21 April 2010

Dealing with Doubt

How can I overcome doubt?

Why do I doubt?

Is doubt dangerous for my spiritual health?

The answers to these question are, in order:  Yes, Depends, and Not Necessarily.

There's not a soul on the planet who hasn't entertained a doubt or two about his/her faith.  The apostles, great saints, popes, theologians, philosophers, even ordinary folks have had and have doubts about the most basic insights of our faith.  In some ways, being a Christian is the easiest thing on earth to be.  But when it comes to truly understanding what it means to follow Christ is all about, the doubts can rack up fast.

Let's start by defining "doubt."  Here's the definition from the Cambridge Dictionary of American English"a feeling of not knowing what to believe or what to do, or the condition of being uncertain."  Good basic definition.  Let's leave alone for now what it means "to feel that one doesn't know."  The key here is that there is some sort of confusion about the correctness of a belief, or some uncertainty about what one ought to do in a given situation.  We could add to the defintion: a lack of faith, an absence of conviction, a spirit or habit of questioning.  Synonyms would include: ambiguity, disbelief, distrust, dubiety, faithlessness, hesitancy, incertitude, incredulity, indecision, irresolution, perplexity, qualm, reluctance, skepticism, suspicion, and wavering. You get the idea.  

With these definitions and synonyms it is easy to see why most of us think that doubt opposes faith and why doubting would be dangerous to one's faith.  But not all doubt is created equally.  Not all doubt is a foil to faith.  The Catechism is clear on this point:  "Voluntary doubt [VD] about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt [ID] refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness"(n. 2088).  VD is the willful act of rejecting a truth of the faith.  ID arises out of intellectual dissatisfaction with how the truth of the faith is taught and defended.  ID can become VD if it is "deliberately cultivated."  Notice the two essential qualifiers that make doubt sinful:  voluntary and deliberately.  In order for doubt to lead to "spiritual blindness," your uncertainty about a truth of the faith must be chosen as a result of deliberation. 

To reinforce this distinction the CCC goes on to define incredulity "Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it"(n. 2089).  Incredulity has three ugly children:  heresy, apostasy, schism.  These three are what happens when you choose VD and act on it:  you knowingly and willfully believe/teach error; renounce the faith; and separate yourself from the Body of Christ.  Obviously, for a Catholic, VD is serious business.  Most of us do not entertain this level of doubt.  If we did, we wouldn't be all that worried about how to overcome the temptations to doubt the faith.

Most of our anxieties about doubting the faith arise involuntarily.  A family member sends a link to an anti-Catholic website that lists the gross sins of the Roman papacy.  A friend reports on a book that reveals the occult origins of the Mass.  A pamphlet left on the windshield at church interprets the Book of Revelation in a way that demonstrates that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon.  The circumstances of our involuntary doubt are probably more personal than this. I don't feel the presence of God.  Do I really believe that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass?  Why did God allow my child to commit suicide?  My son is gay and I'm told that I should reject him, but I can't.  My sins are so bad that not even God can forgive them.  These are all doubts I've heard expressed before.  Real doubts that real Catholics experience and threaten to undermine their faith.

So, what can be done?  

First, don't panic!  Having a doubt about the faith is something akin to suffering from acne.  Even when you are past the worst of it, it will occasionally pop up again.  Don't do anything drastic as a cure.   Put your heart and mind in prayer and wait.  Just wait. 

Second, separate your emotions from our thinking.  Emotions are pretty fine, perfectly natural.  But in times of crisis, emotions can lead to imprudent action.  What you need immediately is a clear picture of exactly what it is that you are doubting.  How we think and feel are intimately bound together.  Anxious feelings lead to anxious thinking and vice-versa.  The process of teasing out how you feel from how you think is helped along by a spiritual director, friend, pastor, etc.  

Third, try to get a clear idea of what it is that you are doubting.  It helps to distinguish between intellectual doubts and emotional doubts.  Intellectual doubts arise when the logic or reasoning of your faith is challenged.  For example, an atheist friend points out a flaw in how you understand the power of prayer.  Or, you discover the often unpleasant history of the Church.  Emotional doubts arise when you encounter rejection, abuse, or some other distressing event in your faith life.  For example, a priest refuses you communion b/c you are divorced.  Or, you are angry at your bishop for his confessed role in covering up your pastor's history of sexual abuse.  Doubts arising out of strong emotions are the most difficult to deal with b/c they do not readily submit themselves to rational evaluation and treatment.  

