Room With a View

God isn't a science experiment

2011-07-14T08:22:00.003-05:00

From Zenit

Pope Benedict XVI Explains He Is a Subject Who Relates Person-to-Person

VATICAN CITY, JULY 1, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Is the classic definition of theology -- "the science of faith" -- actually a contradiction in itself? Does faith not cease to be faith when it becomes science? And does not science cease to be science when it is ordered or even subordinated to faith?
These are the questions that Benedict XVI proposed Thursday when he presented the first three Ratzinger Prizes. The prize, called the Nobel of theology, was issued for the first time by the new Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, founded last March.
The awards went to an Italian layman, Manlio Simonetti; a Spanish priest, Olegario González de Cardedal; and a German Cistercian, Father Maximilian Heim.
The Holy Father spoke briefly about the careers of each of the winners, but then offered a reflection on the nature of theology itself.
He proposed that Christianity was revolutionary in that it broke with ancient religions' focus on religious customs, and proposed instead love of the truth. This concept is found in the Gospel of John, which speaks of Christ as Logos, he noted.
"If Christ is the Logos, the truth, man must correspond to Him with his own logos, with his reason. To arrive at Christ, man must be on the path of truth," the Pontiff explained. Man must open himself to creative Reason, from which his own reason is derived.
"In this way," Benedict XVI said, "we see that Christian faith, by its very nature, must give rise to theology, must question itself on the reasonableness of faith."
2 types
The Pope went on, however, to speak of two different types of reason: one that is irreconcilable with faith, and the other that belongs to the very nature of faith.
The first, "violentia rationis, the despotism of reason," attempts to be "the supreme and ultimate judge of everything," the Holy Father said.
This is a type of reason that wants to subject even God to experiment. Citing Psalm 95, the Holy Father explained how the people sought to subject God to questioning, to submit him to a procedure of experimental testing.
With this kind of reason, "what cannot be scientifically verified or falsified falls outside the scientific ambit."
Now, the Pontiff said, this approach has led to great accomplishments, "and no would dare to seriously deny that this approach is right and necessary in the realm of knowledge of nature and of its laws."
"However," he continued, "such a use of reason has a limit: God is not an object of human experimentation. He is Subject and manifests himself only in the person to person relationship, which is part of the essence of person."
Hence, the need for a second type of reason -- one that is valid "for the great questions regarding man himself."
This is a reason that seeks knowledge because of love. "Love wants to know better the one it loves. Love, true love, does not make one blind but seeing. Part of it is a thirst for knowledge, true knowledge of the other," the Pope said.
Without this type of reason, the "great questions of humanity" are left without reason, "left to irrationality."
"Because of this, authentic theology is so important," Benedict XVI affirmed. "Right faith orients reason to its openness to the divine, so that, guided by love for the truth, it can know God more closely."
The Pope lastly noted how the initiative for this path comes from God himself, "who has put in man's heart the search for his Face."
"Hence," he said, "part of theology, on one hand, is humility that lets itself be 'touched' by God, and on the other hand, discipline that is linked to the order of reason, which preserves love from blindness and which helps to develop its strength for seeing."
Access to God
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Ratzinger Prize committee, presented the winners, speaking of how the prize is "a contribution to the promotion of the awareness and study of theology in an age in which ... the priority above every other priority is to make God present in this world and open men to the access of God."
Monsignor Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation, echoed the same thought, affirming that "God is not a danger for society" and "should not be absent from the great questions of our time."
Abbot Heim spoke on behalf of the prize winners. "As theologians," he said, "we can seek the truth without fear." He noted that theologians don't make truth, "but rather it's the truth that forms the theologian."

Full text of the Pope's address

New Abortion Numbers in England

2011-07-13T07:45:00.001-05:00

From Zenit
Handicapped Babies Extinguished

By Father John Flynn, LC
ROME, JULY 10, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Disturbing information about late-term abortions and the elimination of handicapped babies was released this week by the British government.
It showed that for England and Wales there were a number of abortions carried out on babies suffering from cleft palates, club feet, and Down syndrome.
The statistics didn't come easily, as the BBC explained in its July 4 coverage of the matter.
In 2003 the Department of Health decided to stop publishing information on late-term abortions following a widespread outcry when it became known that abortions were being carried out on babies with a cleft palate.
Subsequently the ProLife Alliance made a request under the freedom of information laws for the details on these abortions to be released. The Department of Health refused to do so and it was only as a result of a High Court order that the data is now public.
The tables that are now on the Department of Health's Web site cover cases of abortions carried out for reasons of genetic defects or handicaps and also abortions carried out on girls under the age of consent, which is 16 years of age in England and Wales.
In a press release dated July 4 the ProLife Alliance welcomed the release of the information, following what it described as "a David and Goliath legal battle." The organization made its request in February 2005.
A sentiment not shared by Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which provides abortions. "The publication of these statistics after a campaign by the anti-abortion lobby reveals little more than their own vindictiveness," the BBC reported.
Discrimination against the disabled
In 2010, 482 babies with Down syndrome were aborted. Ten of these were over 24 weeks old. Another 181 were aborted due to a family history in inherited disorders. In total, there were 2,290 abortions in 2010 for reasons of some handicap or genetic problem. Of these 147 were performed after 24 weeks of gestation.
In a public statement the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) expressed its concern over the abortion data.
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, commented: "Between 2001 and 2010, the number of abortions on the ground of disability rose by one third, 10 times that of abortions generally."
"It is clear that legal abortion is a system which discriminates, fatally, against the disabled," he added.
Of course England and Wales are hardly alone in this selective elimination. Currently around 6,000 children affected with Down syndrome are born each year in the United States. The number has dropped since the widespread introduction of prenatal screening.
There was an 11% decline in the period 1989 to 2006, at a time when the number would have otherwise been expected to rise significantly, according to a June 12 report by the Associated Press on the topic of prenatal testing.
There were also significant numbers of abortions carried out on girls under the age of consent in England and Wales. In 2010 there were 3,718 abortions among those aged under 16. Broken down this shows 2,676 abortions to those aged from 14-15, 906 to 13-14 years old, 134 to 12-13 years old, and two to girls aged 12 or under.
In total there were 35,262 abortions performed on girls aged under 16 in the period 2002-10.
The latest information is not the only cause for concern about abortion in England and Wales. The number of abortions has risen by 8% during the last decade. In a press release dated May 24 the Department of Health said that the total number of abortions in 2010 was 189,574 -- 8% more than in 2000 (175,542).
The abortion rate was highest at 33 per 1,000 for women aged 19 and 20. Single women accounted for 81% of the abortion total. Overall, 91% of abortions were carried out at under 13 weeks gestation, with 77% at under 10 weeks.
Medical abortions, in other words those done by taking pharmaceuticals, accounted for 43% of the total, a notable increase compared to a decade ago, when they were only 12% in 2000.
Michaela Aston, from the campaign group Life, said she was concerned about the trend for women rushing in to have earlier abortions.
"It is vital that women are given time to think through their options, especially since data from other countries suggests that the introduction of 'cooling off' periods before abortion can play an important role in reducing abortion rates, as women and their partners or families have more time to look at all their choices," the Telegraph newspaper reported May 24.
Repeats
The report by the Department of Health also showed that more women are having multiple abortions. In 2010, 34% of women who aborted had already had an abortion. This is up from 30% in 2000.
The dangers of having a high number of abortions at a young age, or having multiple abortions, was highlighted in a study recently published. Research carried out on more than a million pregnancies in Scotland over a period of 26 years demonstrated that women who have had an abortion are more likely to give birth to a premature baby and to suffer other complications.
According to a report on the study published in London's Times newspaper on July 5 women who have had one termination are 34% more likely to have a premature birth than those pregnant for the first time.
This rises to 73% higher than for women having a second baby, who normally have a lower risk of a premature birth.
Sohinee Bhattacharya, of the University of Aberdeen, led the research, which is still at the preliminary stage and has not yet been published.
Moreover, the risk of giving birth before term rise notably if a woman has had more than two abortions. One in five women who has had four terminations will give birth before 37 weeks, compared with fewer than one in 10 women who have had only one, the Times reported.
Bhattacharya explained that the risk of a premature birth is about 6%, while for women who have had one abortion it rises to 10%.
Even though the numbers of women who will be affected by this are relatively small, Josephine Quintavalle, of the ProLife Alliance, told the Times that it provided solid evidence of the impact of abortion on health.
"Whatever one's position on the ethics of abortion, it is more than obvious that alerting patients to the very real and incremental risks of future miscarriage should now be an essential part of informed consent protocols," she said.
Moral conscience
On Feb. 26, Benedict XVI addressed the members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who were gathered for their annual meeting. One of the topics discussed was the trauma suffered by women who have undergone abortion.
The Pope pointed out that the psychological distress that women who have aborted experience "reveals the irrepressible voice of the moral conscience and the most serious wound it suffers every time that human action betrays the innate vocation to the good of the human being, to which it bears witness."
He also criticized the fathers who leave pregnant women on their own.
Benedict XVI commented that we are in a cultural situation where there has been an eclipse of the sense of life, which has weakened the perception of the gravity of abortion. No clearer evidence could be provided than the recent news from Britain.

Muslims slaughter hundreds of Christians in Nigeria

2010-03-08T14:07:00.003-06:00

From Catholic Culture

Muslim gangs attacked three villages in central Nigeria and killed up to 400 Christians in pre-dawn attacks on March 7. “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses, and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes,” said one witness. Another added, “We saw mainly those who are helpless, like small children and then the older men, who cannot run, these were the ones that were slaughtered.”

Some 300 Christian churches have been destroyed in the area around Jos during the past four years. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos described his efforts to have friendly relations with Muslims, the effects of the local imposition of Sharia, and the caution with which he catechizes potential Muslim converts, some of whom “come just because they want to infiltrate.”

The nation of 142.5 million is 15% Catholic.

Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic

2010-02-18T12:13:00.002-06:00

From Catholic Online

By Deacon Keith Fournier
2/18/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) – It has been an historic week for the Church in Australia and around the world. The move of many Anglican Christians into full communion with the Catholic Church has taken a decided move forward.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bishop David Robarts OAM, the chairman of Forward in Faith Australia, explained that members of that Anglican association in Australia have decided they could no longer move forward in faith as a part of an Anglican Church in Australia which was not being faithful.

The Bishop explained that the Anglican Church was moving away from orthodox Christian belief and practice and leaving them behind: "In Australia we have tried for a quarter of a decade to get some form of episcopal oversight but we have failed… We're not really wanted any more, our conscience is not being respected."

The Bishop continued, "We're not shifting the furniture, we're simply saying that we have been faithful Anglicans upholding what Anglicans have always believed - and we're not wanting to change anything, but we have been marginalized by people who want to introduce innovations. We need to have bishops that believe what we believe."

So, on Sunday, February 13, 2010, Forward in Faith Australia voted unanimously to accept the invitation extended by Pope Benedict XVI in his historic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus. They will now take the next step in entering into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

The entire process of following the directions set forth in the Apostolic Constitution is being presided over by Catholic Bishop Peter Elliott. This Anglican group will now make Church history. They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

Bishop Elliott explained the process in a recent article he wrote for the publication of the Traditional Anglican Communion:

"The Pastor of the nations (Pope Benedict XVI) is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.

"Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces).

"In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical "use" as Catholics of the Roman Rite. At the same time your Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside diocesan bishops of the Roman Rite and find their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region."

These members of Forward in Faith, Australia, will be accompanied on the journey to full communion by members of the Traditional Anglican Communion and others from the Anglican Church in Australia.

They have established a "working group" which, under the supervision of Bishop Elliott and the direction of the Holy See, will establish the process of establishing an Anglican Ordinariate in Australia. It may become a prototype for similar Anglican Ordinariates in other parts of the world.

Bishop David Robarts told the Daily Telegraph, "I love my Anglican heritage, but I'm not going to lose it by taking this step."

After the release of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Anglican Bishops of Ebbsfleet and Richborough issued a call for a Day of Prayer and Discernment on Monday 22nd February. February 22d is the Feast of the Chair of Peter.These are historic times.

- - -

Deacon Keith Fournier asks that you join with us and help in this vital mission by sending this article to your family, friends, and neighbors and adding our link (www.catholic.org) to your own website, blog or social network. Let us broadcast, we are PROUD TO BE CATHOLIC!

Pope to Youth: Return to the Father This Lent

2010-02-18T09:31:00.003-06:00

From Zenit.org

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 17, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging young people to live Lent with a truly penitential spirit, as a return to the Father.

The Pope said this today at the end of the general audience in Paul VI Hall, with his customary greeting to youth, the sick and newlyweds.

"Dear young people," he said, "I exhort you to live Lent with a genuine penitential spirit, as a return to the Father, who awaits all with open arms."

The Holy Father continued: "Dear sick people, I encourage you to offer your sufferings together with Christ for the conversion of those who still find themselves far from God; and I hope you, dear newlyweds, will build your families with courage and generosity on the solid rock of divine love."

Happy Nativity and Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T14:53:00.001-06:00

Disturbing Trends

2009-12-22T10:29:00.004-06:00

Taken from First Thoughts via Gallup

What are we to make of these trends? A 2009 Gallup Poll shows that Protestant and Catholic levels of church attendance are converging. But the Catholics who attend mass weekly are getting older, while an increasing proportion of young Protestants are attending church services. Thoughts from readers who have studied these trends would be appreciated.

Click here to see more graphs. According to Gallup’s summary:

The increasingly spare attendance at regular mass has been of considerable concern to the Catholic Church in the United States for some time. Theologians and other observers have variously offered the cultural upheaval of the 1960s, changes to the church brought about in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, and national publicity in 2002 over sexual abuse lawsuits against Catholic priests as possible contributors to the trend.

Whatever the causes, it is clear that U.S. Catholics’ once-nearly uniform obedience to their church’s requirement of weekly mass attendance has faded, and Catholics are now no different from Protestants in their likelihood to attend church. This has occurred among Catholics of all age categories, but is most pronounced among those under 60. The good news for the Catholic Church is that the drop in attendance seems to have slowed or abated altogether in the last decade, spanning a most difficult period for the church around 2002, when attendance did suffer temporarily.

U.S. Protestant church attendance has also been steady over the past decade, but is actually higher now than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, in part the result of a resurgence of regular attendance among young adults.

See Also: More Hispanics Leaving Catholicism for Evangelical Protestantism

In immigrant communities across the United States, a battle is being waged for the souls of Hispanics – and a distinctly American style of worship is beginning to take hold.

According to a landmark study, as many as 600,000 Hispanics in this country leave the Catholic Church every year in favor of Protestant evangelical churches.

Furthermore, of the approximately 30 percent of Hispanics nationwide who identify themselves as non-Catholic, the vast majority are affiliated with an evangelical or “born-again” church.

Catholicism remains by far the largest religious denomination for U.S. Hispanics, but because Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, any shift in the way they worship promises to make a huge impact on America’s religious landscape. Examples of this trend can be seen in the Santa Maria Valley as small storefront churches pop up in shopping centers and some Catholic priests report the loss of some members of their flocks.

ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

2009-11-10T11:46:00.002-06:00

ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS: PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS
ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION
WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans and the Coming Full Communion of the Church

Anglicans welcome offer from Rome

Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound

2009-11-05T15:20:00.002-06:00

From Fox News.com

The former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas says she had a "change of heart" after watching an abortion last month — and she quit her job and joined a pro-life group in praying outside the facility.

Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus "crumple" as it was vacuumed out of a patient's uterus in September.

'When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice," Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, "I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart ... a spiritual conversion."

Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.

"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,'" Johnson told FoxNews.com. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood told FoxNews.com that it offers a range of services at it 850 health centers nationwide, providing pregnancy tests, vaccinations and women's health services, "including wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment."

"Planned Parenthood's focus is on prevention," wrote Diane Quest, the group's National Media Director. "Nationwide, more than 90% of the health care Planned Parenthood affiliates provide is preventive in nature," explaining that a "core component the organization's mission is to help women plan healthy pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancies."

But Johnson said her bosses told her to change her "priorities" and focus on abortions, which she said made money for the office at a time when the recession has left them hurting.

"For them there's not a lot of money in education," she said. "There's as not as much money in family planning as there is abortion."

Without a doctor in residence, she said, her clinic offered abortions only two days a month, but the doctor could perform 30 to 40 procedures on each day he was there. Johnson estimated that each abortion could net the branch about $350, adding up to more than $10,000 a month.

"The majority of the money was going to the facility," she said.

Johnson said she never got any orders to increase profits in e-mails or letters, and had no way to prove her allegations about practices at the Bryan branch. She told FoxNews.com that pressure came in personal interactions with her regional manager from the larger Houston office.

But she said she got involved with the clinic "to help women and ... [do] the right thing," and the idea of raking in cash seemed to go against what she felt was the mission of the 93-year-old organization.

"Ideally my goal as the facility's director is that your abortion numbers don't increase," because "you're providing so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion services.

"But that was not their goal," she said.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood refused to answer questions about Johnson's accusations, but released a statement noting that a district court had issued a temporary restraining order against the former branch director and against the Coalition for Life, an anti-abortion group with which Johnson is now affiliated.

"We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary," said spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla.

It is unclear what made Planned Parenthood seek the restraining order. Johnson said she did not intend to release any sensitive information about her former patients at the clinic.

A hearing is set for Nov. 10 to determine whether a judge will order an injunction against Johnson and the Coalition for Life, which has led protests outside the clinic and joined her in a prayer vigil there last month.

Johnson hasn't found a job since she quit on Oct. 6, but she said she's enjoying the time off to be with her 3-year-old daughter.

"It's been great just to spend some time at home and get a break," she said.

Stanley Hauerwas on Reformation Sunday

2009-10-27T12:02:00.003-05:00

This is an interesting sermon, something for Protestant and Catholic alike.

29 October 1995

by Stanley Hauerwas

Joel 2:23-32 – 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 – Luke 18:9-14

I must begin by telling you that I do not like to preach on Reformation Sunday. Actually I have to put it more strongly than that. I do not like Reformation Sunday, period. I do not understand why it is part of the church year. Reformation Sunday does not name a happy event for the Church Catholic; on the contrary, it names failure. Of course, the church rightly names failure, or at least horror, as part of our church year. We do, after all, go through crucifixion as part of Holy Week. Certainly if the Reformation is to be narrated rightly, it is to be narrated as part of those dark days.

Reformation names the disunity in which we currently stand. We who remain in the Protestant tradition want to say that Reformation was a success. But when we make Reformation a success, it only ends up killing us. After all, the very name ‘Protestantism’ is meant to denote a reform movement of protest within the Church Catholic. When Protestantism becomes an end in itself, which it certainly has through the mainstream denominations in America, it becomes anathema. If we no longer have broken hearts at the church’s division, then we cannot help but unfaithfully celebrate Reformation Sunday.

For example, note what the Reformation has done for our reading texts like that which we hear from Luke this morning. We Protestants automatically assume that the Pharisees are the Catholics. They are the self-righteous people who have made Christianity a form of legalistic religion, thereby destroying the free grace of the Gospel. We Protestants are the tax collectors, knowing that we are sinners and that our lives depend upon God’s free grace. And therefore we are better than the Catholics because we know they are sinners. What an odd irony that the Reformation made such readings possible. As Protestants we now take pride in the acknowledgment of our sinfulness in order to distinguish ourselves from Catholics who allegedly believe in works-righteousness.

Unfortunately, the Catholics are right. Christian salvation consists in works. To be saved is to be made holy. To be saved requires our being made part of a people separated from the world so that we can be united in spite of — or perhaps better, because of — the world’s fragmentation and divisions. Unity, after all, is what God has given us through Christ’s death and resurrection. For in that death and resurrection we have been made part of God’s salvation for the world so that the world may know it has been freed from the powers that would compel us to kill one another in the name of false loyalties. All that is about the works necessary to save us.

For example, I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.

The magisterial office — we Protestants often forget — is not a matter of constraining or limiting diversity in the name of unity. The office of the Bishop of Rome is to ensure that when Christians move from Durham, North Carolina to Syracuse, New York, they have some confidence when they go to church that they will be worshiping the same God. Because Catholics have an office of unity, they do not need to restrain the gifts of the Spirit. As I oftentimes point out, it is extraordinary that Catholicism is able to keep the Irish and the Italians in the same church. What an achievement! Perhaps equally amazing is their ability to keep within the same church Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans.

I think Catholics are able to do that because they know that their unity does not depend upon everyone agreeing. Indeed, they can celebrate their disagreements because they understand that our unity is founded upon the cross and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth that makes the Eucharist possible. They do not presume, therefore, that unity requires that we all read Scripture the same way.

This creates a quite different attitude among Catholics about their relation to Christian tradition and the wider world. Protestants look over to Christian tradition and say, ‘How much of this do we have to believe in order to remain identifiably Christian?’ That’s the reason why Protestants are always tempted to rationalism: we think that Christianity is to be identified with sets of beliefs more than with the unity of the Spirit occasioned through sacrament.

Moreover, once Christianity becomes reduced to a matter of belief, as it clearly has for Protestants, we cannot resist questions of whether those beliefs are as true or useful as other beliefs we also entertain. Once such questions are raised, it does not matter what the answer turns out in a given case. As James Edwards observes, “Once religious beliefs start to compete with other beliefs, then religious believers are — and will know themselves to be — mongerers of values. They too are denizens of the mall, selling and shopping and buying along with the rest of us.”

In contrast, Catholics do not begin with the question of “How much do we need to believe?” but with the attitude “Look at all the wonderful stuff we get to believe!” Isn’t it wonderful to know that Mary was immaculately conceived in order to be the faithful servant of God’s new creation in Jesus Christ! She therefore becomes the firstborn of God’s new creation, our mother, the first member of God’s new community we call church. Isn’t it wonderful that God continued to act in the world through the appearances of Mary at Guadalupe! Mary must know something because she seems to always appear to peasants and, in particular, to peasant women who have the ability to see her. Most of us would not have the ability to see Mary because we’d be far too embarrassed by our vision.

Therefore Catholics understand the church’s unity as grounded in reality more determinative than our good feelings for one another. The office of Rome matters. For at least that office is a judgment on the church for our disunity. Surely it is the clear indication of the sin of the Reformation that we Protestants have not been able to resist nationalistic identifications. So we become German Lutherans, American Lutherans, Norwegian Lutherans. You are Dutch Calvinist, American Presbyterians, Church of Scotland. I am an American Methodist, which has precious little to do with my sisters and brothers in English Methodism. And so we Protestant Christians go to war killing one another in the name of being American, German, Japanese, and so on.

At least it becomes the sin of Rome when Italian Catholics think they can kill Irish Catholics in the name of being Italian. Such divisions distort the unity of the Gospel found in the Eucharist and, thus, become judgments against the church of Rome. Of course, the Papacy has often been unfaithful and corrupt, but at least Catholics preserved an office God can use to remind us that we have been and may yet prove unfaithful. In contrast, Protestants don’t even know we’re being judged for our disunity.

I realize that this perspective on Reformation Sunday is not the usual perspective. The usual perspective is to tell us what a wonderful thing happened at the Reformation. The Reformation struck a blow for freedom. No longer would we be held in medieval captivity to law and arbitrary authority. The Reformation was the beginning of enlightenment, of progressive civilizations, of democracy, that have come to fruition in this wonderful country called America. What a destructive story.

