bishop, Thomas Olmsted. Fushek was removed from public ministry due to charges of sexual misconduct, but insisted on presiding at non-denominational worship services at a convention center.

Both priest have now been excommunicated for their disobedience to the Church. Both priest, who are still clerics at this point, have been declared guilty of schism. From the The Diocese of Phoenix website:

“Fushek and Dippre have incurred the censure of excommunication because they have chosen to be in schism with the Catholic Church by establishing and leading an opposing ecclesial community known to the public as the Praise and Worship Center.”

Prayers for both men that they may repent their actions and rejoin the community of the Church.

The Liturgy

2008-12-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

While the majority of the worlds Catholics celebrate the Ordinary Form of the Latin Rite, that is the Mass of Pope Paul VI, the so called Novus Ordo, there are actually a number of liturgical rites and variant practices that a Catholic can attend to meet their requirement for assisting at a Mass on Sunday or other Holy Days of Obligation.
There are any of the Divine Liturgies celebrated by the Eastern Churches in union with Rome. There are the liturgies of the Latin Church; the Ambrosian, Mozarabic, Carthusian and Benedictine Rites. There are the variations of the Latin rite. Masses said using the Zaire Use or Anglican Use of the Roman Liturgy. There is even the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite.
One of the amazing aspects of the Mass in the Ordinary Form of the Latin Rite is that it can be said strictly by the allowed rubics and still vary greatly depending upon the episcopal conference area and wishes of the presiding priest.
Note I'm not talking about so-called clown Masses or other liturgical abuses, but Masses said which adhere to the GIRM and other guiding documents and to the authorized translations of the Roman Missal. Note that some of the allowed options are held by some people as to not be preferable options, but they are indeed allowed by Rome and so are licit practice.
So while some would hold that a Mass where congregational songs, accompanied by a modern band, ahould not be allowed, such a practice is allowed. Attending such a Mass, said in English, with the priest facing versus populum is probably more common than the Mass at the other end of the spectrum. That is, a Mass in the Ordinary Form, said in Latin, accopanied by Gregorian Chant, with the preist clebrating ad orientem.
Both Masses are valid and it is up to the faithful to decide which more accurately fufills their need to give worship to God.

Marian Musings V

2008-11-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

The Rosary of Mary

The term rosary comes from the Latin rosarium which means garland of roses. The rosary can best be described as participation in the life of Mary, whose focus was on Christ.

Originally the use of beads by monks was centered on the Liturgy of the Hours, where the beads were used to keep track of the Psalms, which the monks recited in their entirety over the course of the day. As many of the laity could not read they substituted the Our Father for the Psalms, using a knotted cord to keep count. Eventually the Hail Mary was substituted for the Our Father. The English church first grouped the beads into decades, each of which was begun with an Our Father. The practice of meditating on the mysteries, which were grouped into three sets of five; the Joyful, Glorious and Sorrowful Mysteries, originated in Germany. After the Fatima Apparitions happened in 1917 the addition of the Fatima prayer, also known as the Decade Prayer, to differentiate it from the other three prayers taught the children at Fatima, was added after the Glory Be(doxology).

In 2002 Pope John Paul II instituted the Luminous Mysteries.

The need to pray the rosary has been reported in Marian apparitions for centuries. At Lourdes Saint Bernadette stated that at the initial meeting...”The Lady took the rosary that she held in her hands and made the sign of the cross.” At Fatima the Lady identified herself as “the Lady of the Rosary.”

Names of Mary

There are over 6000 titles and names of Mary. Some are used in prayer and liturgy. Others are associated with specific ministries or locations. Here are but a few:

Blessed Virgin
Blessed Mother
Fairest flower of our race
Consolation of all souls
Comfort of Christians
Hope of Christians
Hope of sinners
The New Eve
Immaculate Virgin
Lady, full of grace
Our Lady of Charity
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of deliverance
Our Lady of Divine Providence
Our Lady of Good Hope
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of New Orleans
Our Lady of MaryKnoll
Our Lady of the Cape
Our Lady, Star of the Sea
Mother and Queen
Mother and Virgin
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Angels
Queen of Apostles
Queen of sorrows
Ark of God
Blessed chalice
House of the Most High

Mary as the model of Christian life

Mary was the first disciple. From the first time we meet her in Scripture she points the way to her Son and shows us how we should respond to God. When the angel visits her with news of the Incarnation Mary's answer should be our answer, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to God's will.”

Upon visiting Elizabeth, who greets her, “Full of Grace,” Mary's answer, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor and his lowly servent...the Mighty One has done great things for me...”

Later at Cana we hear her final recorded words in Scripture, “Do whatever he tells you.” What better guideline could she give us for reaching salvation?

