People my age will remember that John F. Kennedy picked his younger brother to be his Attorney General. Anticipating criticism, JFK joked about how he would make the announcement: “I’ll open the front door of the Georgetown house some morning about 2:00 a.m., look up and down the street, and, if there’s no one there, I’ll whisper, ‘It’s Bobby.’ ”
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Jesus told his disciples, at least the fishermen, that he would make them fishers of people. This was of course to mean that they would draw people to Christ. I had the blessed opportunity to do both this past weekend: celebrating Mass at St. John Bosco wilderness camp AND catching a 9.3 lbs jack. It was so awesome!
Does the fish look bigger when I hold it away from myself? #cameratricks lol
Link:
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| Baltimore’s historic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption will host an evening Mass June 21 kicking off the U.S. Catholic Church’s national education campaign on religious liberty. Nancy Wiechec / CNS. |
The B.C. Catholic has a Catholic News Service article on how the U.S. faithful plan to counter President Obama’s healthcare policy:
Masses at well-known basilicas in Baltimore and Washington will open and close the “fortnight for freedom,” a special period of prayer, study, catechesis and public action proclaimed by the U.S. bishops for June 21 to July 4.In addition to the Baltimore and Washington liturgies, national efforts
include establishment of a website at www.fortnight4freedom.org. The
site features resources such as frequently asked questions about
religious liberty, including quotes from the Founding Fathers, the Second Vatican Council and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Read the full story at
website.
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Discussion should take place primarily from a faith perspective. We reserve the right to end discussion on any topic any time we feel the discussion is no longer productive.
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| Monsignor William Hodge (left) accepts a cheque from Sammy Hagar (centre), the “Red Rocker.” Photo credit: The Associated Press. |
The
reports that Hagar decided to take the advice of one of his hits with Van Halen. He donated some ‘big fat money’, $10,000, to St. Nicholas Church in Atlantic City, N.J.
He rose to fame after replacing Diamond David Lee Roth as singer of Van Halen in 1985. Now singing in the band, Chickenfoot, Hagar says his mission is two-fold: not only to rock hard, but to donate cash to food banks in each scheduled city on his current tour.
“The food pantries make the money go far,” he commended. “They can get two-and-a-half meals out of a dollar. I want to help starving children.”
Monsignor William Hodge is grateful for the donation, which he’ll use to help the hundreds of people who come to the church’s food pantry twice a week. Many recipients work low-wage jobs and don’t have enough to eat.
“Some families come to us with six to eight children,” Hodge revealed. “We’ll make sure there’s plenty of meat in their bags of groceries.”
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Discussion should take place primarily from a faith perspective. We reserve the right to end discussion on any topic any time we feel the discussion is no longer productive.
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2012-05-24 Vatican Radio
Some 115,000 Syrians have fled fighting in their country to seek shelter in neighbouring Jordan and more are arriving every day. The Hashemite Kingdom already hosts some 100,000 Iraqi refugees. Caritas Jordan says some 200-300 Syrians are coming across the border each day, many from the border town of Dar’a and from Homs which has seen some of the worst violence since the uprising began last year.
The Catholic aid agency is working in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, and other charities to distribute clothing, cookware, items for personal hygiene and other products. Caritas also assists the refugees in providing education for children and health care.
Gaby Daw, Project creation and funding coordinator for Caritas Jordan told Vatican Radio that most of the families are Muslim, he says, but that doesn’t stop them from knocking on the doors of churches as well as mosques in search of help. While some Jordanians are frustrated by the added burden the refugees place on their society, many he says, have responded generously by opening their homes to and sharing their food with the refugees.
Listen to Tracey McClure’s interview with Gaby Daw: 
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On 24 May 2012 members the Supervisory Board of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) met for their regular meeting. One of the topics on the agenda was, once again, the matter regarding the governance of the Institute. Over time this area had generated increasing worries among the members of the Board and, despite repeated efforts to communicate these concerns to Prof. Gotti Tedeschi, President of the IOR, the situation deteriorated further.
Following discussion of the issues, the Board members voted unanimously in favor of a motion expressing no confidence in the President for not having carried out various responsibilities of primary importance regarding his office. On this basis, the following statement was issued:
“During the regular meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), on 24 May 2012 at 14:00 this Board adopted a motion of no confidence in President Gotti Tedeschi and recommended the cessation of his mandate as President and member of the Board.
The Board members are saddened by the events which led to this vote of no confidence, but believe that this action is important in order to maintain the vitality of the Institute. The Board is now looking ahead to the search for a new and distinguished President who can assist the IOR to regain effective and wider relations between the Institute and the financial community based on the shared respect of accepted international banking standards.”
On Friday the Commission of Cardinals will assess the consequences of the motion taken by the Board and decide on the most appropriate steps to be taken in the future.
(Original text: Italian)
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2012-05-24 Vatican Radio
The United States’ embassy to the Holy See on Thursday sponsored the second in a series of Town Hall Meetings on Migration, this time talking about the experience of women. The event brought together government officials and church leaders, including the President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò. The United States Ambassador to the Holy See, Miguel H. Díaz, was the moderator of the event.