You can tell the destructive character of that narrative by what it has done to the Jews. The way we Protestants read history, and in particular our Bible, has been nothing but disastrous for the Jews. For we turned the Jews into Catholics by suggesting that the Jews had sunk into legalistic and sacramental religion after the prophets and had therefore become moribund and dead. In order to make Jesus explicable (in order to make Jesus look like Luther — at least the Luther of our democratic projections), we had to make Judaism look like our characterization of Catholicism. Yet Jesus did not free us from Israel; rather, he engrafted us into the promise of Israel so that we might be a people called to the same holiness of the law.

I realize that the suggestion that salvation is to be part of a holy people constituted by the law seems to deny the Reformation principle of justification by faith through grace. I do not believe that to be the case, particularly as Calvin understood that Reformation theme. After all, Calvin (and Luther) assumed that justification by faith through grace is a claim about God’s presence in Jesus of Nazareth. So justification by faith through grace is not some general truth about our need for acceptance; but rather justification by faith through grace is a claim about the salvation wrought by God through Jesus to make us a holy people capable of remembering that God’s salvation comes through the Jews. When the church loses that memory, we lose the source of our unity. For unity is finally a matter of memory, of how we tell the story of the Reformation. How can we tell this story of the church truthfully as Protestants and Catholics so that we might look forward to being in union with one another and thus share a common story of our mutual failure?

We know, after all, that the prophecy of Joel has been fulfilled. The portents of heaven, the blood and fire, the darkness of the sun, the bloody moon have come to pass in the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. Now all who call on that name will be saved. We believe that we who stand in the Reformation churches are survivors. But to survive we need to recover the unity that God has given us as survivors. So on this Reformation Sunday long for, pray for, our ability to remember the Reformation – not as a celebratory moment, not as a blow for freedom, but as the sin of the church. Pray for God to heal our disunity, not the disunity simply between Protestant and Catholic, but the disunity in our midst between classes, between races, between nations. Pray that on Reformation Sunday we may as tax collectors confess our sin and ask God to make us a new people joined together in one might prayer that the world may be saved from its divisions.

(Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School.)

African Cardinal: Why Not a Black Pope?

2009-10-06T13:37:00.002-05:00

From Zenit

By Jesús Colina

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There is no reason why the Church couldn't have a black Pope, according to a top African cardinal.

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, said this today during a press conference in Rome on the first working day of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.

The African cardinal is the relator-general of the three-week synod, which will discuss the situation of the Church on the continent.

Cardinal Turkson was asked if t was possible that the Church could soon have a black Pope. The reporter noted U.S. President Barack Obama as an example from international politics.

"Why not?" the cardinal responded. "If God would wish to see a black man also as Pope, thanks be to God."

Cardinal Turkson also noted that the election of a black Pope is a real possibility, as there are various Africans who are members of the College of Cardinals.

He also noted that when a priest is ordained, it is part of the "package" to be willing to be a bishop, and also a Pope.

-------
There have been at least 3 black popes in the history of the Catholic Church:

Pope St. Victor - Elected in 189 AD. He was deacon when he became Pope, a rarity then and now. He established a set date for the celebration of Easter yearly. He died a martyr for the faith in 199.

Pope St. Militiades - Reigned as Pope from 311 - 314. He signed the emperor Constantine’s famous Edict of Milan in 313, ending the persecutions, and making Christianity the established religion of the empire. He was considered an excellent Pope, "a son of peace and father of Christians" according to St. Augustine.

Pope St. Gelasius - Reigned from 492 -496. Born in Rome, he was renowned for his holiness, kindness and scholarship. He saved Rome from famine, composed a book of hymns for church use, was renowned for his concern for the poor and clarified church teaching on the Eucharist.

Pope to Youth: Christ Wants to Make You Happy

2009-10-01T11:59:00.002-05:00

From Zenit

Encourages Them to Have Open Hearts

STARA BOLESLAV, Czech Republic, SEPT. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is telling youth that Christ wants to make them happy, and that his voice is not difficult to hear for those who have their hearts open.

The Pope reflected on Christ's call today when he spoke with young people gathered on the third and last day of his visit to the Czech Republic.

"As he did with Augustine, so the Lord comes to meet each one of you," he said. "He knocks at the door of your freedom and asks to be welcomed as a friend. He wants to make you happy, to fill you with humanity and dignity.

"The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction. And when the heart of a young person opens up to his divine plans, it is not difficult to recognize and follow his voice."

The Holy Father reflected on the Lord's specific call for each person, and he urged them to holiness in their vocations.

"Many of you he calls to marriage, and the preparation for this sacrament constitutes a real vocational journey," he said. "Consider seriously the divine call to raise a Christian family, and let your youth be the time in which to build your future with a sense of responsibility. Society needs Christian families, saintly families!"

"And if the Lord is calling you to follow him in the ministerial priesthood or in the consecrated life," the Pontiff continued, "do not hesitate to respond to his invitation. In particular, in this Year of Priests, I appeal to you, young men: Be attentive and open to Jesus's call to offer your lives in the service of God and his people."

"The Church in every country," he reflected, "including this one, needs many holy priests and also persons fully consecrated to the service of Christ, Hope of the world."

Most clerical abuse not pedophilia, but homosexual abuse of adolescents

2009-09-29T09:44:00.002-05:00

Taken from the Guardian and Catholic Cultural News

Vatican official: Most clerical abuse not pedophilia, but homosexual abuse of adolescents
September 29, 2009
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, has defended Catholic efforts to remove abusers from the ranks of the clergy following an attack by Porteous Wood, international representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

“The many thousands of victims of abuse deserve the international community to hold the Vatican to account, something it has been unwilling to do, so far,” said Wood. “Both states and children's organisations must unite to pressurise the Vatican to open its files, change its procedures worldwide, and report suspected abusers to civil authorities.”

Archbishop Tomasi responded, “As the Catholic Church has been busy cleaning its own house, it would be good if other institutions and authorities, where the major part of abuses are reported, could do the same and inform the media about it.”

Archbishop Tomasi added that the majority of clerical abuse should not be characterized as pedophilia, but as ephebophilia, or homosexual attraction to adolescents. “Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17,” he said.

Benedict XVI Recommends Spiritual Direction

2009-09-17T10:36:00.003-05:00

From Zenit

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Everyone -- priests, religious, laypeople -- and especially youth, should have a spiritual director to help them in the Christian life, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this today when he reflected on Symeon the New Theologian during the general audience held in Paul VI Hall.

The Holy Father mentioned how important spiritual direction was in the life of the 11th century monk, and affirmed that the invitation to seek guidance in the spiritual life "continues to be valid for all."

The Bishop of Rome encouraged especially young people, but also priests, consecrated persons and laypeople"to take recourse to the counsels of a good spiritual father."

He mentioned that a spiritual guide should help to grow in knowledge of oneself and lead a person "to union with the Lord, so that one's life is increasingly conformed to the Gospel."

"We always need a guide, dialogue, to go to the Lord," Benedict XVI affirmed. "We cannot do it with our reflections alone. And this is also the meaning of the ecclesiality of our faith, of finding this guide."

9/11 - America, never forget

2009-09-11T11:28:00.000-05:00

Daily Mass Proposed Changes

2009-09-01T16:46:00.005-05:00

From the USCCB

Changes in PDF

Changes website

One example:
PRESENT TEXT
Greeting Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.

NEW TEXT
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.

Cardinal Says Pope Isn't "Undoing" Vatican II

2009-09-01T16:44:00.003-05:00

From Zenit
Denies Media Rumors About Reversal Documents

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's closest collaborator is denying media rumors that the Pontiff is working to gradually "undo" the changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's secretary of state, stated this in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano published Thursday.

He addressed the debate surrounding false rumors in the Italian media about supposed documents that would reverse changes in the Church since Vatican II, especially regarding the liturgy.

The cardinal asserted that in order to understand the Holy Father's intentions and actions, it is necessary to consider his personal history, one that included involvement "as a genuine protagonist" in the Conciliar Church.

These other rumors about "presumed documents of reversal are pure inventions," he stated.

The cardinal highlighted some applications of the Second Vatican Council that the Pope has "promoted constantly with intelligence and depth of thought."

In particular, he noted the Pontiff's collaboration in "the most comprehensive relationship" with the Orthodox and Eastern Churches and the dialogue with Judaism and Islam.

These have taken place with a "reciprocal attraction," Cardinal Bertone noted, and have "inspired answers and deeper reflections as never before recorded, purifying memory" and building openness.

He also underlined Benedict XVI's "direct and fraternal, as well as paternal, relationship with all the members of the episcopal college, in the 'ad limina visits' and in the other numerous occasions of contact."

The prelate recalled the Pope's engagement in the Synods of Bishops, through various interventions and reflections.

He added, "Nor should we forget the direct contact established with the heads of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia with whom he has reinstated periodic audience meetings."

True change

As regards the "reform of the Church," the cardinal affirmed "that it is above all a question of interiority and holiness."

For this reason, he said, the Pontiff concentrates on recalling "the source of the Word of God, the evangelical law and the heart of the life of the Church: Jesus, the known, loved, adored and imitated Lord."

This is the reason he is currently working on the second volume of his book "Jesus of Nazareth," the prelate explained.

The cardinal noted that the Holy Father has in his pontificate made 70 appointments of superiors in the different dicasteries, not counting bishops and nuncios in the world.

As well, the prelate affirmed, he will soon announce "important appointments," in which "the new Churches" will be represented. "Africa has already offered and will offer excellent candidates," he said.

Cardinal Bertone warned against the error of attributing to the Pope all the problems the Church is experiencing in the world and all the statements of his representatives.

He reminded journalists, "Correct information calls for attributing to each one ('unicuique suum') his own responsibility for deeds and words, especially when the latter openly contradict the teachings and examples of the Pope."

On Marriage and Virginity

2009-09-01T16:41:00.002-05:00

From Zenit

"Intimately Connected and Mutually Illuminate Each Other"

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave to crowds gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo for the praying of the midday Angelus.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

3 days ago, Aug. 27, we celebrated the liturgical memorial of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine. She is considered the model and patroness of Christian mothers. Her son furnishes us with information about her in his autobiographical book, "The Confessions," a masterpiece and among the most read books of all time. Here we see that Augustine drinks in the name of Jesus with his mother's milk, and was educated by her in the Christian religion, whose principles would remain with him even in the years when he had hit bottom spiritually and morally.

Monica never ceases to pray for him and for his conversion, and had the consolation of seeing him return to the faith and receive baptism. God heard the prayers of this saintly mother, to whom the Bishop of Tagaste had said: "It is impossible that the son of so many tears will be lost." In fact, Augustine not only converted, but decided to embrace the monastic life and, returning to Africa, found a community of monks. The last conversations between him and his mother at a house in Ostia, while he was waiting to embark for Africa, are moving and edifying.

By this time St. Monica had become for this son of hers "more than a mother, the source of his Christianity." For years her only desire had been Augustine's conversion, whom she now indeed saw oriented toward a life of consecration to the service of God. She could thus die content, and in fact she passed away on Aug. 27, 387, at 56, after having asked her children not to be too concerned about where to bury her, but to remember her at the altar of the Lord wherever they found themselves. St. Augustine repeated that his mother "gave birth to him twice."

The history of Christianity is spangled with the countless examples of saints and authentic Christian families, who accompanied the life of generous priests and pastors of the Church. One thinks of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, both from families of saints. We think -- much closer to us -- of Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini, a married couple, who lived between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th, and who were beatified by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in October of 2001, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the apostolic exhortation "Familiaris Consortio." This document, besides illustrating the value of matrimony and the tasks of the family, calls the spouses to a special commitment on the path to sanctity that, drawing grace and strength from the sacrament of marriage, accompanies them their whole life (cf. No. 56).

When the husband and wife generously dedicate themselves to the education of their children, guiding and orienting them in the discovery of God's design of life, they are preparing that fertile spiritual soil from which vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life grow and mature. In this way one sees how matrimony and virginity are intimately connected and mutually illuminate each other, beginning with their common rootedness in Christ's spousal love.

Dear brothers and sisters, in this Year for Priests, we pray that, "through the intercession of the holy Curé d'Ars, Christian families become little churches, in which all the Christian vocations and all charisms, given by the Holy Spirit, can be welcomed and valued" (from the Prayer for the Year for Priests). May the Holy Virgin, whom we now invoke together, obtain this grace for us.

[After the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted the people in several languages. In Italian, he said:]

On Tuesday, September 1, the Day for the Protection of Creation will be celebrated in Italy. It is a significant event, even of ecumenical importance, that has as its theme this year "air," an indispensable element for life. As I did in last Wednesday’s general audience, I call everyone to a greater commitment to the safeguarding of creation, gift of God. In particular, I encourage the industrialized countries to cooperate responsibly for the future of the planet, and that the poorest populations not pay the greatest price for climactic changes.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[In English, the Holy Father said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors at this Angelus including the first year seminarians from the Pontifical North American College. May your time here at Castel Gandolfo and in Rome deepen your integral understanding of our faith and strengthen in you the desire to be consistent in word and deed, following the heart and mind of our Lord. Upon each of you present and your families, I invoke God’s blessing of peace and joy!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Family and Marriage in America

2009-09-01T16:38:00.002-05:00

From Zenit

Author Sees Notable Differences From Other Countries

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, AUG. 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Family life in many countries has undergone radical changes in the last few decades. The situation in America is, however, substantially worse compared to other countries, argued Andrew J. Cherlin in a book published earlier this year.

According to the arguments in "The Marriage Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today," (Alfred A. Knopf) Americans have embraced contradictory models of personal and family life. The first involves a commitment to share one's life with another; the second emphasizes personal growth and development.

Cherlin is the Benjamin H. Griswold III professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University and has spent the last three decades analyzing family life.

Marriage as a cultural ideal is a strong force in America, he points out. In fact, there are government programs promoting marriage and the fierce debate over proposals to introduce same-sex marriage testifies to the way marriage is strongly defended by many.

Nevertheless, Cherlin comments that in no other Western country is the waiting period for a no-fault divorce so short. One study he read said that children living with two married parents in the United States have a higher risk of experiencing a family breakup than do children with two unmarried parents in Sweden.

Cherlin recalled the experience some years back of some states that introduced a "covenant marriage" option for couples getting married in a civil ceremony. In such a marriage both spouses agree to restrictions on how quickly and easily they can obtain a divorce.

No covenant

At the time, Cherlin recalled, he thought that maybe up to a third of couples would choose this option. Experience showed this to be a wild overestimate. Several years later, less than 2% had opted for a covenant marriage in Louisiana and Arkansas.

So even though the covenant marriage option was introduced in Arkansas in 2001, in 2004 it had the second-highest number of divorces per person of any state -- coming after Nevada, a notorious divorce destination for people from other states.

At the same time, in 2004, Arkansas also had the third highest per capita rate of marriage. Arkansas is part of the U.S. "Bible Belt," with above average church membership. In fact, six of the 10 states with the highest divorces rates are in the South -- the other four are in the West -- and all of them tend to be socially conservative.

Thus, while marriage is held in high esteem in America, Cherlin pointed out that the postmodern cultural trend to self-expression and personal growth is also very influential.

There are societies with strong marriage values, where few children are born outside marriage and there are low levels of cohabitation. Italy is such a case, said Cherlin. Then there are countries with a culture that places a high value on individualism, such as Sweden. Only in the United States, however, do both these cultural tendencies co-exist.

As a result, Americans value the stability and security of marriage, but they also believe that individuals who are unhappy with their marriages should be allowed to end them. "What Americans want, in other words, is for everyone else to have a covenant marriage," he concluded.

Statistics

This is reflected in the statistics on marriage in the United States, Cherlin pointed out. The percentage of people who aspire to marriage is close to 90%, higher than in other countries. Yet America has the highest divorce rate in the Western world, higher even than countries such as Sweden.

Half of all first marriages occur by age 25 in the United States, compared to 29 years-of-age in Italy, 30 in France, and 31 in Sweden. Cohabitation also commences earlier for Americans than in many European nations.

Marriages in America also break down at a higher rate. Nearly half of all American marriages end in divorce. In fact, after only 5 years more than one-fifth of Americans who married are separated or divorced. Among those who began cohabitating over half had broken up 5 years later, a substantially higher figure than in many other countries.

In the United States, 40% of children born to married or cohabitating parents experience a breakup by age fifteen. In Sweden the rate is 30%, and in other countries it is in the high or low 20s.

After their breakups, Americans are also more likely to seek a new partner. Nearly half of children who experience a breakup see the entry of another partner in the household within three years, a much higher proportion than in other countries.

Frequent marriage, frequent divorce, more short-term cohabitation, this is what creates great turbulence in American family life, according to Cherlin. What he calls "this merry-go-round" of American families is more than a statistical quirk, he continues.

The impact on children is of particular concern. Some children experience great difficulty in adjusting to a series of partners. Children whose parents have remarried do not have higher levels of well-being than children in lone-parent families, despite the addition of a second parent. This is in spite of the fact that remarrying brings with it an increase in income and an additional person to parent the children.

New stepparents disrupt the existing relationships between lone parents and their children and repeated changes of parents or partners affects a child's emotional development.

Dramatic change

Looking back over the last 50 years or so, Cherlin commented on the dramatic changes in family and marriage. In the 1950s, having children out of marriage was a shameful experience, while today it is commonplace. Living together before marriage was a rarity, but today not living together before marriage is the exception.

Marriage is still considered as something important, Cherlin admitted, but it is now seen as an option. Moreover, we have seen an unprecedented decline in marriage being considered as the only acceptable arrangement for having sexual relations and for raising children.

Cherlin points out he is not arguing for a return to some idealized 50s model of family life, nor is he against the trend to individualism. What he does conclude is that Americans need to slow down and take more time to consider their decisions about marriage and family life.

At the same time, he isn’t hopeful for any big immediate changes. Cherlin also points out that while the United States is a strongly religious nation, divorce has always long been a part of the culture and it was legal in America long before it was allowed in Europe.

The challenge, he continues, is to find a way to minimize the unwanted effects of individualism. How to this is not obvious, he concedes. Stable two-parent families provide better environments for children than do other arrangements.

The problem is that many people today see marriage in a different light, viewing it as a private relationship centered on the needs of adults for love and companionship. "This postmodern, relationship-based view of marriage has carried the day," Cherlin admits.

As a result, it is doubtful that government promotion of marriage or changes to welfare programs will be able to make a substantial impact on the structures of families.

No doubt Cherlin's urging that people slow down and take more time to make their choices when it comes to marriage is good advice. One can only wonder, however, how much difference that will make. The real solution is to change the cultural and social expectations and values that orient people's priorities. Achieving that sort of transformation of society is indeed a challenge.

The Pope’s Challenge to the Faithful

2009-08-26T14:35:00.003-05:00

From the Trumpet.com

August 26, 2009
Joel Hilliker - Columnist

“This saying is hard,” he says as he marches forward with his conservative agenda. “Will you also go away?”

Catholic priests are now encouraged to perform mass ad orientem—facing east, with their back to the people. The change, approved by the pope this past weekend, is the latest step in the Vatican’s march toward traditionalist, conservative Catholicism.

Pope Benedict xvi is leading the way, his back to the people, challenging them to keep up. Inside the church, he is continuing his decades-long campaign to expel liberals and stack the deck with conservatives. In Europe, he is working to reestablish a Catholic continent. Among non-Catholic Christians, he seeks to draw worshippers under papal authority. In the world, he is leveling a strong attack against secularism and godlessness. And to Islam, he has unmistakably shown a resistance, a toughness, that promises to grow stronger. He has repeatedly spoken out against those who would stand in his way, unafraid to offend, unafraid to turn opponents into enemies.

In March 2006, Ratzinger lashed out against European secularism—and Islam—with his book, Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam. Co-authored with the president of the Italian Senate, it addressed the “advance of Islam” and stated that Europe is now “paralyzed because it does not believe that there are good reasons to say it is better than Islam. And it is paralyzed because it believes that, if such reasons do indeed exist, then the West would have to fight Islam.”

In September, Pope Benedict traveled to his home state of Bavaria for a six-day visit where, among other things, he spoke with German President Horst Kohler about the dangers of Islamic penetration into German society. His most famous speech on that trip was a lecture at the University of Regensburg, where he quoted Catholic Byzantine Emperor Manuel ii Paleologus: “Show me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

In March 2006, Pope Benedict xvi chose to drop “patriarch of the West” from his lengthy list of official titles and became merely “Bishop of Rome, vicar of Jesus Christ, successor of the prince of the apostles, supreme pontiff of the universal church, primate of Italy, archbishop and metropolitan of the province of Rome, sovereign of Vatican City State and servant of the servants of God, his holiness Benedict xvi.” Why bother with the change? The message was not lost on the Eastern Orthodox Church. It meant the Catholic Church still sought “universal jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome over the entire church,” the Eastern Orthodox synod said, adding that it makes it so that their status as “‘sister churches’ between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox church becomes hard to use.” The non-Catholics the pope was targeting knew: He dropped “patriarch of the West” not because it gave him too much jurisdiction, but not enough.

In July 2007, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith restated the doctrines of Dominus Iesus, a document the pope—then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—had signed in 2000 to proclaim that non-Catholics were “gravely deficient” and that Protestant churches are “not churches in the proper sense.” The restatement added that Orthodox churches suffer from a “wound” because they do not accept the pope’s authority, a wound “still more profound” in Protestants. The document, approved by Pope Benedict, said that denominations outside Roman Catholicism are defective or not full churches. “Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress … it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of ‘church’ could possibly be attributed to them,” it said.

Mid-May that year, the pope traveled to Brazil to open an assembly of the Latin American bishops’ conference—not by invitation, but by personal choice. There he challenged the bishops to galvanize a continent-wide crusade against competing non-Catholic religions (“sects,” he called them), such as North-American evangelicals. Latino bishops jumped on board and began lobbying national governments for legislation to ban and obstruct non-Catholics’ operation in Latin America. The visit illuminated Benedict’s aims to re-energize Catholicism not only in Europe, but across the whole globe.

The pope has also resurrected the Tridentine Mass, a Latin-language ceremony codified in 1570. In the 1960s, the church restricted the use of the ultra-conservative Tridentine prayer book, which is peppered with references that make Jews and non-Catholics bristle (asking God to “lift the veil from [their] eyes,” and that Jews “be delivered from their darkness” and converted to Catholicism). The more inclusive, modern mass the church adopted in its place was scorned by hard-core Catholics, one of whom was a younger Joseph Ratzinger. In July of 2006, Pope Benedict reversed that restriction, reconnecting the church to its medieval past.

The offense to Jews grew worse when, in February of 2008, the pope revised the “Good Friday Prayer for the Jews” portion of the Tridentine Mass. The new version reads: “Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men.” German rabbi Walter Homolka said, “This kind of signal has an extremely provocative effect on anti-Semitic groups. The Catholic Church does not have its anti-Semitic tendencies under control.”

Conservative Roman Catholics see nothing to balk at in praying that Jews would emerge from darkness. They see no problem with labeling non-Catholics gravely deficient. Catholicism, after all, is universalism. The church can never attain its universal potential—more are coming to believe—unless it stops pretending that those outside of it have access to God.