Marian Prayer

Many formal Prayers to Mary have been used by Catholics. The most well known is probably the Hail Mary, which we have already discussed. The Angelus is a devotion in memory of the Incarnation. It is prayed three times a day, at 6 am, noon and 6 pm and is accompanied by the ringing of the Angelus bell. The Magnificat is said as part of Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, and Night Prayer ends with an Antiphon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, often the Hail Holy Queen (which also ends the rosary) or the Regina caeli (Queen of Heaven) or a simple Hail Mary.

Various litanies have been composed to Mary. Litanies are used in the Eastern Churches as part of the liturgy, but the practice has also become a practice of the Western (that is the Roman) Church. A litany is a series of short petitions and exhortations which are sung or recited. A well known litany used as part of the Mass during certain seasons and occasions is the Litany of the Saints. Dozens, if not hundreds of litanies have been composed to Mary.

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a version of the Liturgy of the Hours which is said in Mary's honor. Certain congregations of religious and Third Orders use the Little Office and it is also prayed by some members of the laity.

We will end with the Memorare. Note: Most traditional formal prayers of the Church were originally written in Latin. In Latin it is the custom to designate a particular prayer based upon its beginning. Hence the Magnificat which begins “Magnificat anima” or the Hail Mary(Ave Maria). Memorare means “Remember.”

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known
that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help,
or sought thy intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence
I fly unto thee,
O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.
To thee do I come,
before thee I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.

Marian Musings IV

2008-11-10T16:28:00.000-08:00

The Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception is the belief that Mary was born without the stain of original sin. Like the rest of us Mary received salvation through the sacrifice of her Son, Jesus. Unlike the rest of us God applied this sanctifying grace to Mary from the time of her conception. She was created a perfect tabernacle for the incarnation of her Son, free from stain from the beginning.

Like the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception of Mary was a belief held for many centuries, back to even the second century, which was only recently formalized. Pope Sixtus IV established the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1476. The belief was defined as dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854.

The Marian Apparitions

An apparition is an appearance of a heavenly being, Christ, Mary, a saint or an angel, to a human or group of people. Heavenly apparitions have been recorded throughout history, both in Scripture and in the writings of many of the saints.

The first testimony of a Marian Apparition was reported by Gregory of Nyssa in 395AD. Since that time over 2200 visions of Mary have been granted official recognition by the Church. The Church never declares that an apparition is real or authentic. After a thorough investigation the most the Church will do is allow that a certain apparition is “worth of belief.”

Some Marian Apparitions are very well known. The most famous probably occurred in December 1531. At that time Juan Diego Cuanhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert was walking on his way to what would one day become Mexico City to attend Mass. He was met by a Lady who spoke to him in his native language. She asked him to inform the bishop that a church should be built on that hill. The bishop was less than impressed. The bishop demanded a sign. The lady showed Juan Diego a miraculous rose garden. Blooming in the middle of winter. She bade him gather roses to show to the bishop, which he did in his cloak. When he showed them to the bishop an image, a portrait of what became known as Our Lady of Guadalupe was on the cloth. It is as Our Lady of Guadalupe that Mary is patron of the Americas.

A more recent apparition was Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858. In Lourdes the Lady directed Bernadette Sourbirous to dig, revealing a miraculous spring at which many unexplained healings have happened, numbering over 5000. Significantly the Lady identified herself to Bernadette, who was a peasant girl of scant theological training, as the “Immaculate Conception” at a time when that dogma had barely been formalized four years before.

Another well know vision was at Fatima in 1917. There the Lady appeared to three children. Two things made Fatima different from other apparitions. The first is the Miracle of the Sun. Before a crowd of 70,000 people, which included atheists and other non-Christians the sun became a colorless silver disk and danced in a multi color sky while members of the crowd screamed in terror, wept and prayed. It lasted for ten minute before returning to normal.

The second was that the children received three secrets. The secrets were revealed to the local bishop and eventually to the pope. The first 2 were revealed in 1927. The first predicted the Second World War. The second warned that if Russia did not convert it would spread its errors throughout the world and many nations would face annihilation. The third secret was not disclosed until 2000, when it was published by John Paul II. The Holy Father believed it predicted the attempt on his life that occurred in 1981, and credited the Blessed Mother with saving his life.

It should be remembered that the Church holds that any revelation made by even an apparition declared as “worthy to be believed” is a private revelation. Public, dogmatic revelation ended with the death of St. John, the last Apostle. No one is required to believe private revelation.

Marian Musings III

2008-11-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

Mary in Tradition

For Catholics Tradition (big “T”) is as important as Scripture. Before we had Scripture (at least New Testament Scripture) we had Tradition. Not everything that was written in the early Church was incorporated into the New Testament. Not everything that was left out was false or even bad, it was simply not inspired. Christians have always known things about Mary that were not recorded in Scripture.

One of these writings, The Protoevangelium of James, is thought to have been written as early as 150 AD. This document was specifically mention by Origen, the late second century theologian. He did not considered it to have actually been written by James. This is the James who according to the manuscript was the son of Saint Joseph by a prior marriage, and the brother of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels, often called James the Just. James was a leader in the early Church in Jerusalem. It was often common at the time for authors to attribute their works to well known saints or religious leaders.

