A difficult decision. . .(UPDATED)

If you have been reading this blog for the last two years, you know that I have been struggling with how my vocation as a priest is properly expressed in the Dominican tradition.  

Though I am a life-long student and I love preaching. . .it's becoming clearer and clearer to me that my priestly vocation is being smothered as a Dominican.  In a nutshell, I don't have to be a priest in order to be a philosophy professor.  If my future in the Order is to minister as a member of a university faculty, then it will be necessary for me to move away from the Order and seek out a ministry that will allow me to both BE a priest and to DO priestly things.

Therefore, I have decided to seek exclaustration from the Order and return immediately to the U.S. where I will begin looking for a diocese that needs my vocation as a priest.

This has been a difficult two years of discernment.  Please keep me in your prayers!

UPDATE:  lots of email and comments on this post!  There seems to be some confusion about the nature of exclaustration.  I would encourage you to click on the link above for an explanation.

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Walking back from class. . .

Adventures to and from the Piazza Navona. . .

Stopped by a German couple looking for the Termini.  They anxiously refused to ride the bus.  Thinking about the complex, nearly chaotic layout of Roman streets, and despairing for my sanity and theirs in trying to explain to them how to get to the Termini, I settled on the time-honored Roman method of giving directions:  I pointed straight ahead with great authority and smiled real big.  

A young woman approached me speaking Italian so fast my face got windburned.  She was decked out in the latest teen fashions--jeans, ski jacket, expensive shades, etc.  I asked her if she spoke English.  She glared at me menacingly and spoke one word:  "Money."  I barked a laugh and walked off.  

A middle-aged man approached me, speaking Italian.  He asked if I lived at the Angelicum.  I said yes.  Then he started asking me rapid-fire questions about the Order, informing me that he was wanting to join an American province.  I asked me if he spoke English.  He smiled and switched to a heavily accented Mexican-English.  Turns out that he is a philosophy professor in Mexico City and wants to join the Southern Province!  We exchanged info and parted friends.

So, wearing the habit on the streets of Rome can have its pluses and minuses. 

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Very sad that my French classes are over. . .(yea right)

Dancing around my pig sty and singing:

French is done! 

French is done!  

French is done! 

OK.  Not very original.  But what it lacks in creativity, it makes up for in enthusiasm.  

WooHooWooHooWooHoo!!!!!

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (Late Morning Edition)

I worked at McDonald's for a couple of summers when I was in high school.  We never had anything like this happen to us.  People seem to be losing their minds!

Predictable:  Old Media play up fake violence against Dems; ignore the only arrest for a real threat of violence--against a GOP Congressman.

Bishop preaches:  stand up to the odious NYT!

The Old Media continue to lose viewers:  this explains why they continue to reprint/rebroadcast W.H. and DNC talking points and call it news. . .the only people watching/reading the ones who wrote the talking points!

A complete list of B.O.'s promises and their expiration dates. 

Race-hustler, Al Sharpton, told to put up or shut up about the Tea Partiers shouting the n-word at the Congressional Black Caucus.  

On the delusions of an Episcopal dinosaur:  John Shelby Spong gets everything wrong.

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Resend your questions. . .

Today is the LAST DAY of French!!!  Well, it's the last day of French classes.  I will have to continue on my own.

Looking over my email/comments I despair for the possibility of catching up.

So, since I will be freed from any formal academic obligations (i.e., classes), this is the time to just start over fresh.

Send them on! 

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Cancel your NCReporter subscription!

Fr. Z. asks the hard-hitting question for Holy Week:  is it time to cancel your NCReporter subscription?

The answer is:  YES!

The NCR (or, as we called it in my studium days, "the Nasty Critical Rag") is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the dying, dissenting, dinosaur ecclesial left.  The only good thing about the NCR is John Allen.  He is very fair when reporting on Church issues, pulling no punches when punches are required, but at the same time he unfailing keeps his distance from poisonous dissenting ideology.  