While some take offense at the pope’s political incorrectness, an increasing number find it refreshing in a world sick with moral relativism. They appreciate his courage in turning his back to lead the congregation into a stricter, more orthodox, less accommodating future. (Read Brad Macdonald’s column from last year, “Benedict’s Strategy for Expanding Vatican Power,” for more on this trend.)

This was the message of Pope Benedict’s sermon this past Sunday. He spoke of how Jesus’s saying offended many, who responded, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?” The pope then said, “And from that moment on, many of His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him. Jesus, however, does not lessen His claim. Indeed, He directly addresses the 12 saying, ‘Will you also go away?’”

This is the pope’s challenge to the faithful. “Jesus in fact is not satisfied with a superficial and formal following,” he said. Total devotion—even in opposition to non-believers—is required.

It appears they are accepting the challenge—and that, remarkably, their numbers are swelling. It’s been said that crowds came to see Pope John Paul ii, but they come to hear Benedict xvi. Over his pontificate, Benedict has consistently attracted larger audiences to witness his weekly homilies in St. Peter’s Square than did his predecessor.

As their devotion grows, so does the indignation of the pope’s growing list of opponents. And so too does the inevitability of a violent clash—prophesied in the Bible—between the church and its fiercest enemies, which are becoming more polarized before our eyes.

Is it time to let priests marry?

2009-08-13T11:10:00.001-05:00

From Manchester Evening News.com

Paul Taylor and Simon Donohue

August 13, 2009

NO, they shouldn't marry, says Dr Robert Aston, a former medical officer for Bolton and Wigan:

"THE fact that our priests are celibate is something that the great majority of us find of tremendous value," says Dr Aston. "Our priests are fathers. They have given themselves totally to us without reservation.

"That is the essential thing - total self-giving, service, dedication and loyalty to their own people and through their own people to God."

To Dr Aston, 64, the concept of self-denial is a basic Christian principle, and "we as Christians are expected to take up the Cross and follow God, our Lord, and we do that by total self-giving according to our state in life."

But how can a priest plausibly minister to families if he never has a family of his own?

"I can understand people thinking that," says Dr Aston, of Horwich, Bolton.

"But you don't have to be in a particular position yourself to be able to advise others. That's what we expect of lawyers, doctors, all professional people. We don't expect them to be in the same condition as ourselves. In many ways, independence, impartiality and fairness can sometimes be better."

Should the rules of the church alter with the changing times?

"St Paul in the New Testament refers to celibacy as being a desirable state, so we are talking of a tradition which goes right back to the origins of Christianity," says Dr Aston.

"Should truth bend with the fashions of time? I would hope the church would not bend to passing fashions or strong public opinions or democratic process in the form of pressure groups."

Is there a discussion among Catholics as to whether the priesthood should be celibate?

"All things are discussed and have been discussed not just by modern Catholics but throughout the history of the Church. Don't just look at celibacy, look at anything within the Church," he replies.

There are, of course, some Catholic priests who do have families - priests who have come to Catholicism from an Anglican ministry, and been permitted to bring their families with them into the Catholic priesthood. Where do they stand in this argument?

"I would regard them as dedicated people who have given lifetimes of services within their own community," says Dr Aston. "I speak as a former Church of England member myself. I was brought up CofE and became Catholic in my twenties. These are people who had terrible pangs of conscience in not being able to accept the way their own church was going and have sought communion with the Catholic church. There has been a pastoral awareness within the Catholic church of the needs of these people, and an exception made, out of compassion."

YES they should marry, says the Rev Michael Gaine:

AT the age of 79 and having served for the vast majority of his life as a Catholic priest, the Rev Gaine admits that his one regret is never having had a wife and family.

"Perhaps that is something I have missed out on," he says.

"I think that I could have done my job just as well with a family."

Rev Gaine has campaigned for 20 years now on the subject of the ordination of married priests - or priests who might one day go on to become married - and says that it has been a frustrating battle for him against both senior bishops and the might of Rome itself.

He has now disbanded his campaign group, the Movement for the Ordination Of Married Priests, and says that the Roman Catholic church might be inflicting damage upon itself by failing to modernise.

"Twenty years ago, when I first started out on this campaign, it was suggested that lay people within the church simply would not accept the idea of priests who were not celibate.

"I now think that many lay people within the church wouldn't mind so much at all.

"I have written any number of articles to senior people stressing the spiritual, historical and psychological reasons why it makes sense, but to no avail."

Rev Gaine, who served as a teacher at a Catholic college in Liverpool and was a secretary to two prominent north west bishops, says that there are good practical reasons why the ordination of married priests would be good for the church today.

"The number of clergy is declining substantially," he says. "When I first became a priest, there were many, many priests and they tended to live together in a presbytery.

"That meant that there was companionship and support for priests.

"Today I fear that many priests are working alone in communities where they can be quite isolated.

"Allowing married priests would alleviate that problem of isolation and help to increase the number of people seeking ordination."

Rev Gaine says his situation is all the more frustrating given the way the Roman Catholic Church has permitted married priests who have converted from the Anglican church into the fold.

"Those people tend to work in hospitals and prisons and other institutions rather than within parishes, but they are still celebrating mass," he points out.

"It seems to suggest double standards that we have married men leading mass in some parts of the church, but we still do not allow the ordination of men who do not wish to remain celibate into the priesthood."

Obama Administration Works to Woo Catholics

2009-08-03T11:48:00.003-05:00

From US News

Hardly a week goes by without a major overture to Catholics from the administration

By Dan Gilgoff - July 31, 2009

As the director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns, Deal Hudson says his Democratic rivals made his job easier. "The Al Gore and John Kerry campaigns operated as if all Catholics were quasi dissenters from the church who liked the pope personally but didn't agree with him," says Hudson. Neither candidate, for instance, attempted to soften his pro-abortion rights position for Catholic audiences, although that stance was clearly at odds with Catholic teaching. That may help explain how Bush beat Kerry, the first Catholic presidential nominee since John F. Kennedy, among Catholic voters.

Now, as a conservative Catholic activist working against many of President Barack Obama's policies, Hudson's job is more difficult. "They've packaged Obama as someone who respects the church, its teaching, its moral authority," Hudson, who runs the website Inside Catholic, says of Obama's Catholic advisers. "They came up with this 'common ground' narrative that gives the impression that Obama shares the Catholic concern about abortion."

In the coming weeks, the White House is expected to unveil a "common ground" plan to reduce demand for abortion without placing new legal limits on it, which the administration hopes will appeal to moderate Catholics. And with a handful of advisers keeping in regular touch with Catholic leaders and organizations, the Obama White House appears to be taking Roman Catholic outreach as seriously as President Bush did. Obama has spoken about Catholicism's influence on his own life, including in a sit-down with Catholic reporters before his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this month. Despite the criticism over Obama's May appearance at the University of Notre Dame from scores of U.S. bishops, the White House continues to court the church directly. "The Obama charm offensive is working in that there are no signals from the Vatican that they want to see a culture war climate in the United States," says John Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. "Every signal is that the Vatican wants a constructive relationship with this guy."

The appointment of a prominent Catholic doctor, Regina Benjamin, to be surgeon general won praise from Catholic conservatives like Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, is poised to be the court's sixth current Catholic justice—and the only one appointed by a Democratic president. And Obama lavished praise on the pope before their meeting, saying, "The holy father is a thought leader and an opinion leader on so many wide-ranging issues."

Aides say Obama has a personal affinity for the Catholic Church. His job as a community organizer in Chicago was funded largely by the church. His rhetoric on common ground echoes the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, whom Obama befriended. "Bernardin was strongly pro-life . . . but was very consistent in talking about a seamless garment and a range of issues that were part and parcel of what he considered to be pro-life," Obama told the Catholic reporters he met with before seeing the pope. "That meant that he was concerned about poverty, he was concerned about how children were treated, he was concerned about the death penalty, he was concerned about foreign policy."

Obama had a full-time Catholic outreach director and a stable of Catholic surrogates on his presidential campaign last year. They helped him garner 54 percent of Catholic voters, a 7 percentage point improvement over Kerry. Obama doubled Kerry's support among Catholics who attend mass most often, gaining 40 percent of their votes.

Today, Obama has three aides who reach out to Catholics and who advise him on Catholic concerns. "I talk with the president about church teaching and the Catholic view on policy matters as they come up," says Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser who works on Catholic issues. For instance, McDonough helped the administration coordinate with Honduras's Catholic archbishop after the recent coup there.

Two other Catholic outreach experts have recently joined the administration: Alexia Kelley, cofounder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and John Kelly, former Catholic outreach director for the Democratic National Committee. The birth of progressive groups like Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United after the 2004 election, meanwhile, has helped the White House counter attacks from conservative Catholic interests like the Catholic League. "In the 2008 election, liberal Catholics got really organized for the first time," says Allen. "That created new vehicles for outreach."

But Catholic Obama critics like Hudson are betting that the president's abortion policies will undermine his outreach to the church and to moderate Catholics. The Democratic-controlled Congress is working to repeal the federal ban on government-funded abortions in the District of Columbia, a move the White House supports. And the administration has not ruled out funding abortion through healthcare reform. "The lipstick is about to come off," says Hudson.

Catholics close to the White House say Obama's relationships with the church will survive inevitable policy differences. But it's difficult to imagine the president's common ground plan on abortion will mean much if Obama starts funding abortion. The same may be true of his Catholic-friendly rhetoric.

Sacrament of penance 'like an oil change for the soul,' bishop says

2009-07-22T16:52:00.002-05:00

From Amercian Catholic.org via Catholic News Service

By Carmen Blanco
Catholic News Service
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNS)—Impurities in a car engine, clutter behind the couch, weeds taking over a garden -- all are metaphors for sins used by Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of Santa Rosa, Calif., in a letter to Catholics he wrote for the diocese's quarterly newsletter, North Coast Catholic.

"Every so often we have to weed our gardens," Bishop Walsh said in the letter. "If we don't, the weeds will take over and the garden disappears." The sacrament of penance, he said, "is like periodically checking the garden of our souls for weeds that hamper our discipleship.

There has been a decline in participation in the sacrament since the Second Vatican Council but whatever the reasons for its decline, Bishop Walsh said, "I think in our permissive society we have lost the sense of sin."

The objective of his letter was to encourage and invite everyone to return to going to confession regularly.

Comparing souls to cars, the bishop indicated the importance of maintenance.

Every so often, drivers service their vehicles with an oil change to prevent a buildup in the engine. "There may not be any major problem with our engine," said the bishop. "But slowly, over time, minor impurities have been building up. If we leave those impurities unattended, they will eventually result in major and costly problems for our car."

The church says mortal sins and repeated venial sins that go unrepented damage a relationship with God, and it is through reconciliation that sinners rid their soul of these impurities and restore and renew their relationship with God.

Pope Benedict XVI's 2008 homily at the Nationals baseball stadium in Washington called for conversion and the forgiveness of sins during the Easter season. In the homily, which the bishop referred to in his letter, the pope reminded those present that "the church was born of the Spirit's gift of repentance and faith in the risen Lord."

The pope noted "the liberating power of this sacrament, in which our honest confession of sin is met by God's merciful words of pardon and peace, needs to be rediscovered and re-appropriated by every Catholic."

Likewise, Bishop Walsh, in his letter, called for priests and laypeople to overcome their discomfort and participate in the sacrament even if they haven't been to confession in a long time or have forgotten how to go.

"When we have unburdened our hearts, we will hear him (Jesus) speak again," Bishop Walsh said.

Bible Reading Is for Catholics

2009-07-21T09:57:00.002-05:00

From Zenit.org

Bishops' Aide Shares 10 Points for Scripture Study

WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- For fruitful reading of God's Word, prayer should be the beginning and the end, says a U.S. bishops' conference aide who works to promote sacred Scripture.
Mary Elizabeth Sperry, associate director for Utilization of the New American Bible, affirmed this in her "10 points for fruitful Scripture reading," offered to the public on the conference's Web page.

"Bible reading is for Catholics," she stated. "Reading these inspired words, people grow deeper in their relationship with God and come to understand their place in the community."

Reading the Bible is "not like reading a novel or a history book," Sperry continued.

It should "begin with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds to the Word of God," she explained, and "end with a prayer that this Word will bear fruit in our lives."

Sperry asserted that it is important to "know what the Bible is -- and what it isn't."

"It is not intended to be read as history text, a science book, or a political manifesto," she added. Rather, it is God's teaching of the "truths that we need for the sake of our salvation."

Sperry encouraged readers to remember the context of Scripture passages, to look at various books of the Bible, and relate the Old and New Testaments.

"Together," she said, "these testaments help us to understand God's plan for human beings."

Then, the director said, each person should ask, "What is God saying to me?"

"We need to meditate on the message and put it into action in our lives," she affirmed, so that it becomes "living and effective."

--- --- ---

On the Net:

Ten points

Seventh Grader Sues after Forced by School to Remove Pro-Life T-Shirt

2009-07-16T12:54:00.002-05:00

Taken from LifeSiteNews.com

By Kathleen Gilbert

MERCED, California, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The mother of a seventh grade girl has sued administrators at her daughter's school after school officials allegedly forced the girl to remove her pro-life t-shirt.

Anna Amdor filed the lawsuit last week on behalf of her daughter over the 2008 incident at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, California. Amdor says that Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez violated her daughter's First Amendment rights by mistreating the girl and instructing her to remove the American Life League (ALL) shirt.

The shirt in question depicted images of a fetus growing followed by a blank box, with the words "Abortion: growing... growing... gone."

"Before Plaintiff could eat [breakfast] she was ordered by a school staff member to throw her food out and report immediately to Defendant Smith's office, located in the main office of McSwain Elementary School," states the complaint, as reported by FOX News.

"Upon arriving at the main office, Defendant Hernandez, intentionally and without Plaintiff's consent, grabbed Plaintiff's arm and forcibly escorted her toward Smith's office, at all times maintaining a vice-like grip on Plaintiff's arm. Hernandez only released Plaintiff's arm after physically locating her in front of Smith and Defendant Rohrer...

"Smith and Rohrer ordered Plaintiff to remove her pro-life T-shirt and instructed Plaintiff to never wear her pro-life T-shirt at McSwain Elementary School ever again. ... Completely humiliated and held out for ridicule, Plaintiff complied with Defendants' directives and removed her pro-life T-shirt, whereupon, Defendants seized and confiscated it. Defendants did not return Plaintiff's property until the end of the school day."

The schools' attorney told FOX News that the defendants dispute some of the allegations, and claimed that the complaint "does not properly characterize the events that happened." A U.S. Eastern District Court judge in June denied the school's motion to dismiss the case based on "failure to state a cognizable claim."

Amador says school officials ordered the girl to remove the shirt as "inappropriate subject matter," citing the school's dress code which bans clothing that bears "suggestion of tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter." However, the complaint states that other expressive shirts have not been banned, and that the school's action was "based upon subjective determinations as to which messages are acceptable and which messages are not."

A sixth-grade Michigan boy, chastised for wearing the same ALL shirt and other pro-life shirts, was vindicated in federal court in 2008.

Thomas More Law Center attorneys say officials provoked by the shirts at the Hutchinson Middle School singled out the boy for ridicule, removed him from class, threatened him with suspension and forced him to turn his shirt inside out. A federal judge in Minnesota signed a Stipulated Permanent Injunction prohibiting the school from banning the shirts, and the school agreed to pay nominal damages.

In 2006, a New York district court agreed in a similar case that prohibiting a high school student from wearing a pro-life shirt constituted a violation of First Amendment rights.

To contact Mcswain Elementary School:

Terrie Rohrer, Principal
926 North Scott Rd.
Merced, CA 95340
(209) 354-2700 x624
trohrer@mcswain.k12.ca.us

Will Pope Benedict's encyclical take root? Only time will tell

2009-07-13T12:51:00.003-05:00

Now that Pope Benedict XVI's long-awaited social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), has been released, a key question arises: Will the pope's call to reform economic and social systems so they encompass broader moral values while focusing on human development be taken seriously by the world's decision-makers?

By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service
Monday, July 13, 2009
WASHINGTON (CNS)—Now that Pope Benedict XVI's long-awaited social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), has been released, a key question arises: Will the pope's call to reform economic and social systems so they encompass broader moral values while focusing on human development be taken seriously by the world's decision-makers?

It just may happen, said several Catholic business leaders, social justice advocates and those involved with developing social policy.

Certainly, they concluded, there is no better time than the present—as the world struggles to overcome its deepest economic recession in nearly 80 years—to give ethical concerns greater consideration in policy decisions.

"This (the encyclical) is a message people are open to," said John Carr, executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The idea that business as usual, that economics as usual, that economics divorced from ethics is the way forward has taken a huge hit.

"I think almost everybody understands that what we have here is not only an economic failure but a moral failure," Carr added.

Carr's analysis is one shared across a broad cross section of American political, academic and justice networks that have conducted countless studies into how the crisis developed. Segments of the business community, particularly the financial sector, might agree, but their observations have been guarded.

Overall, however, not many professionals will admit that their actions led to the massive financial failures in what author Chuck Collins described to Catholic News Service as "a bubble economy based on casino capitalism."

"We've moved to an extreme," explained Collins, a Catholic, who co-wrote The Moral Measure of the Economy, published in 2007 by Orbis Books. "You have a value of regard for life over a focus on consumption and material happiness," he said. "We've reached this kind of zenith of a value imbalance."

Collins said he expects that Pope Benedict's message, based on common values that people around the world hold, will lead to new regulations on business practices to prevent recent abuses in the financial markets from occurring again.

"Most people are hungry to live in a society that places values above individual greed and want to live in communities where human life and opportunity flourish," he said.

Catholic business owner Umberto P. Fedeli, president and CEO of the Fedeli Group, one of Ohio's largest insurance brokerage firms, was more outspoken in his comments. He said the business world can learn much from the recession that started in December 2007.

"If we treated people like we were our brother's keeper and we were more men and women for others, then we would have probably avoided a big part of this economic crisis, which has been an unfortunate moral crisis," Fedeli told CNS from his office in suburban Cleveland.

"I do business the way I want to be treated," said Fedeli, a lifelong Catholic. "You treat your associates like they're an extension of your family. You treat your customers and clients like they're your best friends. You treat your business partners and associates as a member of your extended family.

"If you do this, you wouldn't have to compromise."

Steve Hayes, senior partner and founder of the Human Capital Group Inc., a Nashville, Tenn., executive placement and leadership consulting firm, went a step further, saying that business leaders would do well to adopt Christ's example of being a servant leader.

"As a business leader, it's such a paradox because we're wired to put ourselves first and others second," he explained. "But Christ modeled that that's not the successful path.

"Until we as individuals and as leaders of families and employees and leaders of businesses really get what Christ is teaching us, I think we're always going to have the issues the pope's talking about," Hayes said.

Hayes' 9-year-old company has worked to uphold the strictest ethical standards. His firm has expanded to four other cities in Florida, Georgia and Ohio and had revenues of $2.3 million in 2008, placing it among the top 25 percent of executive placement firms in the country. He attributed his success to adhering to ethical business principles and to following the "paradox of the cross."

"That's what the pope is trying to challenge us to be, to not be me-centered, but to be other-centered," he said.

While Hayes and Fedeli have found success running their companies based on strong ethical practices, Carr acknowledged that the moral framework for a just society offered by Pope Benedict in "Charity in Truth" will not be easy to implement.

But that does not mean people should ever stop trying. Just ask Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, which for 38 years has promoted legislation and policies in Congress to ensure a more equitable world.

"(The encyclical) is not a call to religious conversion," Sister Simone, a Sister of Social Service, told CNS. "It's a call to economic reality.... It's a very pragmatic, eyes-wide-open approach that gives it greater resonance in the public forum."

In the real world, the pope's call to action can lead to needed steps that most people can agree upon, said author Collins, who also directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. He called for new measures to gauge human progress, much like the Dow Jones industrial average measures the ups and downs of the economy.

"We have to have indicators that actually measure the flourishing of human life and this should be as important as the Dow Jones," he said.

People of faith, led by the hope that God promises, can lead the way in such reforms, the USCCB's Carr said.

"The crisis has created a moment that could lead to conversion," he said. "And we're in the conversion business. We're in the persuasion business.

"It is a countercultural message. And guess what? The culture we got isn't working, so maybe we're onto something."

Charity in Truth is Pope Benedict's third encyclical
Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), released July 7, is his third encyclical since the beginning of his pontificate in April 2005.

The previous encyclicals have been:
- Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), Jan. 25, 2006.
- Spe Salvi (On Christian hope), Nov. 30, 2007.
- Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), July 13, 2008.

DIGNITAS PERSONAE

2009-07-10T16:43:00.003-05:00

Dignitas Personae is the title of a 2008 instruction by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith giving doctrinal directives on certain embryonic ethical controversies that had emerged since 1987, after Donum Vitae was released.

The document takes a critical stance against selective reduction, prenatal diagnosis, preimplantation diagnosis, in vitro fertilization, cryopreservation‎, parahumans, embryo transfer, genetic engineering, embryo donation , which have been criticized as unethical by pro-life ethicists because they provoke the termination of embryonic cell reproduction.

The doctrinal material is not only addressed to Catholic couples, but also to pharmacists, doctors, ethicists, theologians, politicians and industrialists so that they may try and tackle these issues together. Other related documents, such as Humanae Vitae, were also written for a wide variedy of individuals and specialists on the matter.

Dignitas Personae also reiterates Church opposition to contraception and abortion, mentioning new methods of birth control such as female condoms and the morning-after pill.

DIGNITAS PERSONAE

DIGNITAS PERSONAE (PDF)

Vatican Summary of the Instruction of DIGNITAS PERSONAE

DIGNITAS PERSONAE Q&A

"Child Rights" Forces Mobilize

2009-06-23T14:16:00.002-05:00

From ParentalRights.org

Dear Supporter of Parental Rights,

Three major developments—all of them ominous—have occurred in the last several days.

1. On June 1 and 2, Georgetown University Law School hosted a two-day symposium entitled “The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Why It Is Time to Ratify.”

This well-funded conference was held to organize a new coalition effort by American internationalists to seek ratification of the UN child’s rights treaty.

2. In the second week of June, a major study was released by the British education ministry calling for dramatically dangerous increases in the regulation of homeschoolers in that nation.

This study concludes that the UN CRC requires that the government enter every homeschooling home and privately interview each homeschooling child to determine “the child’s wishes” regarding his or her education.

3. On June 17, at the UN headquarters in Geneva, the UN’s Human Rights Committee—which oversees all human rights treaties—announced that it was forming a committee to draft a new “protocol” for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Under this new addition to the CRC, individual children would be able to file a formal legal complaint if they believe that their rights had been violated. It would give this new international tribunal the right to determine if the child’s treaty rights had been violated by any person.

The internationalists believe that this is their moment in history.

They have millions of dollars in their coffers. They have the support of the media. They have the powers of government. They have the entire apparatus of the United Nations.

We have some assets as well.

Our arguments resonate with the American people—the vast majority of Americans believe that Americans should make our own domestic laws and that parents, not government, should make decisions for children.

Leaders at the Georgetown conference publicly admitted that logic and facts will not defeat our arguments. What do they plan to do?

They plan to use emotional arguments. They said so in open public sessions.