This document contains much of what is now generally accepted about Mary's history which is not recorded in the Gospels. It names her parents Anna and Heli, who is also known as Joachim. He was of the royal family of David. Anna was said to have been of the priestly family of Aaron, so in Jesus was combined the bloodline of both the royal and priestly families.

Mary is also said to have been presented at the Temple. Under Jewish law it was required, under the covenant, that first born males be presented to the Temple to be consecrated to God. And so Jesus was, in what we called the Presentation. Sometimes other very special children were also presented at the Temple to be consecrated to God. So it was said of Mary. Tradition (little “t”) says that Mary was 3 years old at this time and took a vow of virginity.

Tradition also tells us that St. John the Evangelist eventually settled in Ephesus, in Greece. As previously mentioned this was where the Council of Ephesus was held and the synodal letter of that council reads:

Wherefore also Nestorius, the instigator of the impious heresy, when he had come to the city of the Ephesians, where John the Theologian and the Virgin Mother of God St. Mary estranged himself of his own accord...

There are several places in the Eastern world which lay claim to spot where the Blessed Virgin left this mortal pale. No one claims to have her body, nor have they ever. Catholics, from the days of Early Christianity, have venerated and honored the relics of the Saints. The location of the graves of St. Peter and St. Paul are known to us, as is the resting place of St. Steven the first martyr mention in Scripture. Christians have never claimed to have relics of the Blessed Virgin. One of the earliest feasts celebrated by the Church declares that Mary was assumed directly into heaven. In 602 AD this feast was formalized for the Universal Church as the “Falling asleep of the mother of God” as it is still known today in the Eastern Churches. While this has been a belief of the Church from early times Pope Pius XII in 1950 proclaimed it a dogma and created it as a major feast. It is also celebrated in the Eastern Churches on the same date of August 15.

Marian Musings II

2008-11-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

Mary in Scripture

The first prophesy in which Mary is mention is in Genesis. Adam and Eve have just been tossed out of paradise. God has described the burdens they will now carry because they have turned their backs on Him. But God does not let the tempter who had lead them into sin go unpunished, and in this punishment is a prophesy and a promise:

I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; he shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for his heel.

Now the serpent represents Satan. The woman is not Eve, who has just been banished from the garden and promised the pain of childbirth and death, but Mary, whose seed is Jesus Christ. So just as Jesus is often called the New Adam so too is Mary called the New Eve. Where Eve said no to God, Mary said Yes. Just as through Eve's no were we all cursed with the burden of sin so through Mary's yes were we saved.

The second prophesy about Mary is from Isaiah:

The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel .

The Third prophesy about Mary is in Micheas:

And thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Judah: out of thee shall be come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

In the Gospels Luke says more about Mary than anyone else. He starts with the genealogy of Christ. Then St. Luke describes the Annunciation, the coming of the Angel Gabriel to Mary in her home in Nazareth. The Angels words are echoed in the Hail Mary. “Hail Mary, full of grace the lord is with you.” Mary responds to the Angel's announcement with the words “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to Your will.”

After the Annunciation Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth in a city of Judah. This is called the Visitation.

Elizabeth's words to Mary are the basis for the next stanza of the Hail Mary, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of you womb.”

Mary's answer to Elizabeth is recorded by Luke in 2:46-55. This canticle, the Magnificat, is said every evening as part of the Liturgy of the hours. In it Mary points to the Lord God “who has done great things for me.”

The evangelists tell of Mary's betrothal to Joseph. The trip to Bethlehem in fulfillment of the prophesy in Micheas. The Presentation in the Temple and the flight to Egypt. The last we see of the holy family is in Luke when the boy Jesus becomes lost in the temple.

Two events during Jesus public ministry concern Mary directly. The first records the last words said by her in Scripture and are recorded by John.

On the third Day there was a wedding at Cana and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. When the Wine ran out the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me. My hour has not yet come” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Once again Mary points to God. Her words directed to us as much as to those first century waiters.

We see Mary for the final time in the Gospels in John standing at the foot of the cross.

Meanwhile standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clo'pas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” and from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

So Mary become our mother and mother of the Church.

In Acts it says that Mary stayed with the eleven in the upper room awaiting the appearance of the Advocate on Pentecost. Mary does not appear explicitly again, Like John Paul never mentions her by name in any of his Epistles.

In Revelations John tells of the Woman

...a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in agony of giving birth.

The woman of Revaluations is at once both Mary and the Church, who both share Jesus' messianic mission. Mary is the symbol of the triumphant Church that awaits and intercedes for us. She is also the first disciple. The first to say yes to Christ.

Marian Musings

2008-11-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

Recently I gave a talk on Mary to an RCIA group. I'll be posting parts of it over the next few days.

Mary, Mother of the Church.