Fourth, once you are certain about the nature of your doubt, take action to address it with the best tools you have available.  If your doubt is intellectual in nature, assume that you are misunderstanding the teaching you are having doubts about and begin to do some research.  Check facts.  Make the proper distinctions.  Consult those who may know more.  Suspend judgment for as long as possible. If you are too quick to accept as true the objections made to the faith, you might want to evaluate your motivations for doing this.  Has your friend given you an easy out, and you're taking it because you find the teaching too difficult to live with?  Sometimes it is just more convenient to move into voluntary doubt and incredulity than it is to seek out the truth.  If you doubt is emotional in nature, sit down with someone and talk it out.  Be as angry as you need to be.  God is a big boy and he knows your heart.  The Psalms are not exactly free of angry outbursts directed at God!  Get to the bottom of your feelings by being honest.  Most of the time, I've found that people who are angry with the Church over some issue are really angry about something else entirely.  The event that they claim to be angry about turns out to have been a trigger.  The woman who is angry about the way the Church treats divorced Catholics is really angry about her family's rejection of her new husband.  It's just less complicated to cuss at the Church.  This doesn't mean that your emotion response is always about displacement; it means that your doubt cannot be overcome if you cannot be honest about what it is that's bugging you.

Fifth, all of the steps above assume that you are committed to resolving your doubts, regardless of their cause and nature.   If, even in the face of the worst possible doubt, you remain committed to resolving the problem, then you can be at peace b/c that commitment alone speaks volumes to the strength of your faith.  If you are not committed to resolving your doubts, then you won't do any of the above steps and your doubt won out long before you gave it much thought.  So, what happens if you are absolutely committed but cannot resolve the doubt?  I will answer that question with a question:  what is motivating your commitment even though you have failed to resolve your doubt?  

Probably the most important thing to remember about the faith is this:  we believe in order to understand.  Modernist culture has flipped this and made understanding a prerequisite for belief.  If you wait around for absolute understanding before believing, you will be waiting long past your funeral.  Faith is the good habit of trust.  Trust is a risk.  For us, to believe, to trust, to have faith are all gambles.  We trust our kids to daycare.  We believe that our CPA won't steal us blind.  But we know that the daycare could hire a molester and that the CPA could be an embezzler.   Fortunately, our faith is given to One Who has never failed, never lied, and will always keep His promises.  There is no gambling here, no risk.  We may feel that we are risking everything and we may think that we are gambling everything, but where there is no chance of failure, there is no danger of losing. 



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20 April 2010

Coffee Bowl Browsing

On conflating anti-government political movements:  anti-democracy vs. anti-Big government, or "Timothy McVeigh was no Tea Partier"

Rhode Island's bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Tobin orders his hospital to withdraw its membership from the pro-ObamaCare Catholic Hospital Association. 

Bishop Brant of Greensburg, PA refuses to allow dissenting sisters a place in his upcoming diocesan vocations promotional material.  The Sisters of St Joseph in his diocese were signatories on the pro-ObamaCare letter NETWORK. 

Yes, it is still dangerous to be TOO Catholic in some seminaries. . .no worries, though. . .the clock is ticking on the Burlap Vestments & Felt Banners Hegemony.

Mahony throws the Nazi Card when describing the recently passed immigration reform law in AZ.  Yea, that helps. 

Unable to find any anti-Tea Party protesters at a T.P. rally, the local "news" station creates a few

A very weird way to die. . .


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BOOM! (UPDATE)

My summer plans have blown up in my face.

Starting from scratch. . .@#$%!

UPDATE:  looks like a solution is in the works. . .

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19 April 2010

On the dangers of telling the truth

3rd Week of Easter (T)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast*

Stephen stands accused of blasphemy before the Sanhedrin. He faces conviction and execution. Rather than backtrack on his earlier remarks, Stephen goes for broke and tells the truth: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit [. . .] You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.” Like most people who are told an uncomfortable truth, the crowd is none too happy; “they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him.” At this point in the confrontation, Stephen's lawyer should have objected and called for a recess. His publicist should have released a statement to the media clarifying his remarks and calling for calm. Then Stephen could have called a press conference a few days later and apologized for his apparent intolerance, announcing that he was checking into into rehab for substance abuse treatment. All would have been forgiven. But b/c Stephen is filled with Holy Spirit and unable to lie, he says, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” And b/c the crowd hates the truth and will not hear it, “they cry out in a loud voice, cover their ears, and rush upon him together.” Stephen is stoned to death, dying with the name of Christ on his lips, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. . .do not hold this sin against them.” Had his executioners been paying attention, they would have understood Stephen's death as a sign of God's presence; they would have received his dying words as a gift freely given. 