At the Georgetown conference, the UN officials and other foreign experts were constantly censored by their American handlers. Why? Because these foreign experts acknowledge that this treaty would be supreme over American law.

The American child’s rights propaganda machine denies that we would forfeit American sovereignty—even though they do not have the legal arguments to back their rhetoric. They did everything they could to silence their guest speakers when they strayed from the sanitized version of their message.

We are in a race. It is a race for the future of the American family and American self-government.

The question is: Will the lies of the internationalists be heard by more Americans than the truth of those who believe in families?

I wish that I could look each person reading this right in the eyes. It is incredibly difficult for written words to explain how serious this situation really is.

The real battle is being fought right now. Our opponents are preparing for a vote in the Senate sometime ahead—as soon as they feel they have laid the groundwork for victory.

Because the internationalists possess the reins of government, have millions of dollars at their disposal, and have powerful allies in the mainstream media, they can build momentum much faster than we are able to do.

We have to get our message out to others and we have to do it today.

I have been leading grassroots political efforts for over thirty years. Without any fear of contradiction, I can tell you that we are going to win or lose the battle over the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the next few months. The key to victory lies in the stage of preparation.

Will we have adequate preparation to win?

The annual budget of Parentalrights.org is less than $500,000. They have millions and millions of dollars at their disposal.

We must raise money right now to employ professionals who can help us get our message out in the media.

We must also raise money right now to employ experienced people to work the halls of Capitol Hill on our behalf.

I cannot do these things alone. We have to have a quality team if we expect to stop the combined power of Geneva, New York, and Washington.

This is the time to decide whether you are willing to take meaningful action.

There are just two tangible things I would ask you to do.

1. Give a gift of $10 or more right now to parentalright.org (PRO). Membership in PRO is just $25 a year. Sustaining membership is just $100. We have to raise a substantial amount of cash or we simply cannot keep up.

2. Please recruit at least three other people to sign up for our online email alerts. We have over 100,000 people who are a part of this team. We need to get to 4,000,000 supporters before the battle starts. We have to dramatically pick-up the pace of recruiting people if we are going to have any hope of beating the other side in the greatest grassroots battle in American history. We need to be doubling our numbers every couple months to get our team in place.

You are the best recruiters we have. Please pick up your phone right now and call a friend and tell them that they need to read the email you are about to send them and that you really need them to become part of the team. This kind of personal attention will work.

In less than two years, American social workers may be in a position to inform all our children that if they have any conflict with their parents over any decisions at all then they can file a formal complaint in an American court to vindicate their international rights. And ultimately, once this new protocol is in place, if they don’t like the outcome from the American courts, there will be a new UN tribunal to hear their complaint.

Moms and dads, we have to get ready. The battle for American liberty is about to begin.

Michael Farris

Amercians swap early and often

2009-06-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

From the Pew Forum and The Examiner

By: ERIC GORSKI
Associated Press
06/20/09

The U.S. is a nation of religious drifters, with about half of adults restlessly switching faith affiliation at least once during their lives, a new survey has found.

And the reasons behind all the swapping depend greatly on whether one grows up kneeling at Roman Catholic Mass, praying in a Protestant pew or occupied with nonreligious pursuits, according to a report issued Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

While Catholics are more likely to leave the church because they stopped believing its teachings, many Protestants are driven to trade one Protestant denomination or affiliation for another because of changed life circumstances, the survey found.

The ranks of those unaffiliated with any religion, meanwhile, are growing not so much because of a lack of religious belief but because of disenchantment with religious leaders and institutions.

The report estimates that between 47 percent and 59 percent of U.S. adults have changed affiliation at least once. Most described just gradually drifting away from their childhood faith.

"This shows a sort of religion a la carte and how pervasive it is," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion. "In some ways, it's an indictment of organized Christianity. It suggests there's a big open door for newcomers, but a wide back door where people are leaving."

The report, "Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.," sought to answer questions about widespread religion-changing identified in a 2007 Pew survey of 35,000 Americans.

The new report, based on re-interviews with more than 2,800 people from the original survey, focuses on religious populations that showed a lot of movement: ex-Catholics, ex-Protestants, Protestants who've swapped denominational families within Protestantism and people raised unaffiliated who now belong to a faith.

The 2007 survey estimated that 44 percent of U.S. adults had left their childhood religious affiliation.

But the re-interviews found the extent of religion-swapping is likely much greater. The new survey revealed that one in six Americans who belong to their childhood faith are "reverts" — people who left the faith, only to return later.

Roughly two-thirds of those raised Catholic or Protestant who now claim no religious affiliation say they have changed faiths at least twice. Thirty-two percent of unaffiliated ex-Protestants said they've changed three times or more.

Age is another factor. Most people who left their childhood faith did so before turning 24, and a majority joined their current religion before 36.

"If people want to see a truly free market at work, they really should look at the U.S. religious marketplace," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Sixteen percent of U.S. adults identified as unaffiliated in the 2007 survey; 7 percent of Americans described being raised unaffiliated, suggesting that many Americans end up leaving their religion for none.

About half of those who have become unaffiliated cited a belief that religious people are hypocritical, judgmental or insincere. Large numbers said they think religious organizations focus too much on rules, or that religious leaders are too focused on money and power.

John Green, a University of Akron political scientist and a senior fellow with the Pew Forum, classified most unaffiliated as "dissatisfied consumers." Only 4 percent identify as atheist or agnostic, and one-third say they just haven't found the right religion.

"A lot of the unaffiliated seem to be OK with religion in the abstract," Green said. "It's just the religion they were involved in bothered them or they disagreed with it."

The unaffiliated category is not just a destination. It's also a departure point: a slight majority of those raised unaffiliated eventually join a faith tradition.

Those who do cite several reasons: attraction of religious services and worship (74 percent), feeling unfulfilled spiritually (51 percent) or feeling called by God (55 percent).

The survey found that Catholicism has suffered the greatest net loss in all the religion switching. Nearly six in ten former Catholics who are now unaffiliated say they left Catholicism due to dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings on abortion and homosexuality. About half cited concerns about Catholic teachings on birth control and roughly four in ten named unhappiness with Catholicism's treatment of women.

Converts to evangelicalism were more likely to cite their belief that Catholicism didn't take the Bible literally enough, while mainline Protestants focused more on the treatment of women.

Fewer than three in 10 former Catholics cited the clergy sexual abuse scandal as a factor — a finding that Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl cited as an example of the faith's resilience.

"Catholics can separate the sins and human failings of individuals from the substance of the faith," Wuerl said in a statement.

Wuerl noted a finding that getting teenagers to weekly Mass greatly improves their chances of staying in the fold; the same holds true for Protestant teens attending services.

The survey found that 15 percent of Americans were raised as Protestants but now belong to a different Protestant tradition than their upbringing. Nearly four in 10 cited a move to a new community, while one-third said they married someone from a different background.

_____

On the Net: http://www.pewforum.org

Bioethics and the Myth of Relativism

2009-06-18T12:57:00.002-05:00

From Zenit

Interview with Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk

By Giovanni Patriarca

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, JUNE 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A neuroscientist and ethicist is underlining the need to base bioethics in moral principles, and is affirming that even people who profess relativism count on certain absolutes in life.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk is the director of education at the Philadelphia-based National Catholic Bioethics Center. He writes a monthly column for The Catholic Herald titled "Making Sense out of Bioethics."

In this interview with ZENIT, he discusses some of the need to base bioethics in absolute moral principles in light of recent events related to his field.

ZENIT: In recent years bioethics seems to have become a battleground where many interest groups try to impose their political views separated from any consideration of the field's moral foundations. The 2005 U.N. Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights could be considered a starting point, but it leaves some questions unanswered. Where is bioethics going in such a globalised world?

Father Pacholczyk: The declaration is, in my opinion, sufficiently vague as to be largely unhelpful when it comes to addressing challenging bioethical discussions and approaching serious moments of decision making.

The final line of the declaration speaks of how no one should be allowed to "engage in any activity or to perform any act contrary to human rights, fundamental freedoms and human dignity," but it does not specify any of these broad ideas in an applied or meaningful way.

In my own work, when it comes to fundamental human rights, perhaps the most obvious instance would be the fundamental rights of the human embryo, the youngest member of our human family.

Yet the word "embryo" is not ever mentioned in the declaration. I worry that much of our modern bioethical discourse simply "talks around" the key issues.

ZENIT: Recently in the United States, human embryonic stem cell research has been promoted by new federal funding, and the media reports that this has divided the public. What is the position of the Catholic Church in such a delicate moment?

Father Pacholczyk: The Catholic Church in this delicate moment, as in every moment, expounds and authoritatively teaches the natural law.

The moral truth about human embryonic stem cell research can be known by the light of natural reason.

The issue is a matter of basic human rights. I sometimes remind people that each of us is merely an embryo who grew up.

Once we grasp this basic biological fact correctly, and once we see the truth of the proposition that all are created equal, that all deserve equal protection under the law, human embryonic stem cell research, insofar as it requires the destruction of embryos, can be seen for what it is: an action that is always and everywhere immoral.

ZENIT: Can the field of bioethics survive without moral absolutes or does it face the possibility of remaining persistently adrift?

Father Pacholczyk: Moral absolutes form the bedrock of society and are a sine qua non for its just ordering.

Moral absolutes also stand at the root of all sound bioethics. The proclamation that "there are no moral absolutes by which we are bound" is itself an absolutist moral statement.

Interestingly, nobody really believes in moral relativism today anyway; they simply believe that when it comes to absolute morality, they themselves must be the arbiters of what is moral and what is not.

I have never met anyone who didn't insist on moral absolutes of some kind. Even those of the most liberal-minded, relativist stripe will, when pushed, insist that certain actions are absolutely wrong, whether it is polluting and causing global warming, killing polar bears, or threatening the South American rainforests.

When it comes to killing young humans in the womb, these same liberal-minded individuals will paradoxically insist that everybody should be free to choose to do whatever they want, although such radical freedom of choice will be summarily denied by them to anyone who might wish to take the lives of pandas or dolphins.

In other words, they exercise a selective absolutism, where they are the ones to decide, often based on unexamined sentiment, those matters that are to be held as absolutely wrong. Their own myopic version of the truth, which is really only a partial and incomplete image of it, becomes a kind of central focus and obsession for them.

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On the Net:

National Catholic Bioethics Center

Farewell to the Rapture

2009-06-16T11:22:00.002-05:00

An article written in 2001 by N.T. Wright

Little did Paul know how his colorful metaphors for Jesus’ second coming would be misunderstood two millennia later.

The American obsession with the second coming of Jesus — especially with distorted interpretations of it — continues unabated. Seen from my side of the Atlantic, the phenomenal success of the Left Behind books appears puzzling, even bizarre[1]. Few in the U.K. hold the belief on which the popular series of novels is based: that there will be a literal “rapture” in which believers will be snatched up to heaven, leaving empty cars crashing on freeways and kids coming home from school only to find that their parents have been taken to be with Jesus while they have been “left behind.” This pseudo-theological version of Home Alone has reportedly frightened many children into some kind of (distorted) faith.

This dramatic end-time scenario is based (wrongly, as we shall see) on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he writes: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first; then we, who are left alive, will be snatched up with them on clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

What on earth (or in heaven) did Paul mean?

It is Paul who should be credited with creating this scenario. Jesus himself, as I have argued in various books, never predicted such an event[2]. The gospel passages about “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (Mark 13:26, 14:62, for example) are about Jesus’ vindication, his “coming” to heaven from earth. The parables about a returning king or master (for example, Luke 19:11-27) were originally about God returning to Jerusalem, not about Jesus returning to earth. This, Jesus seemed to believe, was an event within space-time history, not one that would end it forever.

The Ascension of Jesus and the Second Coming are nevertheless vital Christian doctrines[3], and I don’t deny that I believe some future event will result in the personal presence of Jesus within God’s new creation. This is taught throughout the New Testament outside the Gospels. But this event won’t in any way resemble the Left Behind account. Understanding what will happen requires a far more sophisticated cosmology than the one in which “heaven” is somewhere up there in our universe, rather than in a different dimension, a different space-time, altogether.

The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2).

Paul’s description of Jesus’ reappearance in 1 Thessalonians 4 is a brightly colored version of what he says in two other passages, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 and Philippians 3:20-21: At Jesus’ “coming” or “appearing,” those who are still alive will be “changed” or “transformed” so that their mortal bodies will become incorruptible, deathless. This is all that Paul intends to say in Thessalonians, but here he borrows imagery—from biblical and political sources—to enhance his message. Little did he know how his rich metaphors would be misunderstood two millennia later.

First, Paul echoes the story of Moses coming down the mountain with the Torah. The trumpet sounds, a loud voice is heard, and after a long wait Moses comes to see what’s been going on in his absence.

Second, he echoes Daniel 7, in which “the people of the saints of the Most High” (that is, the “one like a son of man”) are vindicated over their pagan enemy by being raised up to sit with God in glory. This metaphor, applied to Jesus in the Gospels, is now applied to Christians who are suffering persecution.

Third, Paul conjures up images of an emperor visiting a colony or province. The citizens go out to meet him in open country and then escort him into the city. Paul’s image of the people “meeting the Lord in the air” should be read with the assumption that the people will immediately turn around and lead the Lord back to the newly remade world.

Paul’s mixed metaphors of trumpets blowing and the living being snatched into heaven to meet the Lord are not to be understood as literal truth, as the Left Behind series suggests, but as a vivid and biblically allusive description of the great transformation of the present world of which he speaks elsewhere.

Paul’s misunderstood metaphors present a challenge for us: How can we reuse biblical imagery, including Paul’s, so as to clarify the truth, not distort it? And how can we do so, as he did, in such a way as to subvert the political imagery of the dominant and dehumanizing empires of our world? We might begin by asking, What view of the world is sustained, even legitimized, by the Left Behind ideology? How might it be confronted and subverted by genuinely biblical thinking? For a start, is not the Left Behind mentality in thrall to a dualistic view of reality that allows people to pollute God’s world on the grounds that it’s all going to be destroyed soon? Wouldn’t this be overturned if we recaptured Paul’s wholistic vision of God’s whole creation?

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[1] Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Cambridge, UK: Tyndale House Publishing, 1996). Eight other titles have followed, all runaway bestsellers.

[2] See my Jesus and the Victory of God (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1996); the discussions in Jesus and the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N.T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, ed. Carey C. Newman (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999); and Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), chapters 13 and 14.

[3] Douglas Farrow, Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).

Beware the "New Compassion"

2009-06-15T16:50:00.002-05:00

From Catholic Online

By Jennifer Hartline
6/12/2009

The new 'compassion' says that we must include and accept everyone, regardless of opinions, lifestyles, beliefs, actions or choices.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - I sense a growing weariness among Christians in the fierce cultural battles currently being waged, such as abortion and gay “marriage.” Does it seem like life would be so much easier if we stopped making a big deal about things and just let people do what they wanted? Live and let live, right? Isn’t that the compassionate attitude?

The accusation goes like this: if you dare to call something wrong or immoral, or if you insist that some things are inherently good and others are inherently evil and therefore should not be allowed, then you are being exclusive and insensitive, judgmental and without compassion. If you have the temerity to actually call something a sin, well, that’s the new capital offense.

With regard to the most serious moral and social issues of our day, those with an anti-Christian agenda are trying to redefine compassion -- they equate compassion with tolerance and acceptance, and it just ain’t so.

Beware the new “compassion.”

The new “compassion” says that we must include and accept everyone, regardless of their opinions or lifestyles, actions, beliefs or choices. We should simply agree to disagree, and stop being so critical. After all, doesn’t Jesus welcome everyone with open arms?

It sounds good. It sounds kind and sympathetic. It sounds loving, even. It sounds pretty convincing. But I’m not convinced.

Yes, Jesus surely did stretch His arms open wide and die for the salvation of all mankind, and absolutely no one was excluded from that sacrifice. It is for everyone who accepts it. Accepting the sacrifice means we accept the reason it was necessary in the first place: sin.

Sin is a big deal! It’s deadly, serious stuff. So deadly that only God Himself could save us from it. Let’s not forget, though, that we are still accountable for the part we can do – we have to turn our backs on sin. We are supposed to “go and sin no more.” In a word, we have to repent. God calls us to repentance, as proof of His great compassion.

Imagine how hopeless we would all be if God had merely been sympathetic toward us instead of compassionate? We would still be lost if He had been tolerant and accepting. What if He had left us to be doomed to our eternal death without any hope? After all, the screw-up was ours. He was under no obligation to rescue us from our disobedience and pride. Yet, He is a loving Father, and His children were being devoured by the beast we shook hands with.

He could not simply look on us with a sad sigh, accepting our sinfulness with tolerance. God is unchanging; holy and perfect. Sin can never stand in His presence, and He loves us far too much to ever tolerate anything that would keep us from Him.

I am unutterably grateful that God is not tolerating and accepting! This is what makes our Father so amazing! Sin was killing us, and watering it down wasn’t the answer. God dealt with sin not by making allowances for it, or making excuses for us. He didn’t lower His standards or adjust His expectations one iota. In His perfect justice He showed us compassion, and He met His own demands on our behalf.

Christ died to set us all free from sin, but we will not be free if we remain slaves to it. “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:16-18

Our freedom comes through repentance. That’s the point – we can’t stay where we are, making allowances, making excuses for ourselves and others, trying to be tolerant. That’s not compassion. It’s a death sentence.

This new “compassion” is a cunning trick that says each of us can decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, but don’t be fooled. It is a lie from the pit of hell because it deceives us into tolerating sin and calling evil good. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20

We’re not doing anyone any favors by denying or “fudging” the reality of sin. God tells us quite specifically that certain things are sinful, whether we like it or not. And that’s precisely the problem – a lot of people don’t like it.

The modern motto is that people should be able to live as they please without moral “imposition” from anyone else. I even hear Catholics saying the Church has no right to impose its beliefs or morality on anyone else. I strongly disagree – with the premise and the wording. The Church has every right, and more importantly, every obligation, to tell mankind of the danger of sin and the deadly consequences of indulging in it. That’s not “imposing morality.” It is the greatest demonstration of compassion.

God desires that not one of His children be lost for eternity, and His people are charged with the mission of telling the world that each of us has a choice to make. “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live…” Deut 30: 19

We must be motivated by the same love and compassion that compelled Christ to die for us. We cannot be afraid to call sin what it is. We will be scorned and called every name in the book for insisting that some things are wrong and sinful. We’ll be labeled judgmental, self-righteous and hateful. But consider this: do you leave your door unlocked and welcome the criminal who would rob your house and maybe even kill you? Satan is just such a thief. He comes to kill and destroy our souls and sin is his weapon. How, then, is it compassionate to welcome and tolerate the sin that threatens to kill?

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Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

Benedict Calls on Laity to Recognize Pastoral Responsibility

2009-05-29T15:01:00.002-05:00

From Zenit

Benedict XVI: Church Needs Change of Mentality

ROME, MAY 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Laypeople are not merely the clergy's collaborators, but rather share in the responsibility of the Church's ministry, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope called on the laity to become more aware of their role when he inaugurated Tuesday an ecclesial conference for the Diocese of Rome on "Church Membership and Pastoral Co-responsibility." The conference is under way through Friday.

"There should be a renewed becoming aware of our being Church and of the pastoral co-responsibility that, in the name of Christ, all of us are called to carry out," the Holy Father said. This co-responsibility should advance "respect for vocations and for the functions of consecrated persons and laypeople," he added.

The Pontiff acknowledged that this requires a "change of mentality," especially regarding laypeople, shifting from "considering themselves collaborators of the clergy to recognizing themselves truly as 'co-responsible' for the being and action of the Church, favoring the consolidation of a mature and committed laity."

The Bishop of Rome suggested that "there is still a tendency to unilaterally identify the Church with the hierarchy, forgetting the common responsibility, the common mission" of all the baptized.

"Up to what point is the pastoral responsibility of everyone, especially the laity, recognized and encouraged," he asked.

Referring to laypeople committed in the service of the Church, the Pope said there should not be "a lessening of the awareness that they are 'Church,' because Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, convokes them and makes them his People."

Benedict XVI thus asked priests to transmit to laypeople a "sense of belonging to the parish community" and the importance of unity. He further encouraged that laypeople draw close to sacred Scripture, through means such as lectio divina, and carry out missionary activity, in first place through living out charity.

The Holy Father contended that preparations for the Jubilee Year 2000 in Rome helped "the ecclesial community to enhance awareness that the command to evangelize is not just for a few, but for all the baptized."

That's how the Church has lived for generations, he added, while "so many baptized" have "dedicated their lives to educating young generations in the faith, to care for the sick and to help the poor."

"This mission is entrusted to us today, in different situations, in a city in which many baptized have lost the way of the Church and those who are not Christians do not know the beauty of our faith," the Pope stated.

On the other hand, he cautioned against a tendency to see the People of God from a "purely sociological" point of view "with an almost exclusively horizontal perspective that excludes the vertical reference to God."

The Pontiff looked at the distinction between "People of God" and "Body of Christ," affirming that both concepts "are complementary and together form the New Testament concept of the Church."

He explained: "While 'People of God' expresses the continuity of the history of the Church, 'Body of Christ' expresses the universality inaugurated on the cross and with the resurrection of the Lord."

"In Christ, we become really the People of God," which, he affirmed, means everyone, "from the Pope to the last child."

"The Church, therefore, is not the result of a sum of individuals, but a unity among those who are nourished by the Word of God and the Bread of Life," the Pontiff noted.

And the Church "grows and develops," he affirmed. "The future of Christianity and the Church of Rome is also the commitment and the testimony of each one of us."

See also APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM: DECREE ON THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY

Just the beginning?

2009-05-28T15:26:00.001-05:00

From Fox News

Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.

"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.

"We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said.

A few days later, the couple received a written warning that cited "unlawful use of land," ordering them to either "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit," the couple's attorney Dean Broyles told San Diego news station 10News.

But the major use permit could cost the Jones' thousands of dollars just to have a few friends over.

For David and Mary Jones, it's about more than a question of money.

"The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion," Broyles told FOX News. "I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their grave if they saw that here in the year 2009, a pastor and his wife are being told that they cannot hold a simple bible study in their own home."

"The implications are great because it’s not only us that’s involved," Mary Jones said. "There are thousands and thousands of bible studies that are held all across the country. What we’re interested in is setting a precedent here — before it goes any further — and that we have it settled for the future."

The couple is planning to dispute the county's order this week.

If San Diego County refuses to allow the pastor and his wife to continue gathering without acquiring a permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

Relations Warms Between Russian Orthodox Church and Vatican

2009-05-28T13:15:00.002-05:00

From the NY Times

By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
Published: May 22, 2009

MOSCOW — Festivities in Rome this weekend for the dedication of an Orthodox church on the grounds of the Russian Embassy near the Vatican attest to a surprising but marked warming of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican in recent months, according to church officials and analysts.

If trends hold true, they add, a meeting of the pope and the patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Russia may be close. Whether even that could begin to overcome the centuries-old hatred surrounding the two churches’ conflicting authority over Christians is another question.

To mark the dedication Sunday of the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr, Orthodox clergy will conduct a prayer service Saturday at the Church of San Clemente, and the choir of the Danilov Monastery, the seat of the Moscow Patriarchate, will sing in a Roman basilica.