Introduction
For more than 2000 years Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been written about, prayed to and adored. It is important to remember we do not worship Mary, but venerate her. In Latin the term for this veneration is hyperdulia. Dulia is veneration of the saints. Hyperdulia is therefore the highest form of veneration, but does not equate to worship. The word which is equates to the worship reserved to God is Latria. So theologically we differentiate the honor due God from that due the saints, and after God the highest honor is given to Our Lady.

Mother of God (Theotokos)
Though Latin is the official language of the Latin Church, the first language of the Church was Greek. That was the language that most of the new Testament was written in. This was also the language of the Old Testament scripture used by Christ himself, the Septuagint. And this was the language of the educated theologians and Church fathers who met at Ephesus for the Third Ecumenical Council in the Year of our Lord 431. This council was called to deal with the heresy of the Nestorians. Nestorius was the Bishop of Constantinople, which was at that time the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Nestorius claimed that Mary was the mother of Jesus, but not the mother of God. He also declared that only Jesus' human side suffered and died on the cross. This belief made of Jesus two different persons and denied the reality of the Incarnation.
This could not stand and so a council was called. At that council it was declared that Jesus, the Word, the second Person of the Divine Trinity was Incarnate, that is he was en-fleshed in the womb of Mary. The divine nature of the Son was united with the human nature, in one undivided person: Jesus.
Since that is so, Mary who was and is the mother of Jesus must be the Mother of God, and so she is. This belief is held to this day by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches and even some Protestant groups. In Greek the word for "Mother of God" is Theotokos.

The Structure of the Church

2008-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

The Catholic Church is not only the deliverer of the Gospel and "a pilgrim now on earth...necessary for salvation" (CCC 846) it is also a hierarchical institution which has existed for over two thousand years, a vast period of time almost unmatched in history.
The head of the Catholic Church is its founder Jesus Christ. As his vicar on Earth Jesus appointed Peter, the first Bishop of Rome. Every Pope since has been the successor of Peter. For most of the last 2000 years the Pope has resided in Rome. As the Supreme Pontiff the Pope presides not only over the Latin Church, that is the Roman Catholic Church (Latin Rite), but also the 22 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome. The Pope is also the head of state of the Vatican, and as such is entitled to the same protocol as any head of state. As an independent nation the Vatican accepts and appoints ambassadors to other nations. Papal ambassadors are called nuncios and work for the Vatican's Secretariat of State.
The pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. Cardinals are members of the clergy who have been appointed by the pope. Most Cardinals today are bishops, but the Pope can appoint any clergyman, deacon, priest or bishop, a Cardinal. Any member of the clergy is eligible to be elected Pope, but in practice elections usually select a member of the College of Cardinals to become Pope.
The Pope is assisted in carrying on the administration of the Church by the Roman Curia. The curia is divided into the Secretariat of State, the Roman Congregations, the Tribunals, the Pontifical Councils, The Pontifical Commissions, the Swiss Guard and the Pontifical Academies.
Some of the more important and well known Congregations are the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, sometimes called the Holy Office, is responsible for safeguarding the doctrine of the faith. They do this by promulgating documents which support Catholic doctrinal positions. They also review the publications of Catholic theologians and others for conformity to Catholic Doctrine. The Congregation can require that both clergy and lay theologians recant positions that conflict with Catholic doctrine and even punish those who refuse. They can also correct any Catholic who is guilty of heresy or other action that would scandalize the faith.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints oversees the process which leads to the canonization of saints. After the case is prepared it is presented to the pope who decides whether to proceed with beatification or canonization.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments handles affairs relating to liturgical practice of the Latin Rite. The Eastern Churches handle their own liturgical matters. This includes the liturgical calendars and music as well as the propers of the Divine Office and the Mass. This is the office responsible for ensuring that liturgical abuses are avoided, usually by informing and supporting bishops, who are responsible for the proper celebration of the liturgy in their diocese. The proper celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, that is the Mass and Sacraments performed in Latin according to the forms used prior to Vatican II is vested in the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
The Church community is governed according to formal regulation set out in the Code of Canon Law. The Catholic Church has a complete legal system, one of the oldest in the world. This includes a complete appellate courts system. Most of the cases heard under canon law today are marriage annulment cases, but cases also include petitions for redress of punitive and non-punitive actions such as excommunications.
Worldwide the Church is divided into 2782 episcopal sees, which are called dioceses. Each diocese is headed by a bishop. Some few are lead by patriarchs. Eastern Church sees are called eparchies and lead by an eparch.
Vatican II established that bishops responsible for specific geographic areas be organized into national episcopal conferences. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the national episcopal conference for the U.S. Many tasks and authorities are relegated to the episcopal conferences, particularly in the area of setting liturgical norms for the Mass. The USCCB also works with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) and the Bishop conferences of other English speaking countries on approved translations of the Liturgy. All liturgical documents are composed originally in Latin.
Besides the bishops, priests and deacons which are in the dioceses there are members of the church, both clergy and the laity, who are in the consecrated life. The majority of these people are in one of the religious orders. Members of religious orders are usually under the authority of a superior general. Usually they are independent of the authority of the local bishop, though often they are required to coordinate with him in matters that effect the faithful in his diocese. Some few religious orders, such as the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) report directly to the Pope. Some orders. Like the Benedictines have houses which are independent.
Opus Dei is a unique order called a Prelature. It is a personal prelature which means that it's bishop's jurisdiction covers all persons in Opus Die, laity and clergy where ever they are. Such people are not under the authority of the local bishop although they are expected to coordinate with the ordinary within his diocese.
Diocese are typically organized into ecclesiastical provinces which are headed by an archbishop. Such archbishops are called metropolitan bishops, and exercise a limited degree of authority over his suffragan bishops. Often dioceses are divided into vicarates, each having a diocesan vicar.
Each parish is by design a geographical unit with specific boundaries. A pastor administers the parish and is sometimes helped by a parochial vicar and other parish priests. Often a group of parishes are assigned to a single pastor who is responsible for their administration. Deacons, although they work in parishes are assigned under the authority of the bishop and although they help the pastor they are assigned by the bishop and actually work for him.
The pastor is typically advised by a number of parish committees, including the parish council and finance committee.
Besides the hierarchical structure of the church described above there is a separate structure which is made up of the various religious orders, many of which contain both clergy and members of the laity who have given themselves up to a consecrated life.
Initially the orders were founded on the three principles of chastity, poverty and obedience. These are called solemn vows. Some members of religious life take simple vows. The basic difference is that in simple vows a person maintains the right to own goods while in solemn vows the person renounces the right of ownership. Most religious orders, even those under solemn vows allows that the order may own goods, but there are exceptions to even that, with a few order completely dependent on the will of God for their maintenance.
Though in most orders (and in single consecrated life) a vow of chastity is required there are exceptions. Members of the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO) who are members of the Third Order of Franciscans may be married and are not bound by public vows. There are other orders where married members make public profession and are bound to marital chastity, that is bound to their spouse.
Some orders are have houses that are autonomous, as are the Benedictines. Others are more or less hierarchical in organization having a single leader, usually appointed by the Pope, though sometimes the members of the order are allowed to nominate an individual for the Pope's concurrence.
Many members of the religious orders serve others, the poor, the sick and the disenfranchised. Others are teachers, councilors, pastoral ministers, religious educators and even parish priests.
The structure of the Church is forever changing, though usually slowly and in small ways. New orders are founded and new commissions established, and so too do orders die out and curial offices become vacant or combined. This is a short snapshot of the Church structure as it exists today.