On a day sometime before Stephen faces his own hostile crowd, another group confronts Jesus with a demand: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?” It's important to understand what they are asking for here. They aren't interested in words of wisdom, or profound teaching. They don't want a clever exegesis of the Law. The crowd is demanding a miracle, a performance that can only be explained as an act of God. And not just any old miracle but one that benefits them immediately. They note that God gave them manna in the desert. So, they want Jesus to do the same. They want concrete, irrefutable—and dare I say it, edible—proof that Jesus is who he says he is. Rather than promising them additional farm subsidies, or a new government food program, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” Eat this bread and never hunger; believe in me and never thirst. This is not the miracle they were hoping for.

Stephen, somewhere along the way, heard and believed. He ate the bread of life and drank from the cup of salvation. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and went out to preach the Good News. The crowd clamoring for his blood didn't see Stephen as a miracle, as a sign of God's presence. They saw a blasphemer, a condemned heretic. They wanted humble contrition from him, but they got the truth. Like the crowd that demanded a concrete sign from Jesus, they wanted a sign from Stephen that their lives were not about to be turned upside down. They wanted consolation, assurance, a guarantee that they everything they thought they knew about God was just right. Stephen disappointed them, so did Jesus. They got the truth, and it set their teeth on edge.

The crowds that gather before the Church now haven't changed in 2,000 years. Neither has the truth. Stephen didn't apologize nor did he clarify his remarks. Jesus didn't do any magic tricks nor did he argue a thesis. Confronted by demanding mobs, Jesus and Stephen do exactly what they were sent to do: they spoke the word of truth for all to hear. Stephen forgave his killers even as he died, revealing the way of mercy. Jesus reveals the way to salvation, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

*I've had one report that this file hosting site tried to upload a virus.  Please let me know if this happens to you.  Monday's homily has been d/l'ed 46 times and there's only been one report so far.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

U.S. reputation on the rise in the rest of the world. . .given the state of the rest of the world, this is not news to celebrate.  I wonder if the rest of the world realizes that the American foreign aid goodie baskets they are addicted to will disappear when the U.S. economy collapses.  

The Left needs racism. . .here's why.  This is not to suggest that there are no genuine racists out there; there are.  But no one takes these yahoo's seriously, so they don't serve the Left's purpose in smearing your average conservative American voter as a racist.


I haven't commented on the latest circus antics of Chicago's Fr. Hollywood b/c there's little doubt I could manage to keep from cussing. 

HA!  Great letter to the editor. . .from a drunken sailor.  (H/T:  Chris Johnson)

Folks, please, be very, VERY careful with stuff like this.  Remember:  Jesus himself said that he doesn't know the day or time of his return.  If Jesus doesn't know, we don't either.

In Malta, the Holy Father calls the Church a "wounded sinner."  For those who know nothing about the Church (e.g. the media), this sounds like a monumental confession.  Those of us in the Church know that this a long-standing and perfectly accurate description.  

B.O. tells California voters that Barbara Boxer might lose her Senate seat in 2010.  Ah, that's a shame.  Frankly, I think Babs needs a break.

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Posting suggestions

A mille grazie to all those HancAquam readers who requested post-topics.  

Of the topics requested, there were six that I feel qualify to post something about. 

Some will require a bit more research than others, so I will tackle the more familiar topics first.

This week look for a post on "Dealing with Doubt."  If time permits, I will also put up a post on the limits of clerical creativity while celebrating the Mass.
Again, merci beaucomp!

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Novice of the SDP. . .Congrats Rudy!

Congratulations to Mr. Rudy Barba of El Paso, TX!  Rudy was admitted to the Southern Dominican Province's novice class of 2011 over the weekend.  He and his novice classmates will begin their novitiate in Irving, TX sometime in August.  I will post a pic of the full class once one is available from our vocations promoter.