Pope John Paul II long dreamed of visiting Russia and mending relations with its Orthodox church, the world’s largest. But the pope’s Polish origins apparently heightened the suspicions of Russian church leaders about his intent, and he was neither invited to Russia nor able to overcome tensions about the Uniate Church, which follows the Eastern rite but is loyal to Rome, and Catholic priests prosyletizing here.

After John Paul’s death, and the election in January of Patriarch Kirill as the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church, relations have warmed.

In March, Pope Benedict XVI, a German, sent a message to a ceremony in Bari, Italy, where the Italian government handed back to Russia a church and pilgrimage center built in the czarist era.

“How could we not recognize that this beautiful church awakens in us the nostalgia for full unity and maintains alive in us the commitment to work for union among all the disciples of Christ,” Benedict wrote.

Reflecting Russia’s geopolitical dance with Europe, the Moscow Patriarchate has found common ground with Benedict, and since Patriarch Kirill was enthroned, he has appointed church officials who portray the pope as a like-minded man of the church, not politics.

“This pope, in contrast to the previous one, doesn’t strive to always be politically correct,” said Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, an Oxford-educated theologian who was until recently the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Vienna and Austria and the Russian Church’s representative to European institutions. “He believes he must speak of the teachings of the Catholic church. The task of such a church figure, especially of such rank, is to clearly state the teaching of the church, even if it doesn’t correspond to contemporary standards of political correctness.”

Archbishop Hilarion was selected in March to lead the patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, which Patriarch Kirill headed for two decades. Both Archbishop Hilarion and the Reverend Vsevolod Chaplin, another rising church official in his early forties who heads a newly created department on church and society relations, strongly backed Benedict’s controversial comments in March that condoms are not the solution to the spread of AIDS. Their voices were among the few supporting Benedict’s stand.

From Rome come indications that Patriarch Kirill’s election represents a new chance for Russian Orthodoxy.

His predecessor, Patriarch Aleksy II, “had to work to refound the church, to set up structures, organize the clergy” after Soviet power crumbled, said Monsignor Bruno Forte, archbishop of Chieti-Vasto and a member of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. “Kirill has been handed a reborn church, so he has the strength to forge a new path.”

As Metropolitan of Smolensk in 2006, Patriarch Kirill wrote the foreword to the first Russian-language edition of Pope Benedict’s book “Introduction to Christianity,” written when he was still the theologian Joseph Ratzinger.

He wrote: “The traditionalism of Benedict XVI offers a profound view, a wise insight into the essence of things. It is my deep conviction that this must be the approach of all Christians desiring to remain loyal to the never-aging Tradition of the Ancient Church in the face of the latest in a series of onslaughts of totalitarian relativism, which we are observing today.”

Ironically, while conservative values unite the new patriarch and Benedict, Patriarch Kirill has been under attack by Russian Orthodox fundamentalists, in part for an outgoing style and presence that more readily recall John Paul II.

Tensions between Moscow and some of the world’s Orthodox churches are a stumbling block to relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

Moscow and Constantinople have been wrestling for centuries over jurisdictional issues, and with renewed vigor since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On the issue of primacy, the Moscow Patriarchate chafes especially when the Patriarch of Constantinople is described as the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and when that patriarch is compared with the pope.

The Russian Church, said Archbishop Hilarion, would like to promote the role of Orthodoxy in the European Union. “Now several Orthodox states are part of the European Union,” he said, alluding to Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.

All this has experts saying that a meeting of pope and patriarch is now much more likely, if hard to predict. “Patriarch Kirill is unpredictable,” said Aleksei Yudin, a member of the editorial board of the Russian Catholic Encyclopedia. “He might have some powerful move. If a goal appears, he won’t be slow.”

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome

APA revises 'gay gene' theory

2009-05-21T11:49:00.001-05:00

From OneNewsNow.com

The attempt to prove that homosexuality is determined biologically has been dealt a knockout punch. An American Psychological Association publication includes an admission that there's no homosexual "gene" -- meaning it's not likely that homosexuals are born that way.

For decades, the APA has not considered homosexuality a psychological disorder, while other professionals in the field consider it to be a "gender-identity" problem. But the new statement, which appears in a brochure called "Answers to Your Questions for a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality," states the following:

"There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles...."

That contrasts with the APA's statement in 1998: "There is considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality."

Peter LaBarbera, who heads Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, believes the more recent statement is an important admission because it undermines a popular theory.

"People need to understand that the 'gay gene' theory has been one of the biggest propaganda boons of the homosexual movement over the last 10 [or] 15 years," he points out. "Studies show that if people think that people are born homosexual they're much less likely to resist the gay agenda."

Matt Barber with Liberty Counsel feels the pronouncement may have something to do with saving face. "Well, I think here the American Psychological Association is finally trying to restore some credibility that they've lost over the years by having become a clearly political organization as opposed to an objective, scientific organization," he states. (Hear audio report)

With the new information from the APA, Barber wonders if the organization will admit that homosexuals who want to change can change.

"It's irrefutable from a medical standpoint that people can leave the homosexual lifestyle," he argues. "Homosexuality is defined by behavior. Untold thousands of people have found freedom from that lifestyle through either reparative therapy or through -- frankly, most effectively -- a relationship with Jesus Christ."

LaBarbera agrees. "Change through Christ is possible -- and it's one of the most heartwarming aspects of the whole gay debate," he shares. "Many men and women have come out of homosexuality, mostly through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that these professional organizations will not study that, will not acknowledge that, shows how 'in the tank' they are for the homosexual movement."

LaBarbera stresses that even though elites will not recognize the change, that does not mean the change does not exist. In fact, both Barber and LaBarbera believe that God changes people through Christ -- regardless of the sin.

Pope: Church Needs Holy Married Couples

2009-05-05T16:31:00.001-05:00

From Zenit

Reflects on Day of Prayer for Vocations

VATICAN CITY, MAY 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says the Church needs holy spouses who can teach their children by example how best to use their freedom.

The Pope invited the faithful to pray for all types of vocations today when he prayed the midday Regina Caeli with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Today marks the World Day of Prayer for Vocations and the Holy Father's message for this year's celebration focused on faith in the divine initiative and the human response.

"In fact, trust in the Lord, which continuously calls to sanctity and, for some in particular, to a special consecration, is expressed precisely in prayer," the Pontiff said. "As much personally as in community, we have to pray a lot for vocations, so that the greatness and the beauty of the love of God attracts many to follow Christ on the path of the priesthood and the consecrated life."

The Pope made this invitation just after he had ordained 19 new priests for the Diocese of Rome during a Mass held in St. Peter's Square.

He continued by noting the need for holy married couples: "It is also necessary to pray as well so that there are holy spouses, capable of indicating to their children, above all by example, the horizons to which they should tend toward with their liberty."

The Bishop of Rome suggested entrusting both intentions to the saints: "The men and women saints that the Church proposes for the veneration of all the faithful give witness to the mature fruit of this union between the divine call and the human response. Let us entrust to their heavenly intercession our prayer for vocations."

Poll: Minority of Catholics Oppose Notre Dame's Obama Invite

2009-05-01T14:00:00.005-05:00

From US News and World Report

April 30, 2009

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A just released Pew poll on the Obama/Notre Dame controversy finds that about half of Roman Catholics support the university's invitation to the president, while only 25 percent oppose it. Among white, weekly attending Catholics, however—among whom Obama did much better than expected last November—about half oppose Notre Dame's invite, while just a third support it.

This poll speaks to the importance of seeing Catholics, who constitute about a quarter of the country, as a population that is a part of multiple political constituencies, rather than as a single voting bloc.

Here are the complete numbers (note that half of Catholics haven't even heard about the controversy):

Cardinal Denounces Invalid Ordination of Women

2009-04-30T08:44:00.003-05:00

From Zenit

Says Church Is Strong When God-Given Gifts Are Respected

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, APRIL 29, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Justin Rigali is decrying the "pseudo-ordination" of two women that occurred within his archdiocese Sunday.

In a statement released Monday on the Philadelphia archdiocesan Web site, the cardinal said, "I am concerned pastorally for the souls of those involved and for the Catholic faithful who may be confused."

Referring to a 2007 decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he affirmed that "those who present themselves for ordination at such an invalid ceremony -- as well as those who falsely claim to be ordaining the women -- are, by their actions, automatically excommunicated from the Church."

Cardinal Rigali explained: "Such a ceremony is in violation of the constant teaching of the Church, based on Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

"Both clearly indicate that Jesus called only men to follow him as Apostles, and the Church has always regarded his choice in this matter as normative for all time.

"Therefore, it has always followed Jesus' example by choosing only men for the ministry of Holy Orders. This teaching has been confirmed by the supreme authority of the Catholic Church as definitive and not reformable."

"Consequently," he said, "the Church is not authorized by Christ to confer Holy Orders upon women, and cannot do so, no matter how ardent a person's desire may be."

Philadephia's Inquirer reported that the ceremony took place in a Christian chapel inside a Reconstructionist Jewish synagogue, with the pretext of ordaining Mary Schoettly, 66, as priest, and Chava Redonnet, 51, as deacon.

Distinct gifts

The cardinal emphasized the "different yet equally valuable gifts" that men and women bring to the Church.

He added, "The Church is strongest when the gifts given by Christ to all her members are celebrated and respected."

He quoted Pope John Paul II, who said that "the presence and the role of women in the life of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable."

"God's gifts, however, are never given to individuals merely for their own fulfillment," the cardinal added, "but for the unfolding of his plan of salvation in the Church for the benefit of the whole community of the faithful, and no one's true personal dignity in the Church can be fostered in opposition to the will of Christ himself."

"Consequently," he concluded, "such a pseudo-ordination ceremony denigrates the truth entrusted to the Church by Christ himself, and demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the respect and dignity accorded to women by Christ and his Church."

Most former Catholics left Church when young

2009-04-29T16:56:00.001-05:00

From Catholic News Agency

Most former Catholics left Church when young, detailed new survey says

Washington D.C., Apr 27, 2009 (CNA).- A new survey provides detailed information about the one in ten American adults who are former Catholics, showing that most left the faith before the age of 24. Those who became Protestant most often said their spiritual needs were not being met, while those who became unaffiliated most often said they just gradually drifted away.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which conducted the survey, released the results on Monday in a report titled “Faith in Flux: Religious Conversion Statistics and Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.” The survey, a follow-up to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey published in February 2008, polled all Americans who had left their childhood religion. The survey used 973 follow-up interviews and claims a margin of error among the entire U.S. population of plus or minus five percentage points.

The survey also distinguished between those Catholics who were now Protestant and those who were now unaffiliated. It claims a margin of error of plus or minus 6.5 percentage points for the first group and plus or minus 7 percentage points for the latter group.

Why Catholics Leave the Church

Catholicism tends to retain childhood members at a rate of 68 percent, which the Pew Forum says is “far greater” than the retention rate of the unaffiliated and is comparable with or better than the retention rates of other religious groups. Former Catholics compose 10.1 percent of the overall U.S. population, while converts to Catholicism make up 2.6 percent.

Of all those raised Catholic, 15 percent have become Protestant, with nine percent now belonging to evangelical denominations and five percent belonging to mainline Protestant denominations. About 14 percent of those raised Catholic are now unaffiliated.

Almost half of Catholics who are now unaffiliated left Catholicism before the age of eighteen, while one-third who are now Protestant did the same. Most in this group said it was their own decision rather than their parent’s decision, the Pew Forum says.

The survey also found few differences in religious commitment between former Catholics and those who have remained Catholic concerning their participation in youth groups or religious education classes.

Regular worship, however, was correlated with continued faith.

Reasons for Leaving

The Pew Forum survey asked respondents to name their own reasons why they left their faith.

About half cited religious and moral beliefs. About 21 percent of the unaffiliated professed non-belief in Catholicism or any religion, 11 percent cited moral or social teachings, and another seven percent cited disbelief in God or a loss of faith as their motive. Eighteen percent of Protestants named a biblical or scriptural reason as a cause.

The survey then asked people to respond to a specific list of issues which they believe made them leave the faith of their upbringing.

Among Protestants who were raised Catholic, 71 percent said that their spiritual needs were not being met. Another 70 percent said they found a religion they liked more, while 54 percent said they just gradually drifted away. About half said they stopped believing in Catholic teachings, while 43 percent professed unhappiness with teachings about the Bible and 32 percent professed dissatisfaction with the atmosphere at worship services.

About 71 percent of unaffiliated former Catholics said they just drifted away from the religion, while about two-thirds said they stopped believing in the religion’s teachings. About 56 percent said they were unhappy with teachings on “abortion/homosexuality,” but the Pew Forum survey did not distinguish between the two issues. Another 48 percent professed unhappiness with Catholic teaching on birth control, while 43 percent said their spiritual needs were not being met. About 39 percent said they were unhappy with the way Catholicism treated women.

Fewer than three in ten former Catholics said the clerical sexual abuse scandal factored into their decision to abandon Catholicism, the Pew Forum reports, with Protestants slightly less likely than the unaffiliated to say so.

“While the ranks of the unaffiliated have grown the most due to changes in religious affiliation, the Catholic Church has lost the most members in the same process,” the Pew Forum survey report said. “Many former Catholics who are now unaffiliated, however, remain open to the possibility that they could some day find a religion that suits them; one-third say they just have not found the right religion yet.”

Archbishop of Washington Donald W. Wuerl, past chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Catechesis and next chairman of the Committee on Doctrine, said the report highlights the importance of Mass attendance among children and teenagers.

“Adolescence is a critical time in religious development and, as the poll shows, what happens in the teen years has a long-lasting affect. We have to help young people and their parents appreciate the importance of going to weekly Mass so teenagers know Jesus is there for them now and always.“

He also noted that only about two to three percent of former Catholic respondents named clerical sexual abuse as a factor when asked generic questions about why they left.

“Catholics can separate the sins and human failings of individuals from the substance of the faith,” he said. “Sexual abuse of a child is a terrible sin and crime, but most Catholic people, because of good personal experience with their priests in their parishes, recognize sex abuse by clergy as the aberration it is.”

Does the American Catholic Church Have a Numbers Problem?

2009-04-29T16:53:00.002-05:00

From US News and World Report

April 27, 2009

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A fascinating Pew report out today finds that most Americans have changed religious affiliation at least once and that within this dramatic religious churn, Roman Catholicism is the biggest loser. Four times as many Catholics are leaving the faith as are joining it, the study finds.

And yet an upbeat E-mail from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops landed in my inbox today, with this triumphant first sentence:

A Pew Forum poll on Americans and their religious affiliation finds Catholics have one of the highest retention rates, 68 percent, among Christian churches when it comes to carrying the Catholic faith into adulthood.

How could the American religious tradition that boasts one of the highest retention rates be losing the most members? Easy, says Pew: because Catholicism is attracting so few newcomers.

Catholics are leaving the faith at four times the rate that newcomers are joining. "Religious change is not simply a function of retention; it's a function of recruitment. It's both sides of the ledger," explains the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's Greg Smith. "In no other religious groups we looked at did we see this high a ratio people leaving versus joining."

And yet Catholics still account for just under a quarter of the population, as they have for many years. That's because the surge in Hispanic immigration has offset the steady decline of white Catholics. Roughly 2 in 3 Latino immigrants are Catholic, according to Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. He also notes that Hispanic fertility rates are higher than those of white Americans, ensuring more Latino Catholic growth in the United States.

These countervailing trends in American Catholicism raise a question: Does the American Catholic Church have a numbers problem? Or, facing an American demographic future that's much less white than today, is the church's complexion merely changing with the nation's?

Will Gay Marriage Pit Church Against Church?

2009-04-27T12:51:00.002-05:00

From Time

By Michael A. Lindenberger Sunday, Apr. 26, 2009

Here is a portion of the article:

Mohler's view is, to a certain extent, shared by Joseph E. Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville, who leads an ad hoc panel of U.S. Catholic bishops set up to fight gay marriage. He too sees a potential future when a greater acceptance of homosexuality leads to pressure on churches to conform, and even to change their teachings. "There are grave threats that decisions by the courts, legislative actions or regulations could erode religious freedom," Kurtz tells TIME. "With regard to marriage, this implicates the right of Catholics to practice our beliefs. Here we are talking about the bedrock of society, it's not just a belief, it's written on the hearts of every human person."

Unlike the Baptist's stark outlook, however, Kurtz is more optimistic that the fight to preserve a traditional definition of marriage is not doomed — and is actively forming alliances and organizing to shore up the one-man-and-one-woman concept of matrimony. He sent a letter last fall to Thomas Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, praising Mormon support for Prop 8, the ballot-initiative in California that made gay marriage unconstitutional. That state's Supreme Court is expected to rule on the validity of the amendment soon.

Kurtz concedes there have been wins for supporters of gay marriage lately, but last November's statewide votes against gay marriage in California, Arizona and Florida buoyed him. "It's hard for any of us to have a crystal ball to know our culture society will move," says Kurtz. "The Catholic Church will certainly respond with a commitment to truth and love. ... November is not all that long ago, and I still believe that getting out the message about marriage, with a commitment to both truth and love, will succeed. In upholding the traditional definition of marriage, there is not a desire to punish or hurt anyone. We want to do a better job of communicating our concern for all, for both those who agree, and disagree."

Mohler sees the true church as a body comprised of believers who refuse to give ground on gay marriage. So does the Catholic Church, which has shown no willingness to change its own teachings, rooted as they often are in centuries of tradition. But, except for the November referendums, solidarity among fellow-thinkers has not borne much fruit. And a recent swarm of dire ads warning of a "gathering storm" of gay rights mostly backfired. "Those advocates want to change the way I think," a woman says in one of the most-viewed commercials. Another adds, "I will have no choice." And another warns that she will soon be faced with a choice between "my job and my faith." The ads prompted hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube.com, but they mainly served to show how far removed their creators were from the zeitgeist. The Colbert Report mocked the ads, and countless parodies have sprung up across the Internet at the expense of the ads' grave-faced actors.

Read the entire article here.

‘Catholic’ a mere label?

2009-04-24T11:05:00.001-05:00

From the Catholic Star Herald

‘Catholic’ a mere label?

Thursday, April 23 2009

Just two days after the Easter Triduum, the most solemn time of the Church year wherein we celebrate the central mysteries of our faith, President Obama gave a speech on the national economy at Georgetown University in Washington, the oldest Catholic university in the nation. Before the speech, the White House asked that all signage and symbols behind the stage be covered, including a gold cross and IHS monogram representing the name of Jesus. School officials deferred to the White House and covered the symbol with a piece of black plywood.

The school has explained that the White House wanted a simple backdrop of American flags and blue drape for the speech and, in fairness, let us grant that the White House’s request was driven by simple staging priorities. The school, I am sure, was merely trying to accommodate the President’s advance team. Yet, in deciding to give the speech there, the Administration knew well that the venue was a Catholic University. To ask the University to cover a symbol that gives evidence of its Catholic identity was shameful; but to comply with such an unfair request was scandalous.

It is hard to imagine an Islamic group being asked to forsake its religious customs or a Jewish organization being asked to move a menorah or the Star of David to accommodate the appearance of a public official. It would have been inappropriate and insensitive, of course, to make this demand of these religious groups. It is doubtful that they would have honored a request so at odds with our nation’s tradition of pluralism, as well as religious tolerance and respect for people of religious belief.

The nation’s Founders, of course, did not envision a public square void of religious belief, much less one that was hostile to it. John Adams, for example, wrote in 1811, “Religion and virtue are the only foundations…of all free Government....” While it is correct to say that we are not a “Christian” nation, we are a nation that has been very tolerant of those of faith, so much so that Judeo-Christian principles run through our nation’s fiber. These principles have been embraced not because they are religious principles in themselves, or because the Founders wanted to promote religious values over secular ones, or to force religious belief on non-believers, but because the Founders found these principles, which were drawn from religious tradition, to be true. In 1800, Charles Carroll (cousin of John Carroll, who was the first bishop in the United States and founder of Georgetown University) wrote, “Without morals, a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they, therefore, who are decrying the Christian religion…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”

Yet, with great vigor and sometimes with an intolerance that is not very subtle, Catholics and other people of faith are being told to check their religious beliefs at the door. As Yale University law professor Stephen L. Carter, in The Culture of Disbelief, wrote, “In our sensible zeal to keep religion from dominating our politics, we have created a political and legal culture that presses the religiously faithful to be other than themselves, to act publicly, and sometimes privately, as though their faith does not matter to them.”

This is certainly true of the announcement by the new Administration that it intends to rescind the Provider Conscience Rule, which protects the right of healthcare providers to serve patients without violating their moral and religious convictions. In response, the New Jersey bishops said last month in a joint statement, “We emphasize that freedom of conscience and religious liberty have been building blocks of American society since the nation’s founding. Our nation respects conscientious objection for those opposed to war and we respect the objection of physicians opposed to taking part in capital punishment. We can do no less for those who oppose abortion.” To abandon these protections and to force health professionals to be involved in activities they find morally objectionable would be a form of discrimination that is an affront to religious freedom and freedom of conscience. Catholic healthcare, of course, is especially vulnerable, since it is the largest provider of non-government healthcare in the nation.

In this and other ways, those who oppose certain practices on moral or religious grounds, and those who take their faith seriously and choose to live it in a public fashion, increasingly are being marginalized to the fringes of the public square in a way that the nation’s founders would never have imagined. Just last week, for example, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who is a supporter of abortion “rights,” issued a report linking abortion opponents to dangerous “hate-oriented” extremist groups in the United States. One can only recoil at the department’s careless and indiscriminate broad brush.

Similarly, in the same week that Newsweek provocatively declared “The Decline and Fall of Christian America” (in a Holy Week cover story!), a prominent gay rights advocate and appointee to the President’s advisory council on faith-based partnerships called Pope Benedict XVI a “discredited leader” and the Knights of Columbus “foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression.” Why the vitriol? Because the pope and the Knights have affirmed the Church’s teaching that marriage in its essence always is between one man and one woman.

The Holy Father also was condemned in the most hostile tones imaginable for upholding the Church’s stress on abstinence, education and marital fidelity rather than condoms in the fight against AIDS. In response to the pope's principled — and logical — stand, one German politician accused the pope of “premeditated murder.” Belgium’s Health Minister said the pope's comments “reflect a dangerous doctrinaire vision (that could)...endanger many human lives.” A French politician called the pope “autistic.” In the face of this criticism, the Vatican correctly stated that the attacks against the pope are kind of intimidation designed “to dissuade the pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the church's doctrine.”

Some of the criticism of the Holy Father and people of faith stems from the mistaken idea that religious belief is incompatible with medical and scientific progress. Stephen Carter said, “More and more, our culture seems to take the position that believing deeply in the tenets of one’s faith represents a kind of mystical irrationality, something that thoughtful public-spirited American citizens would do better to avoid.”

Seemingly consistent with this idea, President Obama, in lifting restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research said last month, “It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda — and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.” He also signed a presidential memorandum directing the development of a strategy for “restoring scientific integrity to government decision making.” Is it being suggested that people of faith who oppose the destruction of human embryos in the name of research are outside the mainstream, are politically motivated, lack integrity, or stand in opposition to reason, science and medical progress?