“We need to listen to the experiences of women – and put aside prejudices and put aside prejudgements – and listen to their stories and listen to the reasons why they migrate and listen to their cry and to their needs and to their vision,” Ambassador Díaz told Vatican Radio after the event.
He said the conversation focused on the migrant as a human person.
“We spoke about respect and defence of basic human rights, when it comes to the personal rights of women and the social rights that accompany migrants in terms of the laws established at the international level,” he said.
Listen to the interview by Christine Seuss with Ambassador Díaz:
Below is the full text of the intervention by Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò
Building bridges of opportunity: Women and Migration
Town Hall Panel Discussion 24th May 2012
H.E. CARDINAL ANTONIO MARIA VEGLIO
President of the Pontifical Council
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
Signor Ambasciatore,
Distinti ospiti,
Dear all,
I am happy to be here with you today, upon invitation of His Excellency the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Holy See, joining this Town Hall Discussion on the particular vulnerabilities that face women migrants. My contribution is mainly focussing on the role of the Church to address women’s migration issue, in my capacity as resident of the Dicastery of the Holy See that cares for the pastoral assistance of migrants and itinerant people.
1. Women’s hope
Women in forced migration, despite everything that has happened to them in their lives, respond to their situation with remarkable courage, resourcefulness and creativity. They believe wholeheartedly that the future offers change and possibilities, and are confident to reconstruct their lives. They are convinced that their children will be educated and successful. And it is visible in their smiles. … the smiles that seemed to suggest “tomorrow will be better.”
2. Women facing threats and violence
However, each of them has faced a tragic situation full of brute force, violence and traumatic experiences.
Most conflicts nowadays are civil wars, in which civilians are accounting for more than 80% of deaths. Women are increasing part of those who are forced to move. At present 43 million people fled their homes because of war or human rights violations, of which 80 percent are women, children and young people. They are facing special needs reflecting their situation.
It is common that during the flight they lost one or more children, since they were running into the opposite direction.
Women and girls have become the targets in the many conflicts, leading to abduction and brutality. Their vulnerability is deliberately exploited in order to dehumanise them, to create fear in the region and to disrupt daily life. That’s why they are raped, and forced into sexual slavery. Its impact is not just on the individual’s physical and psychological health, but is also felt at the family and community levels. Rape has been used strategically, as a weapon of war in attempts to destroy the opposing culture, leading to ‘ethnic cleansing’, and to control the territory. If women do not comply with their captors, they are often killed.
3. Women in camps
Once escaped, the displacement is followed by a stay in camps inside or outside the country. However, even these camps do not protect them sufficiently. Women risk sexual violence when collecting firewood. In many countries they are not allowed to work, resulting in dependency on aid organisations. Shortages of basic items and cuts in food rations can put women and girls under pressure to go into survival sex.
That stay in camps can take years and years. At present the average length of time in displaced is 17 years, a lifetime for those displaced as young children or born in one of the camps. One could raise the question which future do these children face, who do not have any other experience than a camp life. But also how do cope parents seeing their children grow up under such circumstances?
If they settle in urban areas, they face other challenges. They are living among the local population, the urban poor, with whom they have to compete for employment, social and other infrastructural services. Many times they are living without the necessary documents, which further complicates life.
4. Commitment of the International Community
This all happens despite the obligations of the international community to protect them, in accordance with the letter and the spirit of human rights, refugee and international humanitarian law. This includes having access to basic items as food, shelter, clothing and medical care, but also the right of work and free movement.
Women also have to adapt to their new life. They have to assume new roles and responsibilities, many times as head of the household. If resettled, children have to get used to a new society, culture and language. The situation for the parents is even more problematic. An adaptation to ordinary daily life activities, sometimes quite different or not known in the country of origin, needs to take place. How to wash windows, when you have been living in the tropics in a house without glass windows? How to clean the kitchen, when you have been cooking outside? Which plants are flowers and which ones are weeds which need to be cut? They are important to become accepted by the neighbours and gradually become integrated into society.
Women refugees express themselves that they want to have a new future, and seen as human beings. As one of them said: “We need to be integrated into society. Then we can contribute to our second country. We hear sweet words, but this is not the reality. We do not get documents. The hurt has to be taken away. We need more than food. Do they know the really deep down problems of refugees? We are human beings with feelings. Look for solutions for our children. Do not talk, but do some practical things. We do not ask for psychological assistance, but an encounter with people who show that they care”.
5. Commitment of the Church
Such remarks are also heard by Church organisations, who act on them. The Jesuit Refugee Service, the International Catholic Migration Commission, Caritas, Episcopal commissions and members of Caritas Internationalis. They are all present on the ground. Sometimes assisting materially, preparing ways for resettlement, dealing with the physical, emotional and psychosocial needs of women and adolescent girl mothers and developing social and economic reintegration programmes.
The church community is called to accompany displaced women and girls with quality, affection and care; along with a specialized attention toward those who have been wounded in their dignity and deprived of their innocence.
