January 2006 Archives

The good men at the Youth Apostles helped me remain Catholic in high school when I nearly lost my way. I haven't been actively involved for years, but I've kept wonderful friendships and are grateful for their teaching and example.

My company had an opportunity to help them with their Web site, which launched today.

Here are some highlights of their ministry. Like every community, they have a wish list and a prayer list (see the link at the bottom of the page.) For those of you would aren't familiar with them and want quick answers, there's a FAQ here.

For you techheads out there, we used Joomla for the CMS. We like to say: a little Joomla goes a long way.

"It's comin' right for us!" in Spanish?

full story here.

Why the Catholic Church Is Wise to Ban Condoms

You see, the fatal flaw in the pro-condom argument is both simple and devastating: Condoms aren't working to stem AIDS in Africa.

Any royalists out there should be pleased: history is correcting the smears against Marie-Antoinette, executed by the anti-Catholic Jacobin regime, and slandered by enemies before and since. In her last letter before her execution in 1793, she expresses a Christian forgiveness:

I pardon my enemies the wrongs they have done me ... I also had friends ... Let them know that, to my last moment, I was thinking of them.

South Florida Catholic schools seek to silence cyberbullies

The article has some good ideas/methods for keeping kids' internet use from getting out of hand. Like: don't let them have their own blog.

Last year, I was trying to find a statue of St. Lawrence for our kitchen. One of our readers in Switzerland (maybe our only reader in Switzerland?) found one, and was kind enough to send it back to the States via a priest-friend of his.

After months of logistics, the statue (which was described here) finally made it to the Johnson home. I had intended to put it into a niche, which I built by hand after designing it around St. Lawrence's dimensions. Unfortunately, there was something blocking the space where I intended to put the statue, so I ended up building a shelf for him. You can see the result here:

Many thanks to our kind reader, and may God bless you in abundance.

Two congratulations are in order for Pete Vere:

1. Canada has a new Conservative government. Of course, on the American scale, that's equivalent to a squishy Republican government, but it's a vast improvement.

2. Pete has a conversion story in the current issue of This Rock, published by Catholic Answers (but not available online, alas.)

Let us all be happy for him.

I'm just returning to Blogdom after the Canadian election and the first things that hits me is Kathy Shaidle's following protest about Michael Schiavo attempting a new marriage in the Catholic Church. Yes Kathy, I understood how you feel. It's similar to how I felt during the election every time a pro-abort Catholic politician received Holy Communion.

With this in mind, a debate arose between my colleague Dr. Ed Peters who states that canon law would not permit Michael to attempt this second marriage in the Catholic Church and my fellow Terri-culture-warrior Fr. Rob Johansen who says there is very little a pastor can do in this type of case to refuse the marriage.

For the record, I understand where Fr. Rob is coming from and I very much appreciate what he did to help Terri, her family, and Monsignor through this whole sordid affair, but in terms of canonical interpretation I must side with Ed Peters. Like Kathy Shaidle, I believe this marriage is a sham.

The law is clear: "One who, desirous of marrying a specific third party, is the mandans behind a current spouse's death, incurs a canonical impediment known as crimen" (1983 CIC 1090 § 1).

This is a scandal. Even if a dispensation was granted from the Holy See, which we do not know, Mr. Schiavo should not have been allowed to remarry in the Catholic Church without some act of public repentance.

Please pray for our country.

President Chávez demands apology from Catholic church

Someone look over this article about permanent deacons in India and let me know if I'm nuts.

First, the article says, "For the first time in the history of the church in India, laymen will be allowed to perform the functions of a full-fledged priest, except for conducting mass and hearing confessions."

Permanent deacons are not considered laymen after ordination, right?

The next one is a real groaner: "Married men who take up the vocation are expected to embrace the vow of celibacy." Wouldn't the word "chastity" be more appropriate? It's probably just an issue of a Hindu journalist being less familiar with Catholic teaching and terminology.

A sad story of a priest who left the Church to join up with folks who want Catholic sacramental trappings but none of the doctrinal baggage and moral responsibility of the actual Truth. The priest's heresy conviction means he'll be officially defrocked.