In the face of these comments that attempt to marginalize people of religious belief, we must ask ourselves whether we are troubled by these things, or whether we no longer are offended by affronts to religious belief — and to the Catholic faith in particular. As we consider our obligations in the public square, we must ask ourselves if we are citizens who happen to be Catholic, or are we Catholic citizens who try every day with God’s grace to carry out our obligations in the light of our faith. Is the Catholic faith we profess just for Sundays, conveniently tucked away in the pew until we return the following week, or does it permeate our life? In order to be morally coherent, of course, our faith and life must be integrated, so much so that our faith is elemental to our identity as persons. Our Catholic faith and identity should suggest who we are, what we believe and how we act.

This is true of Catholic individuals and our Catholic institutions. That is why the statutes of the Diocese of Camden require that no Church institution is to provide a forum for, or extend honors to, any public figure who openly espouses positions contrary to the fundamental moral principles espoused by the Church, particularly those regarding the dignity of human life. These situations are often complex and each situation must be judged on the particular circumstances that pertain by those who are responsible for upholding Catholic teaching in the institution in question, whether at Notre Dame University or elsewhere. However, it would appear to me to be inappropriate specifically to honor an individual, particularly a prominent public official, who intentionally holds and deliberately advocates positions contrary to fundamental moral principles. To do so suggests that our foundational moral principles do not matter. To do so betrays our Catholic belief. To do so ignores the Church’s Catholic identity and our own Catholic identity, which is more than a name or a label, but defines who and what we are at our core.

The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, when he addressed the Catholic academic community at The Catholic University of America in 1979, said, “Every university or college is qualified by a specified mode of being. Yours is the qualification of being Catholic [emphasis added], of affirming God, his revelation and the Catholic Church as the guardian and interpreter of that revelation. The term ‘Catholic’ will never be a mere label either added or dropped according to the pressures of varying factors.”

If the covering of the symbol of Jesus at a Catholic university is symptomatic of a growing secular pressure on people of belief and religious institutions, it also displays among some Catholics, I am afraid, a growing indifference toward the faith, a loss of conviction, and even of courage. Some Catholics capitulate under the slightest pressure, for fear of seeming out of touch, intolerant, or politically incorrect. Legitimate expressions of our faith are foregone, quite mistakenly, so as not to offend those who do not share our belief.

Let us pray that the Spirit will strengthen us to be faithful to the indelible seal of our baptism that gives us a new identity in Christ that transcends all others. Let us pray for the courage to live our faith with joy and with Easter hope.

May God continue to guide you and bless you.

Vatican probes nuns over church teaching

2009-04-16T13:04:00.003-05:00

Personally, I'd like to see more of this in the US. I think we need to root out those people in our universities, seminaries, and high schools that do not want to be faithful to the Church's teaching.

From PressTV

Vatican plans to investigate US Catholic nuns to ensure they are promoting Church teachings on homosexuality and the all-male priesthood.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) said it was informed of the "doctrinal assessment" in a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican watchdog.

The Vatican launches the probe saying the sisters have not addressed matters of concern -- homosexuality, salvation and the priesthood, which the Vatican says is reserved for men.

Vatican officials have asked the American sisters to "report on the initiatives taken or planned" to promote the church's teachings on the exclusively male character of the priesthood, the primacy of the Catholic Church over other Christian denominations, and the "problem of homosexuality."

The doctrinal investigation comes three months after another Vatican-ordered study of "the quality of life" in 400 women's religious congregations in the US. That study was prompted by the dramatic decline in the number of American women entering religious orders over the past several decades.

Between 1945 and 2000, the number of religious sisters in the US dropped 54 percent, from 122,159 to 79,876, according to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. That number has continued to drop since 2000.

Did the Father forsake Jesus on the Cross?

2009-04-10T15:29:00.002-05:00

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" taken from Matthew 27:46 which is rendered, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is a commonly misunderstand passage. It is a quote from the opening line of Psalm 22.

Many throughout history and recently have reasoned that God the Father at this moment "turned His back" or "looked away" from God the Son. The reason? 2 Corinthians 5:21 which reads, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God."

Scripture teaches that God cannot look on sin. At this moment Christ became sin for us which means, as the theory goes, that for a brief moment God the Father and God the Son were seperated by sin so much so that God could not look at His own Son. At the moment His Son needed Him most, God the Father looked away?

I am posting an article here that presents a different and I believe more appropriate understanding of this statement made by our Saviour.

Click here.

And here.

Poll: Catholics, non-Catholics share views

2009-03-31T12:45:00.002-05:00

From UPI News

PRINCETON, N.J., March 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Catholics and non-Catholics are nearly the same in their opinions on abortion and human embryonic stem cell research, a Gallup poll indicated.

Despite the Roman Catholic Church's position opposing abortion and embryonic stem cell research, 40 percent of Catholics said they found abortion morally acceptable, compared to 41 percent of non-Catholics, results released Monday indicated.

Concerning embryonic stem cell research, 63 percent of Catholics said they found the matter morally acceptable, compared to 62 percent of non-Catholics, poll results indicated.

The stance of the Catholic church on the two issues has moved into the spotlight recently after it was announced that U.S. President Barack Obama would deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame in May. Some Catholic officials, students, alumni and others have objected to his appearance, noting Obama's positions on embryonic stem cell research and abortion conflict with the church's teachings.

The Gallup analysis is based on aggregated data from Gallup's 2006-2008 Values and Beliefs surveys. It indicates that U.S. Catholics are more liberal than the non-Catholic population on several moral issues, while have similar views on others, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency reported.

Results are based on national telephone interviews with 3,022 adults conducted in May 2006, May 2007 and May 2008. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.

12 Political Converts to Catholicism—Besides Newt

2009-03-31T12:18:00.006-05:00

From US News and World Reports Blog

March 30, 2009
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Newt Gingrich's weekend conversion to Roman Catholicism got me thinking about how many Catholic converts from the worlds of politics and political commentary have been in the news in recent years. Here's a quick list I came up with:

Robert Bork
Sam Brownback
Jeb Bush
Laura Ingraham
Bobby Jindal
Lawrence Kudlow
Robert Novak
Ramesh Ponnuru

Notice that they're all conservative? A few of the influential opinion shapers on the right who died recently also were Catholic converts:

Richard John Neuhaus
Tony Snow
Paul Weyrich
The one high-profile Catholic convert on the left who occurred to me is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

At first blush, this wild political imbalance is none too surprising. Religious converts tend to be more orthodox, which means hewing closely to the church's conservative positions on social issues. But in the case of the Catholic Church, once so solidly identified with the Democratic Party, it's a reminder of just how a tradition's politics can shift.

Anyone I'm leaving off any of these lists?

Should Obama speak at Notre Dame?

2009-03-25T16:34:00.004-05:00

Should Obama speak at Notre Dame?

Notre Dame's Obama invite outrages some Catholics

http://notredamescandal.com/

Condem use have not lowered the infection rate of HIV

2009-03-25T12:55:00.005-05:00

From National Review Online

Is the Pope correct on the issue of condem use and HIV infection? According to Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies the answer is yes.

From Saint Peter’s Square to Harvard Square
Media coverage of papal comments on AIDS in Africa is March madness.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez

‘We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.”

So notes Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, in response to papal press comments en route to Africa this week.

Benedict XVI said, in response to a French reporter’s question asking him to defend the Church’s position on fighting the spread of AIDS, characterized by the reporter as “frequently considered unrealistic and ineffective”:

I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness — even through personal sacrifice — to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.

“The pope is correct,” Green told National Review Online Wednesday, “or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments. He stresses that “condoms have been proven to not be effective at the ‘level of population.’”

“There is,” Green adds, “a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.”

Green added: “I also noticed that the pope said ‘monogamy’ was the best single answer to African AIDS, rather than ‘abstinence.’ The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates (the other major factor is male circumcision).”

And while, as Travis Kavulla writes from Kenya today, the international media will ignore all sorts of fascinating new stories about church and civilizational growth in favor of a sexier, albeit way-too-familiar storyline, Green has some encouraging news: The pope is not alone. “More and more AIDS experts are coming to accept the above. The two countries with the worst HIV epidemics, Swaziland and Botswana, have both launched campaigns to discourage multiple and concurrent partners, and to encourage fidelity.”

The pope added during that Q&A, “I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person’s body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.”

We need to, in other words, treat people as people. Reason with them and show them there is a better way to live, respectful of themselves and others. It’s a common-sense message that isn’t madness whether you’re in Africa or dealing with hormonal American teenagers. It’s a hard message to hear over the same-old silly debates, parodies, and dismissals. But it’s one that is based on real life—and that’s acknowledged not just in Saint Peter’s Square but in Harvard Square.

Is Confession in crisis?

2009-03-23T14:23:00.002-05:00

From Inside Catholic.com

Is the sacrament of penance in crisis? One often hears that claim today, but it needs a closer look. My guess is that there's a crisis all right -- but not exactly this one.

Yes, Catholic confessions have plummeted in the last 40 years. But who would care to say that the awareness of guilt has disappeared? In some ways, in fact, the sense of sin appears to be thriving. People just don't care to admit it or do much about it anymore.

I was reminded of these things by the word from Rome that publication of Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical is imminent. It will be on social justice, we're told. Actually, it was supposed to come out a year ago, but it got delayed for adjustments to reflect the global economic crisis.

Lately, Benedict has been giving previews about what's in the document. In one such talk, he said the fundamental source of the economic crisis is greed. Many other people have said the same thing. I surely would agree with that, although to greed I'd add arrogance and culpable stupidity.

This is not about the economic crisis, though. My point at the moment is that in an emergency like this one, people spontaneously look to moral failure as an explanation for what went wrong. Whether the analysis is correct is a different question. People take it for granted that it is -- that is to say, they place the blame for what happened on sin.

Now if human beings really do have some sort of innate, built-in awareness that sin is the root cause of many problems, why has the huge drop-off in reception of the sacrament of penance occurred in the last 40 years? Why do so many Catholics these days go to confession very seldom or not at all?

For me, a large part of the solution to this puzzle is symbolized in a particular event.

Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI's encyclical reaffirming the Church condemnation of artificial birth control, came out in late July of 1968. The following Sunday, I went to Mass at a certain parish and there was treated to a homily explaining why the pope was wrong and contraception was okay. When the priest finished, a substantial segment of the congregation stood and applauded.

I don't mean to say that sexual sins are the only sins or that contraception is the worst sin of all. I mention this incident instead because it so clearly illustrates the denial on the part of Catholics of the Church's ability to teach authoritatively about these matters.

But if these matters, why not other matters, too? For me, at least, the events of that Sunday morning more than four decades ago mark the starting point of the slippery slope that has led many Catholics to reject the authority of the Church on moral questions and, along with it, the sacrament of penance. It goes without saying that other people are welcome to situate the moment at which they first perceived this process at work somewhere else.

The observation has often been made -- and I'm not going to belabor it here -- that for years we've heard little or nothing in homilies and catechesis about personal fault for the kinds of sins most people actually commit. Frequently, of course, we are urged to take our responsibilities to God and neighbor seriously, but it's usually left unclear what those concrete, real-life responsibilities actually are -- and, especially, what the consequences of not living up to them might be.

Obviously the popular culture is of virtually no help at all here. Indeed, the prevailing consensus in popular culture appears to be that the only significant wrongdoing consists of denying somebody else his or her right to do whatever he or she wants, especially when the subject is sex. I am reminded of a sociologist's remark a few years back that the only commandment that seems to count for many Americans anymore is the new, eleventh one: "Thou shalt not judge."

And yet, as suggested, the reality of guilt persists -- widely denied, to be sure, yet eating away at many hearts.

There was a kind of residual guilt implied in President Barack Obama's announcement that he was taking the lid off federal funding of stem cell research that involves killing human embryos.

The president said he had ordered the drafting of "strict guidelines" to prevent "misuse or abuse." But if killing embryos by way of stem cell research is ethically clean, there's no need for guidelines; and if it isn't ethically clean, guidelines for doing it won't alter that fact but will merely reassure obtuse consciences that something that is ethically impermissible is permissible after all. The government says so, doesn't it?

But all that is neither here nor there at the moment.

As far as the Catholic community and the sacrament of penance are concerned, my guess is that the so-called crisis of penance isn't really that -- it's a crisis of bad conscience instead. Many people will not -- and, as a result of persistent catechetical failure, in a certain sense cannot -- face up to the fact of their sinfulness and guilt. Yet despite decades of rationalization and denial, the awareness of these existential realities persists.

And if it's true that it does, then the crisis is even more serious than we thought.
---
Russell Shaw's 19th book is Nothing to Hide: Secrecy, Communication, and Communion in the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 2008).

Obama's Stem Cell Order Reopens the Culture Wars

2009-03-20T15:09:00.002-05:00

From U.S. News & World Report

Conservative Christians are looking for an opening to challenge embryonic stem cell research

By Dan Gilgoff Posted March 19, 2009

When President Obama signed an executive order lifting restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research last week, he plunged headlong into the culture wars. For once, though, the wedge issue at hand is one that benefits Democrats, unlike hot buttons like abortion and gay marriage, which mostly help the GOP. "People have come to a consensus that if nobody wants these frozen embryos, they should be used in research," says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "People believe that embryos are not people."

Indeed, public opinion polls show that few Americans believe that embryonic stem cell research is immoral, as many Roman Catholic and evangelical leaders insist. But that doesn't mean the controversy is over. Unanswered questions about the science surrounding stem cell research and the details of Obama's new regulations promise to yield more political battles. For instance, Obama left open the possibility of federal funds going to the creation of new embryos, rather than relying entirely on excess embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics. The National Institutes of Health will now study the question. "Creating embryos expressly for research and destroying them would be more controversial," says the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's David Masci. "It has the potential to drain some public support."

For now, though, public support is solid, predicated on hopes that the research yields cures for such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. According to a February Gallup Poll, 52 percent of Americans want fewer restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, or none at all. Recent Pew polls show that white evangelicals are the only major religious tradition in which a majority opposes the research. The Roman Catholic Church has been outspoken in its opposition, but a large majority of rank-and-file American Catholics back embryonic stem cell research.

To avoid appearing antireligion, Obama had a handful of mainline Protestant and Jewish leaders on hand for Monday's signing ceremony. The president spoke of rejecting a "false choice between sound science and moral values" and invoked his own faith to argue that "we are called . . . to ease human suffering."

At the same time, Democrats have used George W. Bush's 2001 executive order banning federal dollars for new embryonic stem cell lines to paint the GOP as antiscience. "The idea is that when Republicans see scientific evidence they don't like, like on global warming or evolution, they ignore it," says Masci.

Still, even some supporters of federally funded embryonic stem cell research acknowledge that Obama's action raises ethical concerns. The University of Pennsylvania's Caplan fears that biotechnology companies will rush into clinical trials that use modified embryonic stem cells to treat diseases and wind up hurting patients. And he worries that embryonic stem cell research will be expected to quickly yield the kind of breakthroughs that noncontroversial adult stem cell research has, even though that research has been well funded for 40 years. "It's like comparing jet engines to Orville and Wilbur's prop plane," he says. Conservative Christians will be looking for such an opening to argue that the promise of embryonic research has been oversold and to keep the political battle going.

Connecticut law infringes upon First Amendment rights

2009-03-18T16:38:00.003-05:00

From The Hawk

Connecticut law infringes upon First Amendment rights

Connecticut law infringes upon First Amendment rights
By: Steffani Whitmyer '12
Posted: 3/18/09
On March 5, an attempt to control the free exercise of Roman Catholicism was made by the state of Connecticut. This attempt, Bill No. 1098, would have seized parish administrative authority properly belonging to bishops and priests.

Even though the bill only addresses church finances and their oversight, it would have deeper ramifications. The legislation proposed by state government would appoint a board of laity to oversee Church finances, but its effect would be to subject the Church to secular politics. This bill is unconstitutional and an attempt to undermine the hierarchical authority of the Church.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The first portion of this amendment is often referenced by those who mistakenly ascribe "separation of Church and State" to the Constitution. As with other repudiations of public displays of religion-including banning the Ten Commandments from courthouses, prayer from schools, Christmas and other Christian references from public displays, and proposed removal of the reference to God from the "Pledge of Allegiance" and money-this bill ignores the constitutional protections the second portion of the amendment provides, which those who seem to worship the "separation of Church and State" also ignore consistently.

Extensive media coverage of Church-State separation issues is rarely missed. Now, with an actual attempt to violate the First Amendment, there's been little mention.

This bill would prohibit our free exercise of religion because the hierarchical structure that it attempts to change is so intricately linked with Church doctrine and the practice of the faith. The most important reason why the hierarchy is a part of practicing the faith is that the Church has its base in certain truths and traditions that are not subject to the whims and special interests of any one person. These truths and traditions were already laid forth when Christ walked the earth.

If interpretations were left up to individuals, there would be no consistent doctrine.

Furthermore, interpretations would contradict one another, and it would be even more difficult to decipher the truth.

With the Pope as the Church's head appointed by Christ, he can further the establishment of the truth already established by Christ. Secondly, those underneath the Pope in their respective positions, such as archbishops, bishops, and priests, teach this truth at the local level, furthering evangelization and education. Lastly, as with all earthly establishments, organization is needed.

Without the organized hierarchy of the Church, teachings and doctrine would get lost in translation. It would be harder to keep the Church as one, since each diocese, parish, or person would take authority into their own hands and split from the Church while still claiming to remain Catholic. Thus by attempting to change the hierarchical structure of the Church, the bill attempts to democratize it.

Democratization would mean taking the authority of the Church away and giving it to individuals. If the Church is democratized, bishops and priests would have no authority over their parishes. There would be splits in the Church as each parish would be allowed to object to any Church doctrine, given that it would be the voice of the people who decide and not the authority of the bishop.

Church matters such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and female priests would no longer lie under the authority of Christ administered by a bishop and priest, but will be left up to each individual, undermining Church doctrine and authority and thus the integrity of the practice of Catholicism. Though many individuals have done this, the Church has come out as one to proclaim that this individual or group of individuals as dissenting from Catholicism.

If this unconstitutional bill were to pass, it would not only violate religious rights, but would also eliminate the sovereignty of the Church and its hierarchical authority. This bill is an attempt to control the Church and silence it on controversial issues.

Even though this piece of legislation seems to have nothing to with the practice of the Catholic faith, it does insofar as the structure of authority in the Church is linked to the Catholic faith and doctrine. It attempts to undermine not only the priests', the bishops', and the Pope's authority, but Christ himself, thus putting the Church under a temporal and state rule instead of a spiritual rule. Furthermore, the repercussions of the bill would set a nationwide precedent to pass similar bills to overthrow the Church.

How did we get to the point of such a bill being even thought of in a democratic republic government? Have we forgotten what this country was built upon? Let us not forget that our very country was founded on those principles of a Christian society with faith in God as its anchor.

Ten Commandments of a Husband/Father

2009-03-12T15:53:00.002-05:00

These are such a great reminder for us guys.

Ten Commandments of a Husband/Father

The coming evangelical collapse

2009-03-11T16:47:00.002-05:00

This is a very interesting read. I can see this coming but I don't know if he is correct in predicting the demise of the Evangelical faith period.

From the Christian Science Monitor

An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.

By Michael Spencer from the March 10, 2009 edition

Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Read the rest here.

Predictable move by the Obama Administration

2009-02-27T16:56:00.002-06:00

From Reuters

U.S. officials move to end Bush healthcare rule

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration took a first step on Friday to rescind a controversial Bush-mandated regulation allowing healthcare professionals to refuse to provide services and information on moral grounds.

An official at the Department of Health and Human Services said the Bush administration rule had "upset the balance" between allowing doctors to decline to provide abortions and protecting the rights of women to get the care they need.

Current law includes a conscience clause for providers who do not want to perform abortions, but the Bush administration rule that took effect January 20 went much further, the agency official said on condition of anonymity.

It was vague enough to let health professionals invoke the conscience clause for things like contraceptives, family planning and counseling for vaccines and blood transfusions, she said.

"We recognize and understand that some providers have objections to providing abortions. We want to ensure that current law protects them," the official said.

"But we do not want to impose new limitations on services ... like family planning and contraception that would actually help prevent the need for an abortion in the first place."

The Department of Health and Human Services sent a proposal to withdraw the rule to the Office of Management and Budget on Friday. The department plans to rescind the rule after a 30-day public comment period, the official said.

The Bush regulation prompted a lawsuit in January by two abortion rights groups, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood of Connecticut. Attorneys general of several states had filed similar challenges.

Reproductive rights groups welcomed the move to rescind the rule.

"Today's action by the Obama administration demonstrates that this president is not going to stand by and let women's health be placed in jeopardy," said Cecile Richards, head of the Planned Parenthood Federation.

Mary Jane Gallagher, head of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, called it an "important start."

"Women and men who depend on these services cannot afford for their access to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health screenings to be limited by this extreme rule," she said.

Denver archbishop warns against ‘spirit of adulation’ surrounding Obama

2009-02-27T10:42:00.003-06:00

From Catholic News Agency

Toronto, Canada, Feb 23, 2009 / 09:03 pm (CNA).- Canadians packed St. Basil’s Church in Toronto on Monday evening to hear Archbishop Charles Chaput speak about how Catholics should live out their faith in the public square. He warned that in the U.S., Catholics need to act on their faith and be on guard against "a spirit of adulation bordering on servility" that exists towards the Obama administration.

The public lecture by Archbishop Chaput took place on the campus of the University of Toronto at St. Basil’s Church and was attended by an overflow crowd of more than 700 people.

After giving a sketch of the basic principles in his New York Times Bestseller "Render Unto Caesar," the archbishop offered his insights on the need for an honest assessment of the situation of the Church in the public square.

"I like clarity, and there’s a reason why," began the archbishop. "I think modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice. Human beings owe each other respect and appropriate courtesy. But we also owe each other the truth -- which means candor."

The Denver prelate then provided his critique of President Obama.

"President Obama is a man of intelligence and some remarkable gifts. He has a great ability to inspire, as we saw from his very popular visit to Canada just this past week. But whatever his strengths, there’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change. Of course, that can change. Some things really do change when a person reaches the White House. Power ennobles some men. It diminishes others. Bad policy ideas can be improved. Good policy ideas can find a way to flourish. But as Catholics, we at least need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the political facts we start with."

Yet this will be "very hard for Catholics in the United States," Chaput warned.

According to the archbishop, the political situation for Catholics is difficult to discern because a "spirit of adulation bordering on servility already exists among some of the same Democratic-friendly Catholic writers, scholars, editors and activists who once accused pro-lifers of being too cozy with Republicans. It turns out that Caesar is an equal opportunity employer."

Looking ahead to the coming months and years, Chaput offered four "simple things" to remember.

"First," he said, "all political leaders draw their authority from God. We owe no leader any submission or cooperation in the pursuit of grave evil."

"In fact, we have the duty to change bad laws and resist grave evil in our public life, both by our words and our non-violent actions. The truest respect we can show to civil authority is the witness of our Catholic faith and our moral convictions, without excuses or apologies."

In a reference to the messianic treatment the Barack Obama received from some Americans during the presidential primaries, Archbishop Chaput delivered his second point: "in democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs."

Noting that Obama actually trailed in the weeks just before the election, the Denver archbishop said that this places some of today’s talk about a "new American mandate" in perspective.