6. Trafficking in human beings
May I raise a question? Do you always buy at the lowest price? Many people take that into account. Another question to raise would also be: How are these products made, what were the working conditions? Under which conditions were these products harvested? After all it is quite well possible that the products we buy are made under forced labour conditions, one form of trafficking in human beings.
Trafficking is happening in our backgarden. One has to remark that almost every country is confronted with trafficking problems, whether it is sexual exploitation, forced labour or bonded labour, child soldiers, or abusive ways of adoption. No country is excluded from it. It is a human right abuse. Persons have been deceived about the goals of their future activities and are no longer free to decide about their live. They end up in slavery-like situations or servitude from which it is very difficult to escape. Threats and violence are used to obtain this. The root causes of trafficking are not just poverty and unemployment in developing countries. The demand for cheap labour, low priced products or “exotic or unusual sex” is also a root cause of trafficking that must be addressed.
Victims should be protected and assisted, whereby we must ensure that they have access to justice, social and legal assistance and compensation for damages that they have suffered.
The integration of victims includes medical care and psycho-social counselling, accommodation, residence permit and access to employment. In certain cases it means the return to the home country with micro projects and/or loans. One has to be careful that they do not return to the same circumstances which make trafficking again possible.
7. The Church in the forefront
The Church in many different countries is involved in assisting the victims by being present with them. This involves listening to them, providing assistance, giving support to escape from sexual violence, creating safe houses, counselling geared towards integration into society or helping them to return in a sustainable way to their home country. In addition prevention and raising awareness activities are promoted. Women religious congregations started years ago in different countries by assisting trafficked women for sexual exploitation. An International Network of Consecrated Life Against Trafficking in Persons, Talitha Kum, has come into existence in 82 countries, while COATNET (Christian Organisations against Trafficking in Human Beings) is present in thirty countries and is operating under the legal authority of Caritas Internationalis.
8. Conclusion
Preventive measures are made up of the implementation of anti-trafficking laws, the adoption of labour laws and the regulation of employment conditions, and consequently their enforcement. A special responsibility rests with the consumer who should be aware of conditions under which products are cultivated or manufactured. The introduction of trade labels and codes of conduct could strengthen decent labour conditions.
Combatting trafficking in human beings is a task for the Church, governments, NGOs, employers and business, labour unions and the general public, together with all women and men of good will: fighting together makes the difference, Important steps are dialogue and cooperation: exactly what we are doing today in this meeting, which is already faithful and successful towards sharing our views and efforts in order to help women migrants to build bridges of opportunity.
Thank you.
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2012-05-24 L’Osservatore Romano
The “ancient and new mission” that the Pope announced to participants in the
General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference at the Audience on Thursday
morning, 24 May, in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, is to speak to the world once
again of a God who “for many people has become the great Unknown”. To do this,
the Pontiff said, what we need above all is a determined “renewal of the quality
of our faith and of our prayer”. In fact, the first condition for “speaking of
God” is “speaking with God”, devoting the whole of our life “to what is truly
trustworthy, necessary and essential”. In other words we must aim “for the
essence of faith” if we are “to offer a meaningful response to the great social
and cultural transformations of our time”.
In this perspective the Pope invited the prelates to continue together in the
“ecclesial renewal that the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council entrusted to us”.
Its “authoritative instructions”, he recommended, should be received
“dynamically and faithfully” in the perspective of the “hermeneutic of
continuity and of reform” that he himself suggested in his discourse to the
Roman Curia on 22 December 2005.
Moreover, for Benedict XVI “the crisis that is injuring Europe” today is
essentially “spiritual and moral, for which reason “new methods of Gospel
proclamation and pastoral action do not suffice”. Rather, just as the Council
Fathers did 50 years ago – it is necessary “to start afresh from God”, letting
ourselves be found and grasped by him so that we may “help every person we
encounter to be reached by the Truth”. This is the very goal that the Year of
Faith – which will begin next 11 October – is aiming for: a period in which to
lead men and women back to “a renewed encounter with Jesus”, showing them that
“God is the guarantee and not the rival of our happiness”.
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2012-05-24 L’Osservatore Romano
The books “The Papal Collection of Photographs in the Vatican Library” by
Sandra S. Phillips, Curator of Photography of the Museum of Modern Art, San
Francisco (Vatican City, Vatican Apostolic Library, 2012, 281 pages), and “Cento
immagini del XIX secolo dalla raccolta fotografica della Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana” by Anna Maria Voltan of the Prints Room of the Vatican Apostolic
Library (Vatican city, Vatican Apostolic Library, 2010, 183 pages) were launched
on Friday, 25 May in the Barberini Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Together with the authors, Mons. Cesare Pasini, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic
Library, Maria Antonella Fusco, Director of the Istituto Nazionale per la
Grafica [National Graphics Institute] and Barbara Jatta, Prints Curator of the
Vatican Apostolic Library, will also speak at the meeting. Cardinal Raffaele
Farina, Librarian and Archivist of Holy Roman Church will also be present. The
books are published in the series “Documenti e Riproduzione” of the Vatican
Apostolic Library.