Here's how the journalist contrasted Catholic church teaching to the gentlemen's new gig:

His denomination considers itself Catholic in the sense of celebrating its sacraments. But it does not believe in the infallibility of the pope and permits married and female clergy. It also permits same-sex unions and holds more liberal views than the Vatican on divorce and birth control.

So after that night and day laundry list, his new denomination is "more liberal?" Winner - understatement of the week.

Full article here.

To pick up on John's point below about muddle-headedness that favors the enemies of our country, here's an example of AP's thinking in a photo caption:

Exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden is seen in this April 1998 file photo in Afghanistan....

"Dissident"? Y'know, I don't think the attacks on the US Embassy in Kenya, the USS Cole, the Khobar Towers, the WTC (in 1993 and 2001), and the Pentagon are really summed up by the word "dissident". (And throw in the various attempts to kill Middle- and Near East heads of state, anti-Taliban Afghan leaders, and Iraqi democrats.)

Perhaps AP will start to describe Eric Rudolph, Ted Kaczynski, and the guy who was sending out those anthrax-express letters as "dissidents" too.

Hardly a resounding condemnation of the Venezualean Cardinal's remarks I posted recently.

The Nuncio does have a point that "no religious act should be turned into a political one." Yet, isn't that the same retort that "Catholics" who are pro-choice throw at priests who are strong enough to preach about the evils of abortion and that Catholics should remember that when they vote?

Finish this headline:

"US Catholic Worker Community Draws Spotlight on..."

a) Appalachian Coal Mine Safety
b) Lack of Increases in the Minimum Wage
c) Walmart's Unfair Business Practices
d) Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility
e) All of the above

If you guessed E, you'd probably be right.
But the actual article is about d.

So is it unjust to hold 500 enemy combatants? That's just 1/5 of the people who were actually killed on 9/11. And it turns out that "Some former Guantanamo detainees have become fighters in Pakistan — or rejoined the armed struggle in Afghanistan — since their release." [source]

I used to work on the same block as St. Joe's in Old Town Alexandria. I made it to the early morning Mass there a handful of times.

Apparently today is a big day at that parish, since it was founded nearly 90 years ago to serve the African-american community in that area.

The pulsing gospel beat had Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde clapping his hands and singing along at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Alexandria. ...more

Someone has some 'splaining to do!

Call for Catholic primary to be changed to Muslim faith school

An Islamic campaign group has called for a Catholic primary school to be based on the Muslim faith. The Campaign for Muslim Schools said 90% of pupils at St Albert's Primary, in Pollokshields, Glasgow, were Muslim.

And the last line of the piece:

A spokesman for the Catholic Church was not available for comment.

Makes me think of: Islamification of Europe.

Latin America has a history of political unrest with violent results. Now tensions are rising between "President" Hugo Chavez and Cardinal Rosario Castillo.

From the good Cardinal:

"A government democratically elected seven years ago has lost its democratic path and shows signs of dictatorship, where all powers are in the hands of one person who exercises them in an arbitrary and despotic way,"

From the mild-mannered Chavez:

Chavez, who often brandishes a crucifix and evokes Christ when vowing to fight poverty, has clashed with Venezuela's Catholic leaders before, calling them a "cancer" and once branding Castillo a "coup-mongering bandit".

Let's pray we don't get more of these in the 21st century.

Amy Welborn's got a fun thread about that Schutte song: apparently most parishes sang it reflexively according to the Scripture reading for the day.

In Delaware, a bill to legalize human cloning for scientific purposes is up for a vote in the legislature Thursday, January 19. It's been postponed a couple of times and modified a little, in the wake of the campaign opposing it.

Rae Stabosz writes:

On January 12, the proponents of Senate Bill 80 (SB80) postponed what was to have been the final vote on this bill in the wake of our Rose and a Prayer campaign. Through this campaign, made up of Catholic and non-Catholic Christians throughout the state, 1000+ Delawareans committed to one hour of prayer each during the eight days preceding the vote. The prayer was intercessory, to ask the Lord to keep destructive embryonic research from Delaware. This campaign also sent a rose to the representative of each of the citizens who took part in that prayer commitment, asking them to vote against the bill.

The bill has been modified to make it more palatable to those representatives who are on the fence or who changed their votes to "No" after our campaign. It still authorizes destruction of human embryos for research. This Thursday, January 19, the bill is to come to a vote finally.