Dissent III

2008-08-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. William E. May, Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. writes at ignatiusinsite.com on Authority and Dissent in the Catholic Church. Good background for explaining to those who think that a "ardent" Catholic can dissent from the teachings of the Church on contraception or abortion.

Upon this Rock

2008-08-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

On the road to rescuing Princess Fiona, Shrek tries to explain to Donkey the complexities of ogre personality. "Ogres are like onions," he says. "They have layers."
Scripture is like ogres...I mean onions. It has layers. What does this mean? One of the primary characteristics of Scripture, is, being inspired by God, it has meaning when it was revealed, relating to the time and place to which it is tied. Scripture also has meaning throughout time, off times in relationship to salvation history, that is, to the story of our salvation through Christ. It also speaks to us today, in our own lives. One thing this means is that trying to tie a single definitive meaning to a specific scriptural passage is a chancy thing. Almost all passages of scripture have more than one authentic meaning, as well as an almost unlimited number of incorrect interpretations, hence the danger of solo scriptura and the need for the Magisterium of the Church.
One place where scripture is very much part of our daily lives is during the Mass. Scott Hahn does a very good job of explaining how The Book of Revelations is a map to the Mass, as well a probable writing on the first century Roman Empire, as well as a possible hint of the end times. See, like an onion?
One place that scripture is very visibly in the Mass is during the readings. When the Mass was revised after Vatican II the cycle of readings was changed from a single year cycle, which is still used in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, to a three year cycle. Readings were added and an attempt was made to try together at least two of the readings. This most often results in a common thread running between the first reading, which is most often from the Old Testament and the Gospel.
For the Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary time, cycle II (or B) we hear from Isaiah 22:19-23. The story concerns Shebna, who was the steward of Hezekiah, King of Judah, that is the Southern Kingdom of Israel. In those days the king's steward was the government comptroller, secretary of the treasury, head butler and chief of staff all rolled into one. The crux of his duties and the source of his power was that he held the keys of the king. When it was time to pay people he had the keys to the treasury. When someone wanted to see the monarch he held to keys to the door they would have to pass through before they could enter the king's presence. The king held the real power, but folks understood that the steward held authority too. That authority came from the king, but like the power of the king that authority ultimately came from God. Shebna was reminded of this fact when God sent Isaiah to toss him out of office and anoint Eliakim to take his place.
Now the Gospel comes from Matthew 16:13-20. This is one of the readings that Protestants dance around and write whole books about how Catholics have got it wrong. This is the place where Christ gives the Keys of Kingdom to Peter. Like Eliakim he will be able to open or close doors and from that will flow his power to bind and loose, a term that in Jewish law was concerned with the ability of rabbis and judges to interpret law and contracts. Like Eliakim his power does not come from his own authority, but from the authority of the King. In Israel the position of steward was hereditary with the power of the keys being passed down to the Eliakim's heirs.
Now it was a sure bet that the Apostles knew the story of Eliakim. They would have recognized the meaning of Christs words, when he used the terms "keys", "binding" and "loosing." Even after Jesus' death, before Pentecost, they, the Apostles, gathered around Peter and recognized his authority. Which is why Mary Magdalene sought him out when told to tell the Apostles about her meeting with the Lord following his resurrection. And why the other Apostle, even though he reached the tomb first on Easter morning, allowed Peter to enter first, out of respect to his position as leader of the Apostles. Even Paul, who was appointed an Apostle by Jesus himself, sought out Peter to bless his ministry.
Often you'll hear a Protestant apologist claim that the early Church fathers don't mention the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. They don't mention the existence of the Emperor either, or the geographic location of Rome or the color of the sky. Why not? Because those were assumptions that they knew were accepted by their readers already. One does not explain or defend that which is already accepted.