The Vatican Apostolic Library possesses an extraordinary, virtually unknown
collection of photographs which is the subject of the book The Papal
Collection of Photographs in the Vatican Library. It came into being with
the collection of papal addresses,
the
core of the correspondence that included photographs, letters and other objects
sent to the Pope as an expression of devotion and support for him in the
turbulent period of the Unity of Italy. It was Cardinal Lorenzo Randi who first
organized and catalogued the addresses in1867.
Most of the photographs are kept in albums and folders sent to the Pope on
the occasion of his birthdays to show the Pontiff the kind of work that was
being done in places so far away from him and to enable the attestations of
affection and support for the Pope and for the Church of Rome to reach them from
everywhere in the world. In 1870 Pius IX told a group of visitors that the Unity
of Italy had caused him untold sorrow and the loss of vast territories, but at
the same time had permitted him to become acquainted with the devotion and
attention ceaselessly shown to him by the faithful across the world. In this
context the photographs played a very important role.
Sandra Phillips
Credit:
Vatican City, 24 May 2012 (VIS) – In a traditional annual meeting coinciding with the commemoration of the Feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Holy Father this morning received in separate audiences Rosen Plevneliev, president of the Republic of Bulgaria, and Nikola Gruevski, prime minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, each accompanied by a delegation. The delegations subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.
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PRESIDENT OF BULGARIA AND PRIME MINISTER OF MACEDONIA RECEIVED BY THE POPE
Vatican City, 24 May 2012 (VIS) – At midday today the Holy Father received participants in the sixty-fourth general assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference, to whom he delivered an address focusing on the challenges of the new evangelisation in a society increasingly distanced from God. “Our situation requires renewed drive, aimed at the essential aspects of Christian faith and life”, he said. “At a time in which God has, for many people, become the great Unknown and Jesus is simply an important figure of the past, we cannot relaunch missionary activity without renewing the quality of our own faith and prayer. … We will not be able to win mankind to the Gospel unless we ourselves first return to a profound experience of God”.
The Pope began his remarks by recalling that this autumn marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and he exhorted the prelates to implement its teachings in order to meet the social and cultural transformations of our time which, he said, “also have visible consequences in the religious sphere”. Societies of ancient Christian tradition are today characterised by secularism. Thus the spiritual and moral heritage which lies at the roots of the West “is no longer understood in its profound significance, … and a rich soil risks becoming an inhospitable desert”.
The Pope identified a number of worrying trends, including a drop in religious practice and diminishing participation in the Sacraments. “Many baptised have lost their identity. They do not know the essential contents of the faith, or believe they can cultivate that faith without ecclesial mediation. And while many look doubtfully at Church teaching, others reduce the Kingdom of God to certain broad values, which are certainly related to the Gospel but which do not touch the central nucleus of Christian faith”.
“Unfortunately it is God Himself Who remains excluded from many people’s horizon and, when not met with indifference, closure or rejection, discourse about God is relegated to the subjective sphere, reduced to an intimate and private affair which is marginalised from the public conscience. The heart of the crisis affecting Europe also arises from this abandonment, this lack of openness to the Transcendent”.
In this context, Benedict XVI highlighted the fact that “new methods of announcing the Gospel or of pastoral activity are not enough to ensure that the Christian message finds greater acceptance”. As the Council Fathers said, “we must begin again from God, celebrated, professed and witnessed. … Our primary task, our true and only task, remains that of dedicating our lives to the one thing that … is truly dependable, necessary and ultimate. Men live from God, from He Whom, often tentatively and unawares, they seek in order to give full meaning to lives. We have the task of announcing Him, revealing Him and leading others to meet Him”.
The Holy Father continued: “The fundamental condition in order to be able to speak about God is to speak with God, increasingly to become men of God, nourished by an intense life of prayer and moulded by His Grace. … We must allow ourselves to be found and seized by God so as to help the people we meet be touched by the Truth. … The old and new mission facing us is that of introducing the men and women of our time to a relationship with God, to help them to open their minds and hearts to the God Who seeks them and wants to come close to them, leading them to understand that doing His will does not curb freedom; rather, it means being truly free, it means achieving true goodness in life.
“God is the guarantor not the competitor of our freedom”, the Pope added in conclusion. “Where space is given to the Gospel, and therefore to friendship with Christ, man realises he is the object of a love which purifies, warms, renews, and makes us capable of serving mankind with divine love”.
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RETURNING TO THE ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ORDER TO RELAUNCH EVANGELISATION
2012-05-24 Vatican Radio
Thursday, May 24th is a day dedicated in a special way to the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with great devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.
That’s what Pope Benedict said on Sunday after praying the Regina Coeli in Saint Peter’s Square adding how we can join in prayer with all Catholics who are in China, so that they may announce with humility and joy the Risen Christ, be faithful to his Church and the Successor of Peter and live their daily life in a manner consistent with the faith we profess.