We would like to go beyond the state of Delaware to ask folks throughout the Christian blogosphere to join us in prayer between now and Thursday. Pray that almighty God would hear His people and not allow destructive embryonic research to come to Delaware. Pray that He strengthen and purify those who fight against this legislation. Pray that He enlighten the minds and change the hearts of those who support the bill but are open to truth. And pray that He confound the Powers that deceive people and work to unleash yet another horrendous attack on the dignity and value of human life, this time in the name of scientific good.

Our plea is for prayers. This is our strength, this is our power, as disciples of Christ. If, in addition, anyone would like to contribute money to help us run radio and newspaper ads between now and Thursday, see http://www.aroseandaprayer.org.

Professor Ed Peters notes an LA case in which a judge has ordered a priest to answer questions about whether a suspect confessed to him; the judge claims that the confessional privilege doesn't cover that fact.

Dr. Peters explains why there's really no material evidence to be gained from such a question anyway, and spells out what a priest may not licitly disclose.

After about thirty years, the Benedictine abbey in Pecos, NM may have to give up its somewhat experimental way of life as an unofficial "double" monastery. I say "unofficial" because the men's community was founded in 1955, but the women's community associated with it has never been formally established as a monastery in its own right: the combination was considered a daring experiment when it started in the heyday of charismatic-renewal communities. I think couples and families lived there too for a time.

It seems that the Benedictine higher-ups in Rome and the Congregation for Religious have told the abbot to get this all reorganized in a more conventional way, so that the women would be under their own elected superior, and the women's monastery could have its own property not totally dependent on the goodwill of the monks.

Alas, it's not working out that way. Of the five women who resided there, three have decided to join existing monasteries elsewhere rather than form a new house at Pecos, which would no doubt be a big job. Of course, their departure pretty much scotches the project for the other two, who have to seek another solution.

When the NYT got hold of the story, little gears turned in the reporter's head, and he slotted it into a conventional paradigm: "liberal nuns vs. male hierarchy", and portrayed it as a clampdown:

the women were told by the Vatican that they were not nuns in the opinion of the church

Get the spin? The reporter takes a judgment that's probably a cut-and-dried matter of canonical facts -- e.g., "you didn't go through the usual procedure, so you aren't legally bound by vows as religious sisters; if you want, you can remedy that by doing [XYZ]" -- and he makes it sound like a personal snub based on "opinion".

Then, without having any interviews with the departing sisters (who wisely have been turning down the press), he portrayed them as refuseniks choosing to "leave the monastery altogether rather than submit to the requests from Rome".

Sorry, sisters, this Times guy's trying to draft you into the war of All Women against The Male Vatican Hierarchy. (I think he fooled Mark Shea into believing it.) I salute you for passing up that invitation!

Take me, O Heart of Christ!

Take me, O Heart of Christ, in all that I am,
take me in all that I have and that I do,
in all that I think and all that I love!

Take me in my spirit, that it may cling to Thee;
take me in my willing, that it will but Thee;
take the depth of my heart, that it love only Thee!

Take me, O Heart of Christ, in my secret desires
so that you be my dream and only goal,
my one affection and my complete happiness!

Take me for the work of Thy great mission,
for a complete gift toward my neighbor's salvation,
and for every sacrifice in service of your people!

Take me, O Heart of Christ, without limits, without end;
take even what I've failed to offer Thee;
and never give back to me what you have taken in hand!

Take for eternity all that is in me,
that one day I may, O Heart, possess Thee,
in the embrace of Heaven take Thee and keep Thee!
--by Jean Galot, S.J.

These days when I hear about some elementary school that's installing computers by the dozens, my reaction is to look downcast and say, "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." A study in the UK confirms again that products peddled by the educational-technology hucksters can be worse than worthless.

(via Slashdot)

How about giving Cubans who flee their country the benefit of the doubt if they make it to the 7 mile bridge?

This is an amazing cop-out on the part of our immigration officials.

This guy Brad gets even with overseas senders of fraudulent e-mail scams in a delightful way: he plays dumb, spins tales, and strings them along, and even gets them to waste their time sending him photos, making elaborate and ridiculous business arrangements, and trying to meet up with him. In this example, he responds to a very hush-hush offer from someone calling himself "Benedictus XVI".