My greatest concern is for parishes that keep this trash in the back of the church for parishioners to read.  People who spend most of the time working for the Church know how to read the NCR and balance its slanted content with other sources.  But normal, average Catholics don't have the time or probably even the inclination to seek out balancing sources.  They see "Catholic" in the title and think this rag is an official, church-sponsored publication. 

Fr. Z. notes that the wheezing crackpots on the editorial board are using the current scandals to push for all their favorite reforms a la 1972.  There is nothing in the structure of the Church, its teachings, its liturgical practices, or its centuries-old spirituality that condones child sexual abuse.  These horrific incidents of abuse happened precisely because the teachings of the Church were not followed.  

Ordaining women, making celibacy optional, blahblahblah will do absolutely nothing to guarantee that abuse will never happen again.  Let's look at the U.S. public school system.  Lots of married men and women, lots and lots of sexual abuse.  The Protestants?  Lots of ordained married women, lots of abuse.  The Anglicans?  Lots of ordained married men and women, lots of abuse.  Need I go on?  

If you have a subscription to the NCR, cancel it.  For the good of the Church, just cancel it.

Rant over.

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Thought Experiment: new world, new rules*

The year is 2187.  Though global warming proved to be a cruel hoax back in the early 21st century, the world is soon to be destroyed.  Scientists have detected a string of asteroids headed straight for our solar system.  There is nothing we can do but wait for the end.  

A year before the asteroids are predicted to hit the earth, the world's governments are unexpectedly contacted by an advanced alien race that offers us a glimmer of hope:  human resettlement on a earth-like planet.  But there's a catch.  Their technology, though far beyond anything we could dream, is limited.  They can transport only 1,000 people to this new planet. 

The mode of transportation is something akin to the transporter device used in the old Star Trek  TV series.  Matter is converted to energy, stored as data, and then reassembled as matter in another place.  This mode of transportation has an unnerving, unavoidable side-effect.  The people who go into the device come out radically changed.  Every characteristic possessed by an individual is altered--physical appearance, mental capacity, personality traits, propensity to disease, skill sets; even basic beliefs, prejudices, habits, inclinations, and quirks.  

The aliens assure us that since the device uses the 1,000 people stored as a template for reassembly, that no one will be rematerialized as anything but basically human, including every potential for good and evil.  However, every other indicator of sex, race, skin color, personality-type, etc. will be changed.  No one will arrive on the new planet with the same characteristics that he or she left with.  

A computer-generated program selects 1,000 people that best represents the human race.  You are one of these people.  Once selected, all 1,000 of you gather on the alien vessel for briefing on the new world.  The aliens tell you that the trip to the new earth will take about two years.  During that time, they suggest that the group begin thinking and planning for your lives once transported to the surface.

Your first task:  establish the basic political and social structure of your world.  Given that no one in the group will arrive on the planet as the same person who left Earth, what will be the fundamental socio-political principles that guide the development of this new civilization?

To assist the group, the aliens lay down a few inviolable rules:

1).  All 1,000 members of the group must remain together in the new settlement.  There can be no "colonies" of like-minded individuals splitting off from the main group until all of the original settlers have died.

2).  Until all 1,000 settlers have died, the aliens will ensure that the new constitution of the settlement is enforced.  They will become involved only in the most fundamental decisions of the settlement.

3).  Once all the original settlers have died, the aliens will withdraw and allow the settlement to continue on unimpeded.

So, the question is:  what will be the fundamental socio-political principles that guide the development of this new civilization?

*adapted from John Rawls' "veil of ignorance" thought-experiment

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BXVI & the "secret" of the 2001 letter on abuse

John Allen, reporter and blogger for the execrable NCReporter, clarifies the 2001 letter, De delictis gravioribus,  sent by then-Cardinal Ratzinger to the Church's bishops:

That letter indicates that certain grave crimes, including the sexual abuse of a minor, are to be referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that they are "subject to the pontifical secret." The Vatican insists, however, that this secrecy applied only to the church's internal disciplinary procedures, and was not intended to prevent anyone from also reporting these cases to the police or other civil authorities. Technically they're correct, since nowhere in the 2001 letter is there any prohibition on reporting sex abuse to police or civil prosecutors.