Dissent II

2008-07-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last month I wrote on Dissent, describing the various aspects of the magisterium. That post was the result of a conversation with someone over the right of Catholics to dissent from Church teaching. In that discussion the other person sited support for their position in the writings of several noted (liberal) theologians.
My answer was that I could site numerous theologians who disagreed with that position. Why did I think my theologians were better than her theologians? Because, I stated, in this battle of dueling theologians mine worked for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
What I was thinking of at the time was DONUM VERITATIS, On The Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian. This CDF document makes it quite clear that a distinction exists between the Magisterium of the Teachers (or, experts) (magisterium cathedrae magisterialis) and the Magisterium of the Pastors (the bishops and the pope.) The theologians get to propose and theorize, but the pastors get to decide. This is not new, but has ever been that way in the Church.
So it does not matter how many theologians might believe that its not heretical to dissent from the teachings of the Church on abortion or contraception, the Magisterium of the Church teaches us that it is.

The Vindication of Humanae Vitae

2008-07-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

Mary Eberstadt writes in First Things on the vindication of Paul VI's reaffirmation of traditional Christian doctrine in light of modern social science. A thought provoking read.

ΙΧΘΥΣ

2008-07-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Over the millenia Christians have used many symbols, the Cross being perhaps the most well known. Protestants commonly use a plain cross, while a Crucifix is more common among Catholics. A symbol very common among modern day Christians, is the fish.
How did the fish, which is never mentioned in scripture as a symbol related to Christ come to be a Christian symbol?
In Greek, the language of the early Church, ichthus is the word for fish. In Greek ichthus is spelled ΙΧΘΥΣ. That is Iota(Ι), Chi(Χ), Theta(Θ), Upsilon(Υ), Sigma(Σ). Each of these letters can be made to stand for a word, a kind of code for those who know.
Iota(Ι) is the first letter of Iesous, Jesus in Greek. Chi(Χ) is the first letter of Christos, Christ, which means "anointed One" in Greek and can be translated more correctly into English as Messiah. Theta(Θ) is the first letter of the Greek word Theos. While god is most commonly described using the word Dios, this word is typically applied to the pagan Greek gods. The translators of the Septuagint used the word Theos to refer to the God of Jacob. Upsilon(Υ) is the first letter of the Greek word uios, meaning son. Sigma(Σ) is the first letter of the Greek word for Soter, which means savior.
So Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ) can stand for Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior.
The symbol of the fish was use by followers of the Way to mark places where they met and is also believed to have been used as a sign between Christians who did not know one another.
Today many Christians display the ichthus proudly to proclaim they are followers of the Son of God.

Breathing with two lungs

2008-06-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

John Paul II once described the Church as breathing with two lungs, through the Eastern Rite and Western Churches. For too long have East and West lungs not breathed together. Certainly the Eastern Rite Churches contribute greatly to the function of the body of the Church, but still a great number of our Orthodox breatheren are separated from us, by ancient divisions in theological points.
Today two hopeful occurrences have happened to make it more hopeful that in the future East and West may breath together more powerfully, something which, considering the state of the world, can only be for the good.
The first is discussion by the Ukrainian Catholic Church with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople for a system of "dual-unity" by which they would be both in union with Rome and with the Orthodox Churches. This would be a big deal, effectively turning back the clock one thousand years. This is a good thing.
The next is the Mass for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul at which Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Churches joined the Holy Father. The Holy Father and the Patriarch together recited the creed, in Greek (without the troublesome Filioque clause), Bartholomew and Benedict gave the blessing with the Book of the Gospel, after which the Gospel was sang by an Orthodox deacon. Both the Holy Father and the Patriarch gave addresses at the homily.
This is too a big thing.
The Orthodox bishops are real bishops, with apostalic succession going back the the apostles. As is says in the Guidelines for the reception of Communion:

"Members of the Orthodox Churches...are urged to respect the discipile of their own Churches. According to Roman Catholic Discipline, the Code of Canon Law does not object the the reception of Communion by Chrisitians of these Churches."