Mary, Virgin most faithful, he concluded support the path of Chinese Catholics, render their prayer them ever more intense and precious in the eyes of the Lord, and advance the affection and the participation of the universal Church in the journey of the Church in China.
To mark the Day of Prayer for the Church in China which coincides with this memorial Veronica Scarisbrick speaks to Father Emmanuel Lim SJ about the figure of Matteo Ricci in a feature which includes a passage from the diary of this charismatic Jesuit whose memory still lives on in China today: “..the work of evangelisation , of making Christians should be carried on both in Peking and in the Provinces, following methods both of a pacific nature and of cultural adaptation. Europeanism is to be shunned.”…
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I am a freelance writer, award-winning, bestselling novelist, Vice President of the Catholic Writers Guild, speaker, NFP teacher, Marriage Preparation Instructor. However, the roles I love the most are being wife to my husband, James, and mother to our five sons, ages 12-24.
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In the midst of worry and concern regarding the canonical status of the SSPX, a light-hearted moment is provided by today’s
. Hans Küng has complained that the Pope is to include in the Church invalidly ordained bishops (he means those of the SSPX.) Küng cites the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI,
Pontificalis Romani recognitio
in which Pope Paul VI laid down the matter and form of the sacrament of Holy Orders according to the postconciliar rite.
In fact, the matter was not changed, and the form, in the case of the ordination of a deacon or priest, was left untouched. The form for ordination of a bishop was based on the Apostolic Tradition. The Constitution refers to this as “of Hippolytus the Roman” and dates it to the beginning of the third century. Both of these assertions have recently been challenged. In case anyone has scruples, the newer form is certainly valid: there have been and still are different rites of consecration or ordination of a Bishop and there is no reason to doubt the validity of the newer form of the Roman rite.
I think we can also regard it as certain that Pope Paul VI did not intend to declare ordinations subsequently carried out according to the older form to be henceforth invalid. Küng’s charge that they are, is simply one of the more absurd consequences of the hermeneutic of rupture.
But the fun is only just beginning with this claim. He veers away from the allegation of invalidity of orders to make the further claim that if Pope Benedict accepts the SSPX bishops into the Church, he will be committing an act of schism. Let us not be distracted by Küng’s implied assertion that the SSPX bishops are not already part of the Church. (We can all safely accept that they simply lack regular jurisdiction and canonical status.) Küng’s target is not the SSPX but the Holy Father.
Not only does he warn the Holy Father that he will become a schismatic, he spells out the consequence of this: “A schismatic pope loses his position according to that same teaching of the constitution of the Church.”
Thus the great liberal Hans Küng joins the ranks of the sedevacantists. You may well doubt whether he would agree to the theory of some, that Cardinal Siri was really elected Pope and not Cardinal Roncalli, but you could be tempted to speculate whether a homely Bierkeller in Tübingen might be the place to add to the list of the Popes at large. (Perhaps Martin VI in honour of another German who could tell everybody what was wrong with the Pope.)
Fun as such speculation might be, I think it would be mistaken. I happen to know, from an unimpeachable source inside the Vatican, leaked to an Italian journalist and thence to my late Auntie Eileen, that Hans Küng was indeed invited to become Pope when the conclave of 1978 became deadlocked. When telephoned with an offer of the post, he declined, saying “No. I would prefer to remain infallible.”
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Our discussion is now moving towards tradition and authority. Doesn’t it always? Where do we get truth and how do we know when we have it? Those are always big. My words are in bold. CD host is the indented and not bolded.
Catholicism is a religion. It is not a political party.I
agree. The proper political analogy to Catholicism would be something
like “Western Democracies”, a political ideology not a political party.
Actually the best comparison to any political entity is by an anti-type. That is Catholicism can be understood as being what political entities can never be. Protestant churches act as political institutions. It is when I understood that that I realized that they could never give me what I was trying to get from them -transcendent truth. Catholicism is about grace building on nature. Politics is about the clash of human ideas.
On the other hand the Conservative Bishops like Cardinal Dolan in the
United States are a political faction within the church. His battles
Carol Keehan about who speaks authoritatively on the matter of Catholic
healthcare is a political battle for control.
A political faction is precisely what bishops like Cardinal Dolan are not. Bishops teaching in unity with the pope are a gift of God.
Carol Keehan is not a bishop and she is not really in unity with the pope in her teachings. Equating the two is losing track of the truth and just looking at the issue as a political debate. We can’t do that. God gives us leaders. We need to follow them.
So we don’t find something that will please the largest number of
people. We pursue the truth of God as revealed by Jesus and clarified by
His church.The people we are discussing are the vatican
authorities and the Bishops. They are the ones doing the “clarifying”.
They have to make the choices between alternatives. They have to
resolve “apparent conflicts” between one aspect of the deposit of faith
and another. They are the ones that recently had to decide after
centuries that Jesus didn’t really reveal the doctrine creation and
instead was actually preaching traducianism.
You seem to see some problem here. We look to them for leadership and they give it. Did the bishops actually say traducianism is a part of the deposit of faith or are you putting words in their mouth? You have to be careful there. But yes, they would be the ones to clarify such matters. I have a suspicion that you are trying to impose and either/or on them and they are not accepting that.