We've been waiting for this. On December 22, Pope Benedict spoke to the Roman Curia with a look back at the year, but it has taken a couple of weeks before the Vatican released an official translation of his message. There's even been a certain amount of fuss in the Italian press about the delay; Sandro Magister asked if somebody at the Vatican was trying to keep the speech from getting attention. But no fear: we bloggers will comb through it all.

The Pope looks back to the last days of Pope John Paul, in light of the late pontiff's teaching about the role of Jesus' suffering in the redemption of the world.

From the theme of the World Youth Day ("we have come to worship Him"), he looks to the resurgence of Eucharistic adoration, and the Synod on the Eucharist.

But the most extensive part of his address is a look at the Second Vatican Council, at its 40th anniversary:

What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done? No one can deny that in vast areas of the Church the implementation of the Council has been somewhat difficult, even without wishing to apply to what occurred in these years the description that St. Basil, the great Doctor of the Church, made of the Church's situation after the Council of Nicaea: He compares her situation to a naval battle in the darkness of the storm, saying among other things: "The raucous shouting of those who through disagreement rise up against one another, the incomprehensible chatter, the confused din of uninterrupted clamoring, has now filled almost the whole of the Church, falsifying through excess or failure the right doctrine of the faith ..."

In the Council, the Church responded to a modernity that had progressively denied God and attempted to marginalize religion from social life into a purely personal sphere. As St. Thomas Aquinas redeemed classical philosophy by reconciling it with Christian faith, the Second Vatican Council sought to open a new dialogue with modern societies by showing one of their fundamental principles -- the religious liberty of man in society -- can be harmonized with the Catholic faith.

The part of the address I value most is the Pope's discussion on how the Council should be interpreted: not as a "discontinuity", a revolutionary event replacing all that had gone before it; but rather as a "reform" by the Church, which strives and seeks always to turn afresh toward the Lord, in continuity with what has gone before. Here the Pope describes the result of misunderstanding the council:

The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. However, the true spirit of the Council is not to be found in these compromises but instead in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.

These innovations alone were supposed to represent the true spirit of the Council, and starting from and in conformity with them, it would be possible to move ahead. Precisely because the texts would only imperfectly reflect the true spirit of the Council and its newness, it would be necessary to go courageously beyond the texts and make room for the newness in which the Council's deepest intention would be expressed, even if it were still vague.

In a word: It would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit. In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim.

The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one.

In contrast:

The hermeneutic of discontinuity is countered by the hermeneutic of reform [...]

Here I shall cite only John XXIII's well-known words, which unequivocally express this hermeneutic when he says that the Council wishes "to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion." And he continues: "Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us …." It is necessary that "adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness ..." be presented in "faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another ...," retaining the same meaning and message.

It is clear that this commitment to expressing a specific truth in a new way demands new thinking on this truth and a new and vital relationship with it; it is also clear that new words can only develop if they come from an informed understanding of the truth expressed, and on the other hand, that a reflection on faith also requires that this faith be lived. In this regard, the program that Pope John XXIII proposed was extremely demanding, indeed, just as the synthesis of fidelity and dynamic is demanding.

However, wherever this interpretation guided the implementation of the Council, new life developed and new fruit ripened. Forty years after the Council, we can show that the positive is far greater and livelier than it appeared to be in the turbulent years around 1968. Today, we see that although the good seed developed slowly, it is nonetheless growing; and our deep gratitude for the work done by the Council is likewise growing.

Most of the disputed issues in the Church can only be understood with a correct interpretation of the Council.

One day, when composers feted,
overdone and overrated
will repent the kitsch we hated

We'll forswear our casus belli
and forgive their peccadilli--
(Read the rest at Bettinelli.)

Here's an old news item: CNN tells how a Bible college in Kentucky pleaded with its phone company for months to get rid of their "666-" phone number.

"We're just elated that the number has been changed," said Rob Roy MacGregor, the college's vice president of business affairs. "It was like we had this Scarlet Letter attached to us."

Congratulations, folks.

"Kaine will be Virginia's first Catholic governor"

For his unabashed support of abortion while mentioning his missionary work when he was in his 20s, Kaine deserved to be called "Catholic" with quotes.

"Catholic" when it will score points, pro-abortion when it will score more points.