It is also permissible for a Roman Catholic to receive Communion in an Orthodox Church, at least according to the Code of Canon Law, provided a valid Catholic (Roman or Eastern Rite) Mass is not available. In both case the disciplines of the Orthodox Church may not permit this.
There have certainly been cases of even Orthodox bishops recieving Communion in a Roman Catholic Mass, though it is hardly routine. Perhaps someday it will become so. Considering the very close theological beliefs of East and West it can only be for the good.

Dissent

2008-06-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

The teaching authority of the Church, its magisterium, is exercised through her bishops in union with the supreme bishop, the Roman Pontiff. All Church teachings held through the magisterium are true, but not all teachings are held to be infallibly true. Those teachings which are not held to be infallibly true are said to authoritatively true.
Church teachings whether infallibly true or authoritatively true are proposed to be held as true by the faithful.
So what does this mean?
Some Catholic teachings are dogma. That means they are held to be irreformally true, that is infallibly true. They are divinely revealed and are defined by an ecumenical council or the Pope speaking ex cathedra. This the Extraordinary and Solemn path of magisterial action. Dogma can also be revealed in the ordinary and non-solemn action of the bishops in union with the Pope. As Lumen Gentium says:

Although the bishops individually do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they nevertheless proclaim the teaching of Christ infallibly, even when they are dispersed throughout the world, provided that they remain in communion with each other and with the successor of Peter and that in authoritatively teaching on a matter of faith and morals they agree in one judgment as that to be held definitively.Doctrine which is not divinely reveal may also be Extraordinary and Solemn. Such truths are revealed by the Holy Spirit and are typically inimately linked with revealed truths. Such truths make up Definitive Doctrine.

The rest may be said to reside under the heading of Authentic Doctrine. These truths are reformable in the light of the formation of faith, but are still authoritative, that is they must be adhered to by the faithful.

None of this was controversial at all until the post Vatican II period, specifically after July 25, 1986. What happen then? Pope Paul VI promalgated Humanae Vitae which did nothing but confirm traditional Catholic teaching on abortion and contraception.
100 theologians, among them Fr. Charles E. Curran, who was then a professor at Catholic University of America, issued a statement claiming that Catholic's individual consciences can prevail over non-dogmatic teaching, effectively rendering Authentic Doctrine meaningless. At the same time the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the infamous Winnipeg Statement, which effectively said that Catholics were free to dissent from the teachings of the Church based on their own consciences.
This is not the teaching of the Catholic Church, though some theologians continue to support it. This has been addressed by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The CDF holds that while theologians may question the content of proposed authoritative teachings in the pursuit of their vocation, such views are publish only so that they may be may be reviewed by their peers for submission to those within the Church who have the authority and responsibility under the magisterium to discern such doctrine. At no time are the faithful free to accept such proposed positions if they conflict with the present Authentic Doctrine as taught by the Church. Holding any other position is contrary to the Obsequium, that is the submission of will and intellect required for Authentic Doctrine.

That Catholic Show

2008-06-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

That Catholic Show. I can't believe that I haven't blogged on it before. One of the best podcast on the Web on fundamental core Catholic concepts.

Buy the first season on DVD. Support Greg & Jennifer Willits in their efforts to

respond to the Church’s call to use the media for religious information, for evangelization and catechesis and for formation and education.

Catechisms

2008-06-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

Stuff Catholics Like expounds usefully on Catechisms.

Catholics can’t remember anything, God bless us. With great effort and much discipline we can sometimes remember the Gospel until the homily starts, but most couldn’t guess the number of readings done on Sunday let alone the subject matter. We enjoy Palm Sunday when the Gospel is written out like a play and we have our own part. Because of our bad memories and the importance of tradition in Catholicism, it is imperative that we write down everything. Everything (and in every language). Catholics have Sacred Scripture. Catholics have Canon Law. Catholics have Lectionaries and Sacramentaries. Catholics have encyclopedias and dictionaries. And Catholics have catechisms. Boy do we have catechisms.