We don’t persecute anyone. We believe sex is ordered towards
procreation and that sodomy is a distortion of sex. the question is
whether or not that is true.No its not. By and large that
it is not the question at all, no one cares much what the Catholic
church believes is the order of sexuality. The question is the church
actively engaging in activities designed to use state pressure to make
the lives of gay people worse. Support for expulsion from the military,
bans on adoption, bans on teaching, bans on receiving partnership
benefits, no protection against employment discrimination, etc… If it
were not for churches using state power to coerce people to their
religious views, this whole argument would be far far less heated.
Actually it is about truth. The state can and does ignore the church. In fact, the state is abusing its power to try and force the Catholic bishops to change their teachings. It is doing that precisely because the Catholic church is right. If it was wrong nobody would care what it teaches. But the truth of what she says is confirmed by people’s consciences. They know it. So they want to stop it with force. All the coercion is by the state against the church.There has been no coercion the other way at all. So you are living in a fantasy world.
Tradition is actually on the side of a truth first, evangelism second
approach. Catholics were just not following their own tradition for a
time.That’s an arbitrary definition of tradition. It turns
tradition into whatever you want it to be. I’m going to use an
objective definition: whatever Catholics were doing is the Catholic
tradition.
I think you are misunderstanding here. I was not defining tradition here. I was saying that what the protestants were doing in the 70′s is very much in keeping with the totality of Catholic tradition. So when the Catholics started doing it more recently they were becoming more Catholic. Sure they were looking more like evangelicals too. That is not that important.
The definition “whatever Catholics were doing is the Catholic
tradition” is a bit problematic. Catholics can fall into sin. That does not make that sin part of Catholic tradition. There is often a distinction made between tradition and Tradition. I don’t like that because capitalization does not really work for me to make a word different. But there is sacred tradition. That is historical Catholic teaching weighted by authority. The teaching of the council get greatest weight. Then authoritative pronouncements by popes. then doctors, saints, bishops, etc. But then individual teachings are weighed by how long and how strong the church has believed them. Something that has been reiterated by many popes over many generations would be stronger than something taught by one pope in a less authoritative manner and not really brought up again. We do have the notion of infallibility but that is really just the highest peak of this hierarchy.
So saying “whatever Catholics were doing is the Catholic
tradition” ends up putting Hans Kung in the same category as Cardinal Ratzinger. Both did what they did as Catholics. Both were celebrated by some Catholics and ridiculed by others. But one was endorsed by the magisterium and one was criticized by the magisterium. So even though both strands of thought were part of Catholicism one is part of Catholic tradition and one is not. It becomes even clearer as time goes on. Who get canonized? Who gets quoted in official church documents? These are all important clues as to which ideas are being embraced by the church and which ones are being left behind.
For example on the Church’s relations with the Jews. Antisemitism was
a very old error. Just being old does not make it part of sacred
traditionAnti-Semitism the belief that Jews are genetically
defective so that baptism is not fully effectual in making them part of
European civilization, I’d say was mostly opposed by the Western Rite
Catholic church. Yes there were Catholics who believed in the Aryan
Christ, but it I wouldn’t consider this part of mainstream Catholicism.
Particularly if you consider the personal anti-Semitism of Pius IX and
Pius XII, the fact that they didn’t really do very much I think
indicates how inhospitable Catholicism was to a racial religion.
So you get the example. That is great. The cheap shot at Popes Pius IX and
Pius XII is unfortunate. Pope Pius XII has been attacked more recently so I have done some reading and I know the accusations of anti-Semitism against him are horse-pucky. My guess is the same is true for Pope Pius IX.
If you replace “antisemitism” with being “anti-judaic” then I’d say of
course it was part of the tradition. And this is a good example to work
because we are both opposed to it so there isn’t any disagreement about
the actual policy. The bible itself screams anti-judaic theology:
Hebrews: Judaism is the burned out dead husk of a formerly valid religion
John: Jews are used as the symbol for those who knowingly reject the wisdom of God / light.
Paul: Judaism as an ethnic covenant has passed and via. rebirth in Jesus gentiles are entitled to the promises of Old Testament.
The New Testament says Judaism is to be rejected in favor of Christianity. No surprise there.
Replacement theology was part of Catholic theology precisely because it
was a consistent teaching of the church. Pius IX felt justified in
using state power in Italy to persecute his Jewish population because of
tradition not in spite of it. After WWII the Catholic complicity in
the Holocaust was a major source of embarrassment. So the teaching
changed a little but the emphasis changed a lot. The tradition was, and
still is, anti-Judaic.
I am surprised you seem to swallow every anti-Catholic legend out there. You can think critically about the Catholic church but you can’t think critically about this. Seems a little slanted to me.
http://catholicinsight.com/online/christianjewish/article_264.shtml
http://www.catholic.com/documents/how-pius-xii-protected-jews
I think it was pretty much a disaster for Nancy Pelosi.
http://old.usccb.org/comm/archives/2008/08-120.shtmlI
don’t see that as being a disaster for Nancy Pelosi, why because the
church hierarchy disagrees with her? She acknowledged this disagreement
in the original statement.