"Americans, including many Catholics, elected a gifted man to fix an economic crisis. That’s the mandate. They gave nobody a mandate to retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life and abortion. That retooling could easily happen, and it clearly will happen -- but only if Catholics and other religious believers allow it."

The third point to focus on when the beliefs of Catholics are challenged is that "it doesn’t matter what we claim to believe if we’re unwilling to act on our beliefs," Chaput counseled.

"The fourth and final thing to remember, and there’s no easy way to say it," remarked Archbishop Chaput, is that the "Church in the United States has done a poor job of forming the faith and conscience of Catholics for more than 40 years."

"And now we’re harvesting the results -- in the public square, in our families and in the confusion of our personal lives. I could name many good people and programs that seem to disprove what I just said. But I could name many more that do prove it, and some of them work in Washington."

American Catholics need to realize that many in the current generation haven’t just been "assimilated" into the American culture, but have in fact been "absorbed and bleached and digested by it," Archbishop Chaput asserted.

If this realization doesn’t happen, the coming generations will continue on the same path and "a real Catholic presence in American life will continue to weaken and disappear," said Chaput.

Citing the example of "unhappy, self-described Catholics who complain that abortion is too much of a litmus test," he stated, "We can’t claim to be ‘Catholic’ and ‘pro-choice’ at the same time without owning the responsibility for where the choice leads – to a dead unborn child."

The archbishop also addressed the "abortion reduction" argument being made by some in politics.

"We can’t talk piously about programs to reduce the abortion body count without also working vigorously to change the laws that make the killing possible. If we’re Catholic, then we believe in the sanctity of developing human life. And if we don’t really believe in the humanity of the unborn child from the moment life begins, then we should stop lying to ourselves and others, and even to God, by claiming we’re something we’re not."

"Catholic social teaching goes well beyond abortion," Chaput noted. "In America we have many urgent issues that beg for our attention, from immigration reform to health care to poverty to homelessness."

Winding his talk down, the Archbishop of Denver remarked on the misunderstanding of the word "hope."

"For Christians," he explained, "hope is a virtue, not an emotional crutch or a political slogan. Virtus, the Latin root of virtue, means strength or courage. Real hope is unsentimental. It has nothing to do with the cheesy optimism of election campaigns. Hope assumes and demands a spine in believers. And that’s why – at least for a Christian -- hope sustains us when the real answer to the problems or hard choices in life is ‘no, we can’t,’ instead of ‘yes, we can.’"

The full text of the archbishop's speech can be found here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/document.php?n=790

Also see: Archbishop Chaput on Character and Circumstance from Zenit

Pope cautions against destructive polemics in the church

2009-02-23T15:11:00.001-06:00

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Following weeks of controversy involving two of his decisions, Pope Benedict XVI has twice cautioned against destructive polemics inside the church.

The pope, speaking in German at his noon blessing Feb. 22, asked for prayers to St. Peter so that "disturbances and storms do not shake the church" and that Catholics remain united in faith and love.

Two days earlier, addressing students at Rome's diocesan seminary, the pope recalled St. Paul's admonition to Galatian Christians not to "go on biting and devouring one another" but instead to be guided by the Spirit.

"St. Paul refers here to the polemics that emerge where faith degenerates into intellectualism and humility is replaced by the arrogance of being better than the other," the pope said.

"We see clearly that today, too, there are similar situations where, instead of joining in communion with Christ, in the body of Christ which is the church, each one wants to be superior to the other and with intellectual arrogance maintains that he is better," he said.

"And in this way arise polemics that are destructive, and there arises a caricature of the church, which should have a single soul and a single heart," he said.

The pope was not specific about the recent internal church disputes in either of his talks.

In January, the pope lifted the excommunications of four ultratraditionalist bishops, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who had publicly minimized the Holocaust and said no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. The Vatican later said the pope had not known about the bishop's views on the Holocaust and certainly did not share them.

The resulting criticism came not only from Jewish groups, but also from some Catholic leaders, particularly in German-speaking countries, who said wider consultation should have occurred before the excommunications were lifted.

A similar reaction occurred when the pope named as an auxiliary bishop of Linz, Austria, Father Gerhard Wagner, who once linked the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to the "spiritual pollution" of New Orleans. After a no-confidence vote by senior clergy in the Linz Diocese, Bishop-designate Wagner asked the pope to withdraw his nomination.

Rediscover Confession, Urges Benedict XVI

2009-02-16T12:44:00.003-06:00

From Zenit

Calls It Sacrament of Forgiveness

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 15, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Sin is what puts distance between the believer and God, and it's the sacrament of confession that brings the two back together, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today in a Gospel reflection on Mark's account of the healed leper, which he delivered before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

In the Gospel account, recalls the Pontiff, the leper "gets on his knees and says: 'If you wish, you can make me clean!' Jesus, moved, stretches out his hand, touches him and says: 'I do wish it. Be made clean!'"

"According to the ancient Jewish law," the Holy Father explained, "leprosy was not only considered a sickness but the gravest form of 'impurity.'"

He continued: "Leprosy thus constituted a kind of religious and civil death, and its healing was a kind of resurrection. We might see in leprosy a symbol of sin, which is the true impurity of heart, distancing us from God.

"It is not, in effect, physical malady that distances us from him, as the ancient norms supposed, but sin, the spiritual and moral evil."

Benedict XVI reflected: "The sins we commit distance us from God, and, if they are not humbly confessed, trusting in the divine mercy, they will finally bring about the death of the soul. This miracle thus has powerful symbolic value.

"In the Sacrament of Penance Christ crucified and risen, through his ministers, purifies us with his infinite mercy, restores us to communion with the heavenly Father and our brothers, and makes a gift of his love, joy and peace to us."

"Dear brothers and sisters," he concluded, "let us invoke the Virgin Mary, whom God preserved from every stain of sin, that she help us to avoid sin and to have frequent recourse to the sacrament of confession, the sacrament of forgiveness, whose value and importance for our Christian life needs to be rediscovered today."

Vatican backs Darwin, dumps creationism

2009-02-12T13:14:00.002-06:00

From New Scientist

This is actually old news.

Andy Coghlan

"What we mean by evolution is the world as created by God."

Did I say this? No. It was reportedly said on Tuesday by none other than Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture. In effect, the Roman Catholic Church, the dominant Christian faith, is saying that Darwin's theory of evolution is compatible with Christian faith.

After all these years, even the Pope and his pals are on-message, Darwin-wise. At least the admission came a bit sooner than for poor old Galileo, but better late than never.

Furthermore, they're going to be discussing the relationship between evolution and faith next month in Rome at a special conference to mark the 150th Anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species which, as we know, changed forever our views about how we came to be here on this little planet. Organisers of the event, hosted by Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University on 3 to 7 March, said at a press conference last September to announce the event that supporters of creationism and its alter-ego, intelligent design (ID), would not be invited. Jesuit Father Marc Leclerc of the Gregorian University said at the time that arguments "that cannot be critically defined as being science or philosophy or theology did not seem feasible to include in a dialogue at this level".

So creationists could be forgiven for beginning to feel marginalised even among their co-Christians. This coming weekend, 929 churches in 14 countries will be holding special services to celebrate the compatibility of Christianity and evolution at "Evolution Weekend" events launched in 2005 by an organisation called the Clergy Letter Project.

As a passing thought, Ravasi said that Darwin's theories had never formally been condemned by the Roman Catholic church. Pope Puis XII said in 1950 that evolution was a valid scientific approach to the development of humans. John Paul II said in 1996 that it was "more than a hypothesis".

So maybe it is time for creationists and supporters of ID to abandon their futile hunt for scientific evidence to support the literal account of creation in the Bible. That's what so many other Christians, including now the Catholics, have already done.

They've realised that being a good citizen, kind and considerate to other people, is far more important than trying to prove the Bible is literally correct. If there is a God, being good is sure to earn you far more brownie points than trying to prove every single word in the Bible is fact.

Now, what was that thing about treating your neighbour as yourself?

What's Unique About Christian Fasting

2009-02-10T15:54:00.002-06:00

From Zenit
Cardinal Cordes Presents Papal Lenten Message

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Christian fasting is distinct from fasting in other religions because its objective is discovering God, not oneself, said the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes affirmed this Tuesday in a press conference at the Vatican, in which Benedict XVI's Lenten Message was presented. The theme for this 2009 message is: "He Fasted for 40 Days and 40 Nights, and Afterward He Was Hungry."
When Christians fast, explained the cardinal, "they do not shut themselves up inside," but rather "they unite themselves with their Lord who fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert."

Society may emphasize physical health and wellness, pointed out Cardinal Cordes, and "the Lenten message seems to contradict social trends." Yet, he explained, "the body can become a tyrant" and "the desire for well-being and pleasure can reduce freedom and become unmanageable by the human will."

He continued: "Fasting aims to make a clean break in our lives. [...] It transcends the earthly dimension and pursues an objective that is beyond this world."

The pontifical council president stated that in other religions, such as Buddhism or Islam, this objective may be "entry into Nirvana or obedience toward Allah, lord of heaven and earth."

He said that the meaning of fasting in Buddhism is the detachment from earthly goods because the body itself becomes a source of sufferings. In this sense, "one should break the habit of 'thirsting' for created things, to abandon the desire and the restlessness that are derived from it, to kill them within oneself," and in this way to arrive to Nirvana, which is the complete extinction of desires.

For Islam, the cardinal explained, fasting is the fourth column that sustains this religion and an obligatory practice during the month of Ramadan.

He explained another reason for the Muslims to detach themselves of all that is earthly: "God has his throne in an infinite distance. He cannot be found in the world. He only communicates with creation and with mankind by means of his law, the sharia."

For this reason, he added, "it would be a scandalous heresy to affirm that Allah would have as a son a member of the human race."

Christian distinction

Cardinal Cordes explained, "fasting in these religions cannot simply be identified with Christian fasts" because in both of those religions "fasting is a struggle against the material world's power over mankind."

He continued: "It is influenced by a dualistic philosophy. Fasting, hence, has negative connotations: It is a way of freeing ourselves from the burden that created things have upon us.

"However, this risks isolating man and closing him in upon himself. For Christians, on the other hand, mystical desire is never a descent into oneself, but a descent into the profundity of faith, where one meets God."

The cardinal affirmed that "fasting in this Lent has no negative connotations."

He pointed out: "How could we scorn our own flesh if the Son of God took that flesh upon himself, becoming our brother! Depriving oneself and denying oneself are positive acts: They aim at the encounter with Christ."

Although it is important to learn from other religions, Christians should deepen in the "inheritance [they have] received and know it better each time. The divine revelation says something new in every historical epoch; it is inexhaustible," he affirmed.

Cardinal Cordes clarified the distinction between the rejection of the world on the part of Buddhism or the Islamic laws of Ramadan, and Christian Lent, which "offers the Christian a spiritual path and practice in order to exercise our surrender to God without reserve."

When people fast with an interior attitude of a desire for conversion, "in Christ they look for communion with the divine 'You,'" said the council president.

He added, "Restraining one's own self must leave space for giving to God because, in the final analysis, only he is the happiness we seek."

"Have to" or "Get to"

2009-02-05T08:47:00.002-06:00

From JonGordon.com

Who knew that two simple words could change one’s mindset, perspective and approach to work and life? Just two words have the potential to enhance joy, productivity, performance and change a complaining voice to an appreciative heart.

So often we say things like, "I have to take the kids to practice." "I have to go to this meeting." "I have to finish this project." "I have to go to work today." "I have to take care of this customer." "I have to share this new information with my team." "I have to see my family this weekend."

We act as if we don’t have a choice. As if we are imprisoned by a paycheck and the expectations of a world that forces us to do thing we don’t want to do. But in reality we do have a choice. We can choose our attitude and our actions. We can choose how we view our life and work. We can realize that every day is a gift. It’s not about what we have to do. It’s about what we get to do.

We get to live this life while so many like Tim Russert and my Mom have left this world far too early. We get to drive in traffic while so many are too sick to drive a car. We get to go to a job while so many are unemployed. We get to raise our children even if they drive us nuts at times. :) We get to interact with our employees and customers and make a difference in their life. We get to use our gifts and talents to make a product or provide a service. We get to eat three meals a day while millions of people are starving. We get to work on projects, answer phone calls, serve customers, participate in meetings, design, create, share, sell, lead and suit up every day for the game of life.

Yes there will be challenges and life isn’t easy but each day we wake up we get another opportunity to make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today. We get to uplift, inspire, encourage, and impact others. We get to live this life. Let’s make the most of it by remembering that life is a gift not an obligation.

Pope Asks Catholics to Rediscover Fasting During Lent

2009-02-04T14:08:00.001-06:00

From VOA News

03 February 2009

Pope Benedict XVI is asking Catholics to rediscover the spiritual meaning of fasting during the upcoming period of Lent.

The Vatican released the pope's Lent message Tuesday.

He writes that fasting has become fashionable for health reasons. But he says the real reason to deny yourself food and drink is to get closer to God's word and become aware that many people have nothing.

Pope Benedict also urged followers to encourage others to pray and help the needy during Lent.

Lent is the 40 day period before Easter. The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday and begins this year on February 25.

Patriarch Kirill hopes for broader dialogue with Catholics

2009-02-03T11:10:00.002-06:00

From Interfax. I am glad to hear this.

03 February 2009
Patriarch Kirill hopes for broader dialogue with Catholics (updated)

Moscow, February 3, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said he hoped relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church would further develop.

The Russian Patriarch met with an official delegation of the Holy See, which attended his enthronement, at his working residence in Moscow on Monday.

Patriarch Kirill "expressed the hope that relations between the two churches would further develop in an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation, primarily in defending and asserting the traditional Christian values in Europe and in the world as a whole," the Moscow Patriarchate reported on its website on Tuesday.

Coincidence of the Orthodox and Catholic believers' positions on many aspects of the life of present-day society could provide the groundwork for such interaction, the Patriarch said.

The Catholic delegation was led by Walter Cardinal Kasper, the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Council Secretary, Bishop Brian Farrell, and the Vatican envoy in Russia, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, were among the delegates.

Pope Benedict XVI, on his part, congratulated Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on his enthronement and reaffirmed his "esteem and spiritual closeness."

In a message to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, made available to Interfax-Religion on Tuesday, the pope said that Patriarch Kirill was now the successor of Alexy II, who "worked assiduously for the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church and for communion with the other Orthodox Churches."

"He likewise maintained a spirit of openness and cooperation with other Christians, and with the Catholic Church in particular, for the defense of Christian values in Europe and in the world. I am certain that Your Holiness will continue to build on this solid foundation, for the good of your people and for the benefit of Christians everywhere," Pope Benedict said.

"I readily recall the good will which characterized our meetings at the time of your service as President of the Department of External Church Relations," the Pope writes.

"It is my earnest hope that we will continue to cooperate in finding ways to foster and strengthen communion in the Body of Christ," he said.

Pope Benedict's message was handed to the Russian patriarch on Monday by Walter Cardinal Kasper. He also passed to the Russian Patriarch a gift from the Pope - a communion cup as the token of the desire to reach complete communication soon.

NBC Sacks Super Bowl Ad Celebrating Life's Potential

2009-01-30T12:10:00.001-06:00

From Zenit

NBC Sacks Super Bowl Ad Celebrating Life's Potential

Says It's Not Interested in "Political Advocacy"

CHICAGO, Illinois, JAN. 29, 2009 (Zenit.org).- An ad that promotes the potential of all life will not be shown on NBC during the Super Bowl on the grounds that it involves "political advocacy or issues."

After several days of negotiations, an NBC representative in Chicago advised CatholicVote.org on Wednesday of it's decision not to run an ad that features President Barack Obama and concludes with the tagline, "Life: Imagine the Potential."

Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org said there was "nothing objectionable in this positive, life-affirming advertisement."

He then noted the irony that while NBC refused their ad for being advocacy-based, an ad of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- an advocacy group -- was rejected because it depicted "a level of sexuality exceeding our standards." The organization was then given a detailed list of edits that would make the spot acceptable.

“NBC claims it doesn’t allow advocacy ads, but that’s not true. They were willing to air an ad by PETA if they would simply tone down the sexual suggestiveness,” said Burch.

“The purpose of our new ad is to spread a message of hope about the potential of every human life, including the life of Barack Obama,” said Burch. “We are now looking at alternative venues to run the ad over the next several weeks.”

The ad aired on BET in Chicago on Inauguration Day. It has become an Internet hit with over 700,000 views in seven days. The ad was in the top 10 "most viewed’" category on YouTube on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

Two Articles concerning the Good Friday prayer for Jews

2009-01-28T15:47:00.003-06:00

What Is Not True About the Good Friday Prayer for Jews

Scholar Points to Errors in Understanding

ROME, JAN. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Dialogue between Jews and Christians is a sensitive issue, and there have been many misunderstandings about the new Good Friday prayer for the Jews, says a scholar in the matter.

According to Father Michel Remaud, director of the Christian Institute of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Literature of Jerusalem, the Good Friday prayer for the Jews used in the "extraordinary rite" is not a prayer for their conversion, but rather a prayer for the Jewish people.

He said the text approved by Benedict XVI does not say "Oremus pro conversione Judæorum" (Let us pray for the conversion of the Jews), but "Oremus et pro Judæis" (Let us also pray for the Jews).

The prayer continues: "That God our Lord should illuminate their hearts, so that they will recognize Jesus Christ, the Savior of all men."

This prayer was released last February, following the July 2007 document "Summorum Pontificum," which permitted an increased use of the 1962 Missal. The Good Friday prayer for the Jews used in the ordinary rite, that is, by the vast majority of Catholics, was not changed.

The Italian episcopal conference had planned a day of dialogue Jan. 16 with leaders of Judaism, just ahead of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The rabbis, however, declined to participate because of Benedict XVI's approval of this prayer.

In something as delicate as Christian-Jewish relations, Father Remaud suggested, "one has to be rigorous."

The priest proposed that the heart of the issue is this: "The Christian who expresses his faith utilizing formulas from the New Testament -- should he be accused of a will to convert when he dialogues with the Jews?"

Liturgical elements

The scholar contended that precision in liturgical terms is also important regarding this issue. And in this regard, he lamented that the press is often inaccurate.

For example, to refer to the 1962 Missal as the "Latin Mass" is erroneous, given that Latin can be the language for the Mass celebrated according to the missal approved after Vatican II by Paul VI.

In fact, this Mass, the ordinary rite, is often celebrated in Latin in international settings.

"To refer to the ritual previous to the 1969 reform, journalists have created the expression -- comfortable but inadequate -- of 'Latin Mass,'" Father Remaud observed. In fact, he added, the missal prepared to reflect the reforms is originally in Latin.

Furthermore, the priest continued, to speak of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews in relation to Mass is also incorrect, given that on Good Friday, there is no Mass celebrated. The Good Friday liturgy, the commemoration of Our Lord's Passion, includes a long list of prayers, including the prayer for the Jews, our "older brothers," as Pope John Paul II referred to them in the synagogue of Rome in 1986.

The prayers said on Good Friday are "'universal' -- for all of humanity. The office proper to this day includes a long series of prayers in which all categories of believers that make up humanity -- and nonbelievers -- are commended to God," Father Remaud added.

"Until 1959," he said, "they prayed, among other intentions, in Latin 'pro perfidis judæis.'" But, "even after the suppression made by John XXIII of the adjective 'perfidos,' the prayer continued using formulas that could be considered hurtful for Jews."

"Perfidos," the priest clarified, does not have a pejorative sense in Latin as it can in vernacular tongues. The word comes from "per" and "fides," that is, to persist or remain in faith.

The formula fell into disuse some years after with the promulgation of the Paul VI Missal, he added, partially because of the pejorative connotation the formula had taken on.

Its use only continued in the communities who received permission from the Church to celebrate the Mass according to the 1962 Missal, after they had returned to communion with Rome from the schism led by Marcel Lefebvre. Thus, for 24 years, the old prayer was used in these Catholic communities, and no one protested, observed Father Remaud.

"Paradoxically," he said, "it is precisely the decision to correct this formula, judged unacceptable and utilized by a very restricted group of Catholics, that has stirred up all this indignation."

Finally, Father Remaud noted that much of the dismay of the Jewish leaders is centered on a word that does not exist in the prayer: conversion.

"To ask God to illuminate hearts is one thing, and to pressure people to try to convince them is another," he said. "The difference is more than a nuance."
-------
1962 Good Friday Prayer for Jews Is Modified

Changes Go Into Effect This Year

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI modified the prayer for the Jewish people prayed in the Good Friday liturgy according to the 1962 Roman Missal.

The Pope's changes to the prayer were publicized Tuesday in a note from the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Vatican Radio clarified that "the possibility of using the 1962 Roman Missal during the Sacred Triduum is exceptional, and only affects certain groups."

Here is a non-official English translation of the Latin prayer:

"Let us also pray for the Jews, that God our Lord should illuminate their hearts, so that they will recognize Jesus Christ, the Savior of all men.

"Let us pray. Let us genuflect. Rise.

"All-powerful and eternal God, you who wish that all men be saved and come to the recognition of truth, graciously grant that when the fullness of peoples enters your Church all of Israel will be saved.

"Through Christ Our Lord, Amen."

* * *

The statement from the Vatican Secretariat of State reads:

In reference to the norms contained in "Summorum Pontificum," issued "motu proprio" [on his own initiative] on July 7, 2007, regarding the possibility of using the latest version of the Missale Romanum previous to the Second Vatican Council, published in 1962 with the authority of Blessed John XXIII, the Holy Father Benedict XVI has established that the "Oremus et pro Iudaeis" from Good Friday's liturgy included in that Missale Romanum will be replaced by the following text:

Oremus et pro Iudaeis

Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum.

Oremus. Flectamus genua. Levate.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat.

Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

This translation should be used starting this year in all Good Friday celebrations using the cited Missale Romanum.

Obama Disappoints With Mexico City Reversal

2009-01-27T10:26:00.002-06:00

From Zenit
US Bishops and Vatican Voice Dismay

WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Justin Rigali called President Barack Obama's decision on day 3 of his presidency to reverse the Mexico City Policy to be "very disappointing."

Obama issued an executive order Friday to restore an 8-year ban on U.S. funding of organizations that perform and promote abortion in developing nations.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities said in a statement that "an administration that wants to reduce abortions should not divert U.S. funds to groups that promote abortions."

Obama repeatedly insisted during the presidential campaign that he wasn't for abortion, but rather for reducing the number of abortions without making the procedure illegal.

Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. episcopal conference, wrote to Obama before last week's inauguration urging him to retain this policy: "'The Mexico City Policy, first established in 1984, has wrongly been attacked as a restriction on foreign aid for family planning. In fact, it has not reduced such aid at all, but has ensured that family planning funds are not diverted to organizations dedicated to performing and promoting abortions instead of reducing them."

"Once the clear line between family planning and abortion is erased," the cardinal added, "the idea of using family planning to reduce abortions becomes meaningless, and abortion tends to replace contraception as the means for reducing family size."

"The worst"

Criticism from the Vatican came Saturday when Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, that "among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead has chosen the worst."

"If this is one of the first acts of President Obama, with all due respect, it seems to me that the path toward disappointment has been very short," the archbishop added.

Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, the retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the Italian news agency ANSA that the president's move "deals a harsh blow not only to us Catholics, but to all the people across the world that fight against the slaughter of innocents that is carried out with abortion."

Obama received some praise from the Church for signing an executive order Thursday to ban torture.

Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the U.S. episcopal conference said the bishops welcomed the order, and that the ban "says much about us -- who we are, what we believe about human life and dignity, and how we act as a nation."

Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy

2009-01-26T14:10:00.002-06:00

From Yahoo! News

And so the culture of death takes one more step forward.

By LIZ SIDOTI and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writers Liz Sidoti And Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writers – Fri Jan 23

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information — an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century. Obama's executive order, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.

The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.

A White House spokesman, Bill Burton, said Obama signed the executive order, without coverage by the media, late on Friday afternoon. The abortion measure is a highly emotional one for many people, and the quiet signing was in contrast to the televised coverage of Obama's Wednesday announcement on ethics rules and Thursday signing of orders on closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and banning torture in the questioning of terror suspects.

His action came one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

The Bush policy had banned U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion as a family planning method.

Critics have long held that the rule unfairly discriminates against the world's poor by denying U.S. aid to groups that may be involved in abortion but also work on other aspects of reproductive health care and HIV/AIDS, leading to the closure of free and low-cost rural clinics.

Supporters of the ban say that the United States still provides millions of dollars in family planning assistance around the world and that the rule prevents anti-abortion taxpayers from backing something they believe is morally wrong.

The ban has been known as the "Mexico City policy" for the city a U.S. delegation first announced it at a U.N. International Conference on Population.

Both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the rule during the presidential campaign. Clinton visited the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier Friday but made no mention of the step, which had not yet been announced.

In a move related to the lifting of the abortion rule, Obama is also expected to restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), probably in the next federal budget. Both he and Clinton had pledged to reverse a Bush administration determination that assistance to the organization violated U.S. law known as the Kemp-Kasten amendment.

The Bush administration had barred U.S. money from the fund, to contending that its work in China supported a Chinese family planning policy of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization. UNFPA has vehemently denied that it does.

Congress had appropriated $40 million to the UNFPA in the past budget year but the administration had withheld the money as it had done every year since 2002.

Organizations and lawmakers that had pressed Obama to rescind the Mexico City policy were jubilant.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the move "will help save lives and empower the poorest women and families to improve their quality of life and their future."

"Today's announcement is a very powerful signal to our neighbors around the world that the United States is once again back in the business of good public policy and ideology no longer blunts our ability to save lives around the globe," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Population Action International, an advocacy group, said that the policy had "severely impacted" women's health and that the step "will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don't have access to family planning."

Anti-abortion groups and lawmakers condemned Obama's decision.

"I have long supported the Mexico City Policy and believe this administration's decision to be counter to our nation's interests," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

"Coming just one day after the 36th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, this presidential directive forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas — something no American should be required by government to do," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., called it "morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans to promote abortion around the world."

"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.
___
AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

Families That Eat Together, Stay Together

2009-01-24T19:37:00.002-06:00

From Zenit

Economist Points to Families as an Answer to Recession

MEXICO CITY, JAN. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- It is no more complicated than sitting down together at the table, but according to an economist from the Catholic University of America, simply sharing family meals is key for children's development.

And, the economist suggested, strong families are good not just for the children given life within them. They are also good for the economy.

These were affirmations made by Maria Sophia Aguirre, a professor in the department of economics at Washington, D.C.'s Catholic University of America, during her address today at the 6th World Meeting of Families, underway in Mexico City.

Her presentation focused on the multiple benefits of stable families based on marriage, for all involved parties. She cited statistics such as marriage increases the likelihood of the father having good relations with children; divorce reduces the likelihood of children graduating from college and high school; and married mothers have lower levels of depression than single or co-habiting mothers.

Even physical health is better for families based on marriage, she said: Infant mortality is sharply reduced in this structure and there are lower probabilities of injury.

On the contrary, Aguirre noted, "the breakdown of the family is a symptom of a sick and weak society."

Problems of all sorts increase in irregular families: Women are more likely to be abused, kids are more likely to use drugs, and women and children of broken families have a higher probability of living in poverty.

More than a meal

And though it cannot be the solution for every problem, Aguirre mentioned that the simple act of eating together as a family has an effect on the development of children.

According to a study done by the National Center on Substance and Addiction at Colombia University, when comparing adolescents who eat dinner 0-2 times a week with their families and those who eat dinner 5-7 times, those who eat with their families more frequently are 40% more like to talk to their parents about a problem. Meanwhile, 171% of the teens who don't eat with their families note more tension at home.

Academic performance went up 38%. Kids were 142% less likely to smoke, 93% less likely to drink, 191% less likely to use marijuana and 169% less likely to have more than half of their friends be drug users.

And predictably, a family composed of both parents is 3.5 times more likely to have dinner as a family than a single-parent household.

More than money

Aguirre then turned her attention to the economic benefits of stable families based on marriage. Giving a review of nations ranging from Canada to Chile, the economist concluded that families are simply better for the economy.

"The breakdown of the family damages the economy and society since human, moral and social capital is reduced and social costs increase," she explained.

The professor contended that family structure is quite relevant for wealth, and that there is evidence to support this from across countries.

"The family is a necessary good for economic development," Aguirre concluded. "It should be promoted and protected if poverty reduction wants to be achieved."

A Papal Priority: Ecumenism

2009-01-21T16:31:00.002-06:00

From Zenit

Official Welcomes Progress With Orthodox

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).-Ecumenical dialogue is a priority for Benedict XVI, as it has been for every Pope since the Second Vatican Council, says a Vatican official in charge of promoting Christian unity.

And, Bishop Brian Farrell continued saying to L'Osservatore Romano, this dialogue is advancing, though not at the same rate on every front. He pointed to significant steps forward with the Orthodox and remaining uncertainties with communities born from the Reformation.

The bishop, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was speaking with the Vatican daily for a series of articles marking this week's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Bishop Farrell affirmed that for the present Pontiff, ecumenism is a "priority matter," as is proven by his "numerous meetings and discourses of ecumenical character."

He pointed to one of the Pope's recent discourses in this regard, given Dec. 12, when the Holy Father addressed the plenary assembly of the unity council.

Dialogue of charity

As the Pontiff noted then, Bishop Farrell said, there has been great "progress in the dialogue of charity" between the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Orthodox Churches, with exchanges of official visits from leading prelates from both traditions, and with a "sincere spirit of friendship between Catholics and Orthodox that has been growing in recent years."

"Precisely this progress in the 'dialogue of charity' has permitted the 'theological dialogue' between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to obtain notable results, even unexpected ones," he said.

Nevertheless, the Vatican official lamented, questions and lack of trust continue regarding the results of dialogue with the Reformation communities. In 40 years of dialogue, the bishop said, even if "many prejudices and misunderstandings of the past" have been overcome, the old differences still exist.

Issues

Bishop Farrell explained that these differences go along two lines: the relationship between Scripture and Tradition on one hand, and the nature of the Church of Christ on the other.

Though agreement has been reached that Scripture and Tradition are not opposed, he said, there is still disagreement about, among other things, the role of the magisterium in interpreting it.

And regarding the nature of the Church, the prelate continued, though the joint declaration regarding the doctrine of justification was a big step forward, there continues to be "profound division" regarding the nature of the Church itself.

"Catholics and Protestants continue deeply divided in the concept of the reality of the Church, between a vision simultaneously spiritual and institutional -- Catholic -- and a vision exclusively spiritual -- Protestant," he said.

But, Bishop Farrell affirmed, "despite that none of these questions has been resolved in the sense of full consensus, and though new difficulties appear on the horizon, the convergences reached corroborate and deepen the sense of the real, though incomplete, existing communion on the base of one baptism and of so many other elements of faith and Christian life preserved from ancient tradition."

After recalling that ecumenism is a "gift of God," the council secretary clarified that though "dialogue cannot be by itself a guarantee of the fulfillment of the final goal of the ecumenical movement, which is Eucharistic unity," nevertheless, "it constitutes a solid base and an incentive to fulfill what is the will of the Lord and the aspiration of so many Christians."

Farewell President Bush

2009-01-16T09:51:00.001-06:00

With President Bush leaving office next week I thought I would give some thoughts on him and his presidency.

People are all too willing to be rough on Mr. Bush these days. Some of it is warranted. Let’s face it, the last four did not go as well as he had hoped they would. The first four were not bad though.

Mr. Bush made some very good decisions and some very poor ones, but all in all I don’t believe you could make a case for our president not following his conscience. I have much admiration for him on this point. Whether it was popular or not, Mr. Bush did what he thought was the right thing to do. I don’t believe he mislead the country or intentionally deceived the American people.

I know that most believe that he is a liar and that he twisted facts to see what he wanted to, but I don’t believe it is the case. Proof of this to me is the change in rhetoric by Mr. Obama after he started being briefed on intelligence issues.

Some call what I am describing as Mr. Bush being stubborn. Maybe it’s that too, but he stood by his principles and what he thought was right, so for that he should be commended whether you agreed with him or not.

I don’t like that he grew the government. It was a mistake. Who knows whether Iraq was a mistake. What W did do was hold the moral ground on issues like stem cell research.

In closing, Mr. Obama’s term is an important one. How he deals with the issues he is faced with will determine his legacy. These are obvious statements. But how he deals with the issues will also determine at least part of our future. How will we and the rest of the world react?

My request for each of the citizens of the US is to pray for both President Bush and President-elect Obama.

May he rest in peace, and may light perpetually shine upon him.

2009-01-09T11:28:00.002-06:00

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus dead at age 72

From the National Catholic Reporter and Zenit.org

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a leading voice of Catholic conservatism in America, and one of those rare theologians and spiritual leaders whose influence vastly exceeded the boundaries of their religious community, has died at 72.

Neuhaus slipped away Jan. 8, shortly before 10 o’clock Eastern time. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering.

A priest of the New York archdiocese and a former Lutheran minister, Neuhaus was best known to society at large as an intellectual guru of what came to be known as the “religious right.”

From the early 1970s forward, Neuhaus was a key architect of two alliances with profound consequences for American politics, both of which overcame histories of mutual antagonism: one between conservative Catholics and Protestant Evangelicals, and the other between free market neo-conservatives and “faith and values” social conservatives.

Pope's prophetic words are coming true

2009-01-08T12:49:00.002-06:00

From the Guardian.co.uk

Church grabs chance to attack birth control pill

Kate Connolly in Berlin and John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Wednesday 7 January 2009

Roman Catholic leaders have pounced on a "confession" by one of the inventors of the birth control pill who has said the contraceptive he helped create was responsible for a "demographic catastrophe".

In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world's Roman Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought "devastating ecological effects" by releasing into the environment "tons of hormones" that had impaired male fertility.

The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by 85-year-old Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step towards the earliest oral contraceptive pill.

Djerassi outlined the "horror scenario" that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction". He said: "This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete."

He described families who had decided against reproduction as "wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it".

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an "epidemic" far worse - but given less attention - than obesity. Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an "intelligent immigration policy".

The head of Austria's Catholics, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, told an interviewer that the Vatican had forecast 40 years ago that the pill would lead to a dramatic fall in the birth rate in the west. "Somebody above suspicion like Carl Djerassi ... is saying that each family has to produce three children to maintain population levels, but we're far away from that."

Schönborn told Austrian TV that when he first read Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical condemning artificial contraception he viewed it negatively as a "cold shower". But he said he had altered his views as, over time, it had proved "prophetic".

Writing for the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, José María Simón, said research from his association also showed the pill "worked in many cases with a genuinely ... abortive effect".

Angelo Bonelli, of the Italian Green party, said it was the first he had heard of a link between the pill and environmental pollution. The worst of poisons were to be found in the water supply. "It strikes me as idiosyncratic to be worried about this."

A leading gynaecologist and member of the New York Academy of Science, professor Gian Benedetto Melis, called Simón's claims "science fiction", saying that the pill blocked ovulation only.

Benedict XVI Explains How to Truly Worship

2009-01-08T10:16:00.002-06:00

From (Zenit.org)

Considers Pauline Concept of Praising God

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- It is only in communion with Christ that Christians can offer God true worship, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope explained this today during the first general audience of 2009, in which he resumed his catechesis on St. Paul.

Speaking in a hoarsened voice after days of intense schedules during the holiday season, the Holy Father offered a lengthy explanation of the Pauline concept of "true worship," as it is explained in three passages of the Letter to the Romans.

Referring first to a reference Paul makes to a rite in the Old Testament, the Pontiff noted how the sacrifice of animals as expiation for human sins could never be sufficient.

"A more real contact between human fault and divine love was necessary," he said. "This contact has taken place with the cross of Christ. Christ, Son of God, who has become true man, has assumed in himself all our faults. He himself is the place of contact between human misery and divine mercy; in his heart, the sad multitude of evil carried out by humanity is undone, and life is renewed."

St. Paul speaks of this fundamental change in worship, explaining that "with the cross of Christ -- the supreme act of divine love, converted into human love -- the ancient worship with the sacrifice of animals in the temple of Jerusalem has ended," the Pope said. "This symbolic worship, worship of desire, has now been replaced by real worship: the love of God incarnated in Christ and taken to its fullness in the death on the cross.

"Therefore, this is not a spiritualization of the real worship, but on the contrary, this is the real worship, the true divine-human love, that replaces the symbolic and provisional worship."

Nevertheless, this spiritual worship has a prerequisite, the Bishop of Rome explained, and it is union with Christ.

"Paul," he said, "always supposes that we have come to be 'one in Christ Jesus,' that we have died in baptism and we live now with Christ, through Christ and in Christ. In this union -- and only in this way -- we can be in him and with him a 'living sacrifice,' to offer the 'true worship.'"

By taking on human nature, Christ is able to do for man what sacrificial animals could not, Benedict XVI affirmed.

"The sacrificed animals should have substituted man, the gift of self of man, and they could not," he said. "Jesus Christ, in his surrender to the Father and to us, is not a substitution, but rather really entails in himself the human being, our faults and our desires; he truly represents us, he assumes us in himself.

"In communion with Christ, accomplished in the faith and in the sacraments, we transform, despite our deficiencies, into living sacrifice: 'True worship' is fulfilled."

Epiphany

2009-01-06T15:43:00.003-06:00

Is 60:1-6

Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.

Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.

Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13

R. (cf. 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6

Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Gospel
Mt 2:1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.

Epiphany?

What is Epiphany?

Marriage is a divine path

2009-01-02T16:37:00.002-06:00

From Opus Dei

“Marriage is a divine path”
I shall never tire of repeating that marriage is a great and marvelous divine path. Like everything divine in us, it calls for response to grace, generosity, dedication and service. (Conversations, 93)

December 26, 1999

Christian couples should be aware that they are called to sanctity themselves and to sanctify others, that they are called to be apostles and that their first apostolate is in the home. They should understand that founding a family, educating their children, and exercising a Christian influence in society, are supernatural tasks. The effectiveness and the success of their life — their happiness — depends to a great extent on their awareness of their specific mission.

But they mustn’t forget that the secret of married happiness lies in everyday things, not in daydreams. It lies in finding the hidden joy of coming home in the evening, in affectionate relations with their children, in the everyday work in which the whole family cooperates; in good humour in the face of difficulties that should be met with a sporting spirit; in making the best use of all the advantages that civilisation offers to help us rear children, to make the house pleasant and life more simple.

I constantly tell those who have been called by God to form a home to love one another always, to love each other with the love of their youth. Any one who thinks that love ends when the worries and difficulties that life brings with it begin, has a poor idea of marriage, which is a sacrament and an ideal and a vocation, It is precisely then that love grows strong. Torrents of worries and difficulties are incapable of drowning true love because people who sacrifice themselves generously together are brought closer by their sacrifice. As Scripture says, aquae multae, a host of difficulties, physical and moral, non potuerunt extinguere caritatem, cannot extinguish love (Cant 8:7). (Conversations, 91)

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:59:00.000-06:00

Nine Ladies Dancing
The nine Fruit of the Holy Spirit: 1) love, 2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness,6) generosity, 7) faithfulness, 8) gentleness, and 9) self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:58:00.002-06:00

Eight Maids A-milking
The eight Beatitudes: 1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, 2) those who mourn, 3) the meek, 4) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 5) the merciful, 6) the pure in heart, 7) the peacemakers, 8) those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. (Matthew 5:3-10)

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:58:00.001-06:00

Seven Swans A-swimming
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: 1) prophecy, 2) ministry, 3) teaching, 4) exhortation, 5) giving, 6) leading, and 7) compassion (Romans 12:6-8; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:56:00.005-06:00

Six Geese A-laying
The six days of creation that confesses God as Creator and Sustainer of the world (Genesis 1).

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:56:00.003-06:00

Five Gold Rings
The first Five Books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch: 1) Genesis, 2) Exodus, 3) Leviticus, 4) Numbers, and 5) Deuteronomy, which gives the history of humanity's sinful failure and God's response of grace in the creation of a people to be a light to the world.

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:45:00.001-06:00

Four Collie Birds
The Four Gospels: 1) Matthew, 2) Mark, 3) Luke, and 4) John, which proclaim the Good News of God's reconciliation of the world to Himself in Jesus Christ.

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-31T14:41:00.001-06:00

Three French Hens
The Three Theological Virtues: 1) Faith, 2) Hope, and 3) Love (1 Corinthians 13:13)

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-26T11:41:00.003-06:00

Two Turtle Doves
The Old and New Testaments, which together bear witness to God's self-revelation in history and the creation of a people to tell the Story of God to the world.

Devotional thought

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2008-12-26T11:38:00.003-06:00

A partridge in a pear tree

The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, whose birthday we celebrate on December 25, the first day of Christmas. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge that feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so . . . ." (Luke 13:34)

Devotional thought

The Twelve Days of Christmas explained

2008-12-26T11:31:00.002-06:00

The Twelve Days of Christmas
Dennis Bratcher

The Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of December 25th with the following day considered the First Day of Christmas (December 26th). In these traditions, the twelve days begin December 26 and include Epiphany on January 6.

The origin and counting of the Twelve Days is complicated, and is related to differences in calendars, church traditions, and ways to observe this holy day in various cultures (see Christmas). In the Western church, Epiphany is usually celebrated as the time the Wise Men or Magi arrived to present gifts to the young Jesus (Matt. 2:1-12). Traditionally there were three Magi, probably from the fact of three gifts, even though the biblical narrative never says how many Magi came. In some cultures, especially Hispanic and Latin American culture, January 6th is observed as Three Kings Day, or simply the Day of the Kings (Span: la Fiesta de Reyes, el Dia de los Tres Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag). Even though December 25th is celebrated as Christmas in these cultures, January 6th is often the day for giving gifts. In some places it is traditional to give Christmas gifts for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Since Eastern Orthodox traditions use a different religious calendar, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th and observe Epiphany or Theophany on January 19th.

By the 16th century, some European and Scandinavian cultures had combined the Twelve Days of Christmas with (sometimes pagan) festivals celebrating the changing of the year. These were usually associated with driving away evil spirits for the start of the new year.

The Twelfth Night is January 5th, the last day of the Christmas Season before Epiphany (January 6th). In some church traditions, January 5th is considered the eleventh Day of Christmas, while the evening of January 5th is still counted as the Twelfth Night, the beginning of the Twelfth day of Christmas the following day. Twelfth Night often included feasting along with the removal of Christmas decorations. French and English celebrations of Twelfth Night included a King's Cake, remembering the visit of the Three Magi, and ale or wine (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some cultures, the King's Cake was part of the celebration of the day of Epiphany.

The popular song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is usually seen as simply a nonsense song for children with secular origins. However, some have suggested that it is a song of Christian instruction, perhaps dating to the 16th century religious wars in England, with hidden references to the basic teachings of the Christian Faith. They contend that it was a mnemonic device to teach the catechism to youngsters. The "true love" mentioned in the song is not an earthly suitor, but refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person who is part of the Christian Faith. Each of the "days" represents some aspect of the Christian Faith that was important for children to learn.

However, many have questioned the historical accuracy of this origin of the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. While some have trying to debunk this as an "urban myth" out of personal agendas, others have tried to deal with this account of the song's origin in the name of historical accuracy (see Snopes on The 12 Days of Christmas). There is little "hard" evidence available either way. Some church historians affirm this account as basically accurate, while others point out apparent historical and logical discrepancies.

However, we need to acknowledge that the "evidence" on both sides is mostly in logical deduction and probabilities. Lack of positive evidence does not automatically provide negative evidence. One internet site devoted to debunking hoaxes and legends says that, "there is no substantive evidence to demonstrate that the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' was created or used as a secret means of preserving tenets of the Catholic faith, or that this claim is anything but a fanciful modern day speculation. . .." What is omitted is that there is no "substantive evidence" that will disprove it either.

It is certainly possible, in fact probable, that this view of the song is legendary or anecdotal. Without corroboration and in the absence of "substantive evidence," we probably should not take rigid positions on either side and turn the song into a crusade for personal opinions. That would do more to violate the spirit of Christmas than the song is worth. So, for the sake of historical accuracy, we need to acknowledge the likelihood that the song had secular origins.

However, on another level, this should not prevent us from using the song in celebration of Christmas. Many of the symbols of Christianity were not originally religious, including even the present date of Christmas, but were appropriated from contemporary culture by the Christian Faith as vehicles of worship and proclamation. Perhaps, when all is said and done, historical accuracy is not really the point. Perhaps more important is that Christians can celebrate their rich heritage, and God's grace, through one more avenue this Christmas. Now, when they hear what they once thought was only a secular "nonsense song," they will be reminded in one more way of the grace of God working in transforming ways in their lives and in our world. After all, is that not the meaning of Christmas anyway?

The Nativity of the Lord

2008-12-24T09:43:00.002-06:00

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

The Nativity of the Lord
Christmas

At the Vigil Mass
Reading 1
Is 62:1-5

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.

Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory; you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD. You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,a royal diadem held by your God. No more shall people call you “Forsaken,” or your land “Desolate,” but you shall be called “My Delight,”
and your land “Espoused.” For the LORD delights in you and makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29

R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
He shall say of me, “You are my father,
my God, the rock, my savior.”
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Reading II
Acts 13:16-17, 22-25

When Paul reached Antioch in Pisidia and entered the synagogue, he stood up, motioned with his hand, and said, “Fellow Israelites and you others who are God-fearing, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. With uplifted arm he led them out of it. Then he removed Saul and raised up David as king; of him he testified,‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish.’From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; and as John was completing his course, he would say, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’”

Gospel
Mt 1:1-25 or 1:18-25

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,

Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile,
Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
Abiud became the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Thus the total number of generations
from Abraham to David
is fourteen generations;
from David to the Babylonian exile,
fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to the Christ,
fourteen generations.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.

or

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.

The Life Story of Santa Claus

2008-12-23T12:40:00.003-06:00

IF A CHILD ASKED YOU ONE OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS,
COULD YOU ANSWER IT?

Why Christmas presents are given? Answer

Why are they delivered on Christmas Eve? Answer

Why do we hang up a Christmas stocking? Answer

Why does Santa wear a baggy red suit? Answer

Why does Santa use reindeer? Answer

Why does he climb down chimneys? Answer

Why do we have Christmas Trees and why do they have lights on them? Answer

The Life Story of Santa Claus