In reality, few bishops needed a legal edict from Rome ordering them not to talk publicly about sexual abuse. That was simply the culture of the church at the time, which makes the hunt for a "smoking gun" something of a red herring right out of the gate. Fixing a culture -- one in which the Vatican, to be sure, was as complicit as anyone else, but one which was widespread and deeply rooted well beyond Rome -- is never as simple as abrogating one law and issuing another.

That aside, here's the key point about Ratzinger's 2001 letter: Far from being seen as part of the problem, at the time it was widely hailed as a watershed moment towards a solution. It marked recognition in Rome, really for the first time, of how serious the problem of sex abuse really is, and it committed the Vatican to getting directly involved. Prior to that 2001 motu proprio and Ratzinger's letter, it wasn't clear that anyone in Rome acknowledged responsibility for managing the crisis; from that moment forward, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would play the lead role.

Keep these facts handy when your fav anti-Catholic uncle/neighbor/co-worker starts spouting off about BXVI coddling clerical child molesters.

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Abuse & Scandal: what went wrong?

I've been getting a lot of email about the brewing global sex abuse scandal, asking me to explain "what went wrong."  Catholics are justifiably angry, demoralized, and worried.  There seems to be no end to the revelations of perversion and cover-up.  

We search for explanations b/c we believe that knowing what happened will allow us to fix things and ensure that none of this will happen again.  Unfortunately, human history throws a cold bucket of water on these sputtering embers of hope.  Fortunately, however, salvation history fans the flames into a holocaust. 

While the bigots in the media scurry around looking for damning memos and faux-victims eager for a payday from the Church, Catholics must keep two essential truths in mind:  1) we are all sinners and 2) the war against evil has already been won.  We have allowed the lawyers, the therapists, the talking-heads, and the ecclesial bureaucracies to distract us with statistical reports, financial reports, psychological explanations, and legal wrangling.  Yes, all of these go into the mix of figuring out how we need to respond.  But none of them address the core issue of the fallenness of human nature and the offer of redemption in Christ.

People sin.  Always have, always will.  Married clergy, women priests, new policies and procedures, legal victories or losses, popularly elected bishops--none of these will change the hard, cold fact that people behave in ways that hurt other people.  Despite the goodness, truth, and beauty we all participate in as the redeemed children of a loving God, we still manage to allow our disordered passions to rule our divinely gifted reason.  We still surrender to our appetites even when doing so is clearly the worst possible thing we could do.  We still allow ourselves to forget the evil that results from disobedience and despair. 

The fallenness of human nature explains the abuse and scandals. . .it does not excuse them.  Nothing excuses them.  If priests followed the teachings of the Church faithfully, there would be no abuse to report.  If bishops governed their dioceses according to the teachings of the apostles, there would be no cover-ups.  We can point fingers at the repressive sexual formation that dominated the seminaries in the '40's and '50's; the sexual/doctrinal permissiveness that followed Vatican Two in the '60's and '70's; the rise of the so-called "Pink Palaces" and the CEO-model of episcopal administration in the '80's; and the Old Boys' Club mentality of the Curia throughout the Church's history.  All of these contributed to this crisis.  But none more than old-fashioned sin.

The decline in vocations post-VC2 made bishops reluctant to dismiss much-needed priests.  Academic and psychological admission standards were changed to allow otherwise questionable candidates into the seminaries.  Ideology often kept men with no allegiance to the prevailing feminist agenda out of seminary.  Add to this the constant assault on orthodox moral theology from within the Church and the rapidly eroding sexual ethics of society in general, and the abuse became almost inevitable.  But none of these caused the abuse or the cover-ups. 