If I declare that the earth is flat and acknowledge that NASA disagrees with me does it follow that I didn’t make a fool of myself? But it is worse than that. If she said the NY Times believes something and the NY Times editorial board disagreed with her then nobody would say that is OK because she knew they would disagree. That would make it worse. Somehow she feels she can disagree with the church hierarchy about church teaching and not get that she is rejecting the Catholic faith. She should just admit that the Catholic faith is pro-life and she rejects the Catholic faith. That is honest.
The USCCB are to put it bluntly, lying. The definition of abortion
changed. Their implication that the definition of abortion was
consistent with the one in the middle ages is simply false, and provably
false. One just has to read the very passages she points to in
speeches on this topic. As for “uninformed” I have yet to hear any
matter of factual knowledge we possess today that was not present in the
middle ages that substantially changes the theories of that time.
The definition of abortion changed. But what is called an abortion now was called contraception then. But both abortion and contraception are immoral. So what the USCCB says is true. Pelosi is confused. I thinks she wants to be confused. She wants to be able to throw up her hands and declare the issue to be so complex. It is not. The Catechism clarifies matters quite nicely. Again, we have a living magisterium. Catholics are not supposed to just declare their interpretation of scripture and tradition to be right. They are supposed to take leadership from their bishops and pope.
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| Adam and Crystal Charbonneau spoke from the steps of the Alberta Legislature about their son Caleb who lived for 2 hours May 12 of last year at the fifth annual March for Life rally in Edmonton. Chris Miller / CCN. |
has a story from Edmonton’s March for Life rally about Crystal and Adam Charbonneau who bravely refused to abort their anencephalic baby. Chris Miller from the
has the story:
A year ago, Crystal Charbonneau was pregnant and, at 20 weeks gestation, was diagnosed with an anencephalic baby. Knowing their baby would die, she and her husband Adam from St. Paul were offered abortion, but refused.
At 34 weeks, Caleb was born naturally at 4:37 p.m. on May 12, 2011 — coinciding with last year’s March for Life. He died at 6:30 p.m. that day.
This year’s March for Life, held May 17 in Edmonton, was a commemoration of Caleb Charbonneau.
“We knew from the very beginning that God had a plan for Caleb’s life,” Crystal said.
Read the full story at
website.
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| A custodian sweeps the floor of the Legislative Chambers before politicians enter for Question Period, May 10. |
A couple weeks ago I went to the
to ask politicians about their positions on abortion before the annual
rally:
It’s anything but quiet when B.C. politicians debate one another, except when that debate is about abortion. But three Liberal cabinet ministers and the former leader of the B.C. NDP didn’t stay silent before the annual March for Life rally on May 10.“I welcome [the marchers] here to let their position be known,” said Liberal finance minister and Deputy Premier Kevin Falcon. “That’s what the legislature lawn is for.”
“The democratic right to express an opinion is a positive thing,” said B.C. Health Minister Mike de Jong.
Question Period took place during the March for Life rally, which
Deputy Premier Kevin Falcon said the government was unaware of.
Nathan Rumohr / The B.C. Catholic.Liberal House Leader Rich Coleman said he supported the protest, and offered a reason why government officials didn’t partake in the March for Life event, which drew close to 2000 people. “At 2 p.m. every member of the house is in the legislature,” Coleman said.
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website.
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| Members of the Musqueam First Nation also protested at the Legislature May 10 about a condo development over an ancient burial ground. Politicians from the NDP and Liberals attended their approximately 100 person protest but were unaware of March of Life rally that 2000 people participated in. |
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Here is a translation of the Holy Father’s words to the Cardinals who shared his table for pranzo on Monday. The pranzo was an expression of gratitude for the best wishes addressed to the Holy Father last month on the occasions of his 85th birthday (16 April) and of the seventh anniversary of his election to the See of Peter (19 April). I have added a few personal comments in italics.
Eminence, dear Brothers,
At this moment my word can be only a word of gratitude. Gratitude first of all to the Lord for the many years he has given me; years with so many days of joy, splendid times, but also dark nights. However, in retrospect one understands even the nights were necessary and good, a motive for gratitude.
The Holy Father does not shrink from speaking of the dark nights in his long life. This is an encouragement to all of us who, at various seasons of our lives, experience the disorientation and heaviness of dark nights. Even these, says the Holy Father, can become a motive for gratitude, once we see that were part of a bigger plan, the plan by which God brings good out of evil, and joy out of suffering.
Today the word ecclesia militans is somewhat out of fashion, but in reality we can understand ever better that it is true, that it bears truth in itself. We see how evil wishes to dominate the world and that it is necessary to enter into battle with evil. We see how it does so in so many ways, bloody, with the different forms of violence, but also masked with goodness and precisely this way destroying the moral foundations of society.