I had no idea that Muslims sacked Rome in 846.

I mean, the whole world is waiting for a definitive answer on this from an authoritative source:

Italian Court to Decide Existence of Jesus

What's wrong with hospital staff refusing to perform procedures that they find morally objectionable?

Ask the legal bucketheads at the European Union:

Slovak-Vatican abortion deal criticised by EU experts

Slovakia has been challenged by EU legal experts over an agreement with the Vatican, aimed at reducing the number of abortions in the country...

The EU’s Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights, a group of member state analysts created by the European Commission, has indicated Slovakia could be "violating its obligations" as an EU member, according to the UK paper.

The Slovak-Vatican "concordat" would enable health workers in hospitals founded by the catholic church to refer to "conscience" grounds in saying no to women demanding abortion or in vitro fertilisation (IVF)...

The EU legal panel said that in principle "certain religious organisations" should have the right not to perform "certain activities where this would conflict with [their] ethos or belief."

However, the experts added "It is important the exercise of this right does not conflict with the rights of others, including the right of all women to receive certain medical services or counselling without any discrimination."

Banning casino fundraisers for the classroom will be on the table next week for Calgary's Catholic school board, thanks to a motion filed by dissident trustee Michael O'Malley.

Calgary's top Catholic, Bishop Fred Henry, has said using casinos to collect cash for school projects fosters greed and is a detriment to family values. ...more

St. Louis archbishop ousts Polish parish

St. Louis’ Roman Catholic archbishop has issued a "decree of suppression" of St. Stanislaus Kostka, ending the historic church’s standing as a Catholic parish in the St. Louis Archdiocese.

The traditional Polish parish, which is at odds with the archdiocese over control of the parish’s property and assets, is appealing the suppression, along with last year’s interdict and last month’s excommunication of its lay board of directors and priest.

German faithful want more energetic Catholic teaching

The great majority of German Catholics believe it is important that children and young people be given a more active and intense presentation of the faith, according to a poll carried out among some three thousand German Catholics.

Minsk, Jan. 06 (Forum 18/CWNews.com) - Two Catholic priests from Poland who have served in Belarus for more than a decade have been ordered to leave the country by year's end 2005, as their religious visas have not been renewed. ...more

ASK Francis Campbell whether he sees his appointment as Britain’s first Roman Catholic ambassador to the Vatican since the Reformation as controversial, and he laughs. “The Pope is a moral figurehead for the world, not just for Catholics,” he says. “The days when a Catholic could not represent the Queen to the Pope are long past.” But is he a devout Catholic? More laughter. “Well, I haven’t been to Santiago de Compostela on my knees.” ...more

Update: There's a little news, so I'm moving up this item, which was formerly dated 12/16/05.

A social service agency that runs a program for the homeless in our parish hall has been given an extension to continue operating until April, so it's reasonable to figure that that applies to the parish too. Deo gratias!
--RC

December 16, 2005

A spokesman for the archdiocese announced on Tuesday that, contrary to earlier statements, my parish would not be closing this Thursday:

Terry Donilon, Statement:

This past spring the Archdiocese of Boston extended the closing date of Holy Trinity Parish to December 15, 2005.

Since that time, the Archdiocese has been in communication with parishoners of Holy Trinity regarding their concerns and has also been in communication with Bridge Over Troubled Waters [residence for homeless teens] and the Medeiros Center [day shelter for seniors], a program of Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses. [The two social service programs are located in our church hall and the unoccupied floors of the rectory.]

Holy Trinity Parish will not be closing on Dec 15th.

At this time, the Archdiocese intends to pursue further communications with parishoners and representatives of the tenant agencies concerning future plans.

I know that seems like a pretty non-committal announcement, but it's about par for the course, as the pastoral solicitude of the local curia goes. (The attentive reader will have noticed that the Archdiocese of Boston doesn't even know how to spell "parishioner"!)

Anyway, we're still here! A happy and holy Advent!

Charles Wilson of the St. Joseph Foundation devotes his December newsletter to an article about the parish as an institution, the relation of the parish to the diocese, and the standing of parishes in civil law. He also gives an overview of parish-related cases appealed to Rome, and the apparent fact that there really is no reliable canonical remedy for most bad administrative decisions. But that doesn't stop him from helping people seek remedies to the extent possible.