The cover-ups seem even more insidious than the incidents of abuse themselves.  Here we had otherwise faithful bishops and priests aiding and abetting the molestation of children and teens by allowing the molesters to move from assignment to assignment.  We might be willing to think that a child-molester is mentally ill, but what are we supposed to think about a psychologically healthy bishop who knows about this man's abuse and continues to allow him to function as a priest?  Again, all kinds of reasons for a cover-up come to mind.  But no excuses.  Bishops had to come to a point where they are more afraid of legal prosecution than they are of religious scandal.  We reached that point in 2002 with the "Dallas Charter."  Now, it seems, they run to process, procedure, and "safe-environment" training certification in order to address what is essentially a matter of sin and redemption. 

All of this is bad news, no doubt about it.  The Good News, however, is clear:  the war against evil has already been won.  This week, the Church celebrates the Passion of the Lord, climaxing on Easter Sunday with his glorious resurrection from the tomb.  Read the reports of abuse and scandal.  Pray first and foremost for the victims of these crimes.  Pray for the men and women who committed them.  Pray for the men and women who helped to cover them up.  Pray for the media vultures who believe that they are circling the wounded, dying body of the Church, waiting for their favorite ideological opponent to croak.  And as you pray, remember. . .every Passion Week, every week of suffering, ridicule, betrayal, every week comes to an end with the Resurrection!

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Tea Partiers are the true democrats

Ethan Epstein gets it exactly right:

The much-maligned Tea Party represents that democratic ideal. It’s diffuse, unstructured, disorganized, and oftentimes confused. It’s messy. Sometimes it’s ugly. But it’s real. The Tea Party has done what ACORN never could: it has unified and engaged a significant group of Americans who have felt disaffected and underserved by their political class. That is democratic, in the truest sense of the word.

My European brothers here in Rome simply cannot understand the Tea Party movement.  For that matter, they cannot understand Americans.  All of them have been raised under socialist Nanny States and they see absolutely nothing to fear in absolute governmental control of their lives. . .that is, so long as the government is doling out the entitlement goodies.  With declining birth-rates  among native-nationals and increasing immigration rates from Africa and the Middle East, these entitlement programs will bankrupt the E.U. in a matter of decades.  Can anyone say, "Greece"? I knew that you could.

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Reality-check on anti-Obama rhetoric

The Dems and their media helpers are whining about the increase in anti-Obama/anti-Democrat rhetoric on the right.

Here's a reality-check for them:

Bush Hitler (925,000 images)

Bush Stalin (325,000 images)

Bush Fascist (226,000 images)

Bush Dictator (326,000 images)

Bush Anti-Christ (112,000 images)

Bush Satan (321,000 images)

Assassinate Bush (626,000 images)

Impeach Bush (92,000)

Bush Monkey (916,000 images)

Bush Joker (112,000 images)

35% of Democrats believe 9/11 was Bush's doing

"Death of a President," an Bush-assassination movie that won six international prizes

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Just a few updates. . .

Still no word on my mom's biopsy.  Continued prayers are much appreciated.

I will be teaching two courses at the University of Dallas second summer term (July 12-Aug 12):  Understanding the Bible (M-Th 4-6pm) and Religion & Science (M-Th 6-8pm).  R&S will be an upper-level undergrad/grad seminar and the Bible course is a freshman/sophomore core course.

The WISH LIST has been updated.

Only three more French lessons!  WooHoo!!!  Then, I am on my own. . .

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The lies vegans tell

I've always had a very odd sense of humor. . .for some reason this Demotivational Poster is hilarious.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

If you are feeling put-upon by the world's problems, watch this video.  It features the Notre Dame marching band.

Ah, the stench of left-liberal (in)tolerance in Canada!

Weak, overwhelmed, and bought. . .Stupak becomes a verb of derision.

Good News!  Castro loves ObamaCare. . .so, REJOICE!

Collapsing in waves of maidenly vapors:  Dems quaking in "fear" over a few mildly insulting quips from their employers.