Ecclesia militans — the Church militant! This is the core of the Holy Father’s brief message: “It is necessary to enter into battle with evil.” I think of Saint Antony of Egypt, and I remember that the life of the monk is not a retreat from battle, but a readiness to engage in battle, even in the front lines. The Holy Father further speaks here of the evil that masks itself as goodness in order to destroy the moral foundations of society. Let him who has ears hear!
Saint Augustine said that the whole of history is a struggle between two loves: love of oneself to contempt of God; love of God to contempt of self, in martyrdom. We are in this struggle and in this struggle it is very important to have friends. And, in my own case, I am surrounded by the friends of the College of Cardinals: they are my friends and I feel at home, I feel safe in this company of great friends, who are with me and all together with the Lord.
The Holy Father is sensitive to friendship, and to the expression of friendship. No one can be fully human without the help of friends. Holiness itself is, more often than not, sustained and protected by God-seeking friendships.
Thank you for this friendship. Thank you, Eminence, for all that you have done for this moment today and for all that you do always. Thank you for the communion of joys and sorrows. Let’s go forward, the Lord said: courage, I have overcome the world. We are in the Lord’s squad, hence in the victorious squad. Thanks to you all. May the Lord bless you all. And let’s toast.
A communion of joys and sorrows. And a toast. Long live the Pope!
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on the new pain relief guidelines that were recently released in the UK by the
National Institute for Clinical Excellence
(NICE).
The new guidelines acknowledge that many people with cancer and other painful conditions have been under-treated for pain. The NICE guidelines should eliminate under-treatment of pain while providing greater patient safety.
The NICE guidelines encourage the use of stonger Opioids to control pain. The BBC news article stated:
NICE – the National Institute for Clinical Excellence – says
“misinterpretations and misunderstanding” have surrounded the use of
strong opioids for decades, which has resulted in errors “causing
under-dosing and avoidable pain, or overdosing and distressing adverse
effects”.There is also the legacy of Dr Harold Shipman who used
diamorphine to murder his victims. It has made many doctors wary of
prescribing strong opioids.NICE says the aim is to improve both pain management and patient safety.
The NICE guidelines are attempting to eliminate under-treatment. The
quoted Mike Bennett, St. Gemma’s professor of palliative medicine at the University of Leeds who said:
“Almost half of patients with advanced cancer
are under-treated for their pain, largely because clinicians are
reluctant to use strong opioids.”The issue also applied to the late stages
of other conditions such as heart failure and neurological disorders.
The NICE guidelines encourage communication with patients especially in relation to the concern about addiction. Dr. Damien Longson, Chair of the NICE Guideline Development Groups told BBC news:
“People worry they can become addicted, particularly if opioids are
prescribed over an extended period of time. This guideline puts a strong
emphasis on good communication between healthcare professionals and
patients, which is key to ensuring any worries or uncertainties are
addressed with timely and accurate information.”
The proper use of strong opioids eliminates the fear that doctors will abuse opioids to kill their patients by euthanasia. Many people have wrongly equated the use of strong opioids with euthanasia. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recently released the document “Protecting People” that clearly distinguishes the difference between euthanasia and the proper use of pain management drugs.
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Dear Parishioners of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth:
The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth on Monday, May 21, 2012 filed a lawsuit in Fort Worth federal court seeking to halt unprecedented attacks by various federal agencies on religious freedom.
The suit is against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. Department of Labor and Secretary Hilda Solis and the U.S. Department of Treasury and Secretary Timothy Geithner. Despite long and continuing objections by the Catholic Church of the United States and various religious organizations, federal agencies continue to insist on interfering with internal affairs of a church, contrary to what the Founding Fathers had in mind. The purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent the federal government from forcing its views on the Church.
The Diocese is asking a federal judge to bar federal agencies from formulating and enforcing the nationwide mandate that requires religious institutions to facilitate and fund activities that their religious and moral convictions forbid.
The issue is the attack on religious freedom in the form of a Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) mandate that requires all employers provide and pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraceptives, with only a very narrow exception for certain organizations that the government deems sufficiently “religious.”
The Diocese’s lawsuit is in keeping with the longstanding rights of freedom of religion. In addition to our forefathers’ conviction on this, the Second Vatican Council issued a decree Dignitatis Humanae on religious freedom. In this decree, the Council states:
This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits. The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right. (2)
In effect, the mandate prohibits Catholics in the Diocese of Fort Worth from only asking what we have asked since the first Catholic institution was created in the Fort Worth area in 1876 “Are you poor?” “Are you hungry?” Now the definition of religion used in the mandate would require us to ask, ‘Are you Catholic?’ To remain a religious institution under this definition, we could only help if you are Catholic.
Dearly Beloved, many of you have expressed to me your concerns that the mandates are an attack on religious freedom. My fellow Bishops and I agree. We cannot allow mandates to stand that narrowly extend religious freedom only to houses of worship, which reduces religious freedom to only the freedom to worship.
May the Lord continue to be with us on this journey and may He bless each of you.
Gratefully yours in the Lord,
Most Rev. Kevin W. Vann, JCD, DD
Bishop of Fort Worth
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