Thoughts

2008-05-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

As a catechist I've spent a good part of my time working with teenagers. I have been fortunate enough to be able to accompany groups of teens to Steubenville Youth Conferences, accompanied groups of young people doing mission work in West Virginia, chaperoned them as they worked in soup kitchens, prayed outside Abortion clinics and attended retreats. I have also engaged in social ministry, spending time with teens just discussing their lives, their school, the world. I have been struck by the knowledge of Roman Catholicism exhibited by some of them and the ignorance of their religion shown by others.
The most amazing thing that I have found is that, as a rule, they are happier with a orthodox view of the world than with the package that secular society is trying to sell them. They want to be challenged to be holy. They would rather, in the long run, be called on their mistakes, than be "validated."
That being said I have lately dabbled in adult catechesis. This area can best be divided between candidates for RCIA and Catholic adults. RCIA candidates, one would suppose, range from those who are converting based on a long search and those going through the motions for reasons of marital peace, either before or after matrimony. Catholic adults, I have met, are at many different stages of both spiritual growth and of orthodoxy. As a developing adult Catholic myself I struggle with issues just like everyone else, but continue to believe that the catechist must espouse authentic Church teaching just as much with adults as with teens.
Of course, many times adults don't want to hear authentic Church teachings when they go against their own positions. I'm attempting to improve my skill at being tactful, a skill my wife will tell you I can be somewhat lacking in. I've found it always helps when dealing with a controversial subject to bring out the big guns, i.e. not to say something along the lines of, "..the Church teaches..." but rather "...the Catechism of the Catholic Church says..." or " The USCCB say in the Norms for Distribution and Reception of...". After all this isn't a discussion between me and another person debating opinions, it is, or should be, me acting as a conduit of Church teaching in such a way as to edify the others journey to holiness.

Works of Mercy

2008-05-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

Much is being said about the pastoral actions of the Archbishops of New York and Kansas City in their public announcements relating to the actions of two pro-abortion politicians who are self-described Catholics.
In the modern post Vatican II era we hear a lot about our responsibility to practice the Works of Mercy. Most often the Works emphasized are the seven Corporal Works:

Feed the hungry.
Give drink to the thirsty.
Cloth the naked.
Welcome the Stranger.
Visit the imprisoned.
Visit the sick.
Bury the dead.

Indeed the many ministries which are common at almost every Catholic Church often concern themselves with fulfilling the requirements of meeting the Corporal Works of Mercy.

All too often the other Works of Mercy, the Spiritual Works of Mercy are overlooked. They are:

Admonish the sinner.
Instruct the ignorant.
Counsel the doubtful.
Comfort the sorrowful.
Bear wrongs patiently.
Forgive all injuries.
Pray for the living and the deceased.

It seems to me that it is a lot harder to be faithful to the Spiritual Works of Mercy than to the Corporal Works of Mercy. Even many secularist (especially of liberal leanings) agree that the requirements of the Corporal Works should be done. Who would speak against feeding the hungry, or clothing the naked? Yet many otherwise faithful Catholics do not feel bishops should admonish sinners.
Oh they're all for general comments on the evil of sin, but start naming names and they talk about how the bishop is overstepping. Now don't misunderstand, naming names is not something to be done lightly. A private sin is just that, private. If confessed, it is between the sinner and their confessor. Even if the sinner does not confess the sin and is unrepentant in most cases informing other third parties of the sin is no more than gossip, and is sinful in itself.
Public sin is another story. A public sinner flaunts their sin. They bring scandal to themselves, and if unadmonished to the Church. They lead others into sin by their example and in some cases even encourage others to sin. When their actions also contest a dogma or doctrine of the Church they flirt with heresy, also a not very popular term in the modern secular world.
One should remember that the purpose of admonishment as well as instruction is correction of the individual with the purpose of the salvation of their soul. So the Spiritual Works of Mercy, like the Corporal Works are to be performed in a spirit of charity, not of pride. Liekwise they are not relegated only to the actions of the Ordinary, but the duty of all Catholics.

Mathematics Platoism and Natural Law

2008-04-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting and vexing questions in (and about) mathematics is the so called discovery question. Is mathematics discovered or invented? The U.S. patent office, in the face of the common wisdom of antiquity, and I would say common sense, has declared that mathematics is invented, and therefore patentable. So is created the situation where one must pay a corporation thousands of dollars to use an algorithm which is the result of the flow of mathematical relationships.
Science News has an article which quotes a paper from last June's issue of the Newsletter of the European Mathematics Society which speaks against the discovery theory of mathematics, called the Plato theory of mathematics.
Platonist note that mathematical statements are either true or false independently of the personal beliefs of the mathematician. In base ten 1+1 will always equal 2. That makes mathematics independent of human belief and existence.
In his article in EMS Davies states:

Platonists believe that our understanding of mathematics involves a type of perception of the Platonic realm, and that our brains therefore have the capacity to reach beyond the confines of the physical world as currently understood, albeit after a long period of intense concentration. If one does not believe this then the existence of the Platonic realm has literally no significance. This type of claim has more in common with mystical religions than with modern science.

In that Davies makes the mistake of many secularist who ignore the theory of Natural Law and many physicists who while realizing that the universe is written in the language of mathematics fail to see the hand of the divine within that writing.
I remained unconvinced that calculus, which circumscribes the behavior of fluids in a piston or electron containment in an accelerator is a happy accident of human invention as opposed to a deep extension of divine will revealed to human knowledge by the grace of God.