Also, predictably, most of the "violence" against Dems is fabricated.  The coffin left on a Dem's lawn?  Nope.  Story retracted.  A rock thrown through a Dem's office?  Really?  His office is on the 30th floor.

And if they can't find any real violence to report, they try to provoke some.

On the Holy Father and the media attempts to smear him with the WI abuse scandal.  Fr. Z. is really, really not happy.

And you think you have car problems. . .

12:34. . .This weird clock-thing happens to me all the time.  I also look at the clock almost everyday at 5:26. . .my birthday (May 26th).  Freaky.

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Loved beyond death (2007)

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Isa 7.10-14, 8-10; Heb 10.4-10; Luke 1.26-38

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP

St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

A sign for us as deep as the nether world and as high as the sky! A sign as bright as the collective angelic glory and as generous as the bounds of the cosmos! Isaiah tells King Ahaz that the Lord’s sign of His favor, the seal of His loving covenant is this: He will come to us with meat and skin and bones by the womb of a virgin and she and her husband will name him Emmanuel, “God With Us!” And why do we need this sign? Isaiah reports that “[King Ahaz’s heart] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind” when they heard that their powerful neighbors were coming to wage war against them. Our God, wearied by their anxiety, showed Isaiah this sign of His enduring presence. Our God is always with us! And so we celebrate today the angelic announcement to Mary the Virgin that our Lord has fulfilled His promise and is here with us now. Christ has come into the world, and he has come to do the Father’s will.

John Paul II wrote in his letter to women, Mulieris dignitatem (1988), “Do we not find in the Annunciation at Nazareth the beginning of that definitive answer by which God himself ‘attempts to calm people's hearts’?” No one here will be surprised when I say that ours is an age of anxiety, an era of raw psychic upheaval and potentially deadly spiritual negligence. The truths of the faith that set us firmly on the Way often find us disbelieving, mistrusting, uncaring, and wearied by constant assault. The news that our neighbors might be arrayed against us, ready for ideological warfare, seems almost predictable and expected. Isn’t the culture circling us, moving in, coming closer and closer, strangling us, pushing us to the edge of irrelevance? Aren’t we seeing the end of the Christian West, the coming reign of Baal in America? And Mohamed in Europe? Surely, if we are not winning, we must be losing!

Truly, our hearts are anxious and wearied. But what we are anxious about? What wearies us? Maybe you are worried about the decline of the Christian West. This is U.D. after all! But if I had to bet my stipend I would say that most of us are wearied by trails slightly less dramatic than the collapse of the Enlightenment Project into postmodernity. Say, small things like money, relationships, children, family, work, health, spiritual well-being, academic success. These things will gnaw at our trust, nibble ever so gently at our peace, until we are weary and it looks as though our enemies are arrayed against us and God Himself is paying no attention.

The Annunciation of our Lord’s conception to Mary at Nazareth is God’s announcement to us that He is with us. Always with us. Always has been. Always will be. Our Lord did not write new laws for us to assure us of His presence. He did not send yet another prophet to preach His love, to proclaim His fidelity to His covenant. He came Himself. He came Himself to tell us that He loves us and to seal the deal of our salvation with His own body and blood. His wrecked body on the cross is our one sacrifice for all of us, for all of our sins. And his resurrection from the dead is our assurance that we will never be alone. He was born of a virgin and named Emmanuel, “God With Us.”

We can hear in the angelic annunciation to Mary the beginning of God’s definitive answer to our unsettled hearts. Where’s the rest of His answer? The Paschal Mystery! The rest of Emmanuel’s life as a preacher and healer; his teaching the truth of the Father’s mercy; his life with his mother and father and friends; his betrayal by those same friends; his trial before the priests and Pilate; the beatings, the ridicule, the pain and blood. Of course, the Cross. And the Empty Tomb. Here’s our answer: we are loved beyond joy, beyond truth, beyond family and friends; we are loved beyond Law, beyond pain and death; we are loved by Love Himself.

Gabriel said to Mary, “The Lord is with you!...Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God.”

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