Rudy is a former student of mine from U.D.  He was given the arduous task of being my campus ministry intern, i.e. "the one who made sure my over-caffeinated squirrel brain was focused just enough to get something done."  Rudy is a good friend, and now he will be a great brother!

Please pray for him and his novitiate brothers. . .


As you can see from this pic, Rudy possesses the most telling characteristic of any Dominican friar. . .he likes to eat!  However, he is too skinny to be entirely trusted.  ;-)
 
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In Government We Do NOT Trust

A chart for my non-U.S. readers. . .this is why the Tea Party Movement is growing. . .this is why ObamaCare is so unpopular:



Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don't trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills, the survey found.

[. . .]

The survey found that just 22 percent of those questioned say they can trust Washington almost always or most of the time and just 19 percent say they are basically content with it. Nearly half say the government negatively effects their daily lives, a sentiment that's grown over the past dozen years.

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Podcasting is back!

Back by popular demand. . .Podcasting!  Or, something very similar. 

I found a free audio hosting site for my homilies.

We'll see how it goes!

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18 April 2010

Working for food that endures

3rd Week of Easter (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

When an organization loses sight of its purpose, its leadership will come together and hammer out a mission statement, a declaration of the institution's goals, a description of its overall reason for being. More often than not, these statements are packed full of vague verbiage, lofty rhetoric, and completely unrealistic, if not outright unachievable, objectives. If the mission statement isn't simply ignored by the worker-bees of the organization, it is usually mocked or only quoted in the breach. Human resource trainers take it very seriously, but not many others do. The lesson for all involved is that refocusing the machinery of any organization to achieve its basic mission is tough work. The Easter season is not only a time for the Church to celebrate our Risen Lord, it is also a time for us to reconsider our mission as the Body of Christ and focus again on essentials. The crowd surrounding Jesus asks him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” That's our mission: to believe in the One God sent to us.

All that we do, say, think, feel, everything that we are flows out of our belief in Christ Jesus as the One sent by God to grace us with eternal life. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in their teaching on divine revelation, Dei verbum, tell us that God reveals Himself to us in scripture, through created realities, and, perfectly, in the words and deeds of Christ. They also tell us why He revealed Himself. Our Father unveils Himself for us in order to proclaim to us that "[He] is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal”(4). To put this another way: the purpose of scripture, of creation, and of Christ himself is to show us, uncover for us, our Creator's mission among us: our freedom from sin and our lives with Him for eternity. Our mission is to believe His revelation and carry on doing the good works of God according to His will.

How do we do this? How do we carry on with God's work? Jesus says first we must believe in him. Why? How does believing in him first change the character of our good works? Good works are good works, right? Yes and no. Good works are good works. True. But note what Jesus says to the crowd: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life. . .” So, what distinguishes between “working for food that perishes” and “working for food that endures”? The distinction is made real when we believe that the work we do enacts God's revelation to His creation; when we think, act, feel in ways that show that God is working out our redemption through Christ Jesus. This is how we know and all who see and hear us know that the food we work for is food that endures, food given to us by the Son of Man for our eternal lives. If our good works are done for prestige, political advantage, public reputation, or money; if our good works are done out of any motivation but the working-out of God's revelation to us, then we work for food that perishes. 

Luke tells us in his Acts that “Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.” Those who opposed his work could not withstand his wisdom b/c the Spirit was with him. When they brought him before the men of the Sanhedrin on charges of blasphemy, the men “saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” Stephen did not work great wonders and signs on his own. He didn't perform tricks to impress the gullible, or to build a profitable reputation for himself as a prophet. He worked as one who embodied divine revelation; he showed out God's holy purpose for His creation. Like Stephen, our mission, our goal is straightforwardly simple: show everyone that God is with us to free us from sin and death and to bring us all to eternal life. This is food that endures.

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17 April 2010

Dei verbum: God's Self-revelation

The key to reading and understanding the documents of Vatican Two is reading and understanding the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum.

Christ is the Fullness of All Revelation:  In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature. Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God  out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends and lives among them, so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation (DV 2).

Divine Revelation through Created Realities:  God, who through the Word creates all things and keeps them in existence, gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities. Planning to make known the way of heavenly salvation, He went further and from the start manifested Himself to our first parents. Then after their fall His promise of redemption aroused in them the hope of being saved and from that time on He ceaselessly kept the human race in His care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation. Then, at the time He had appointed He called Abraham in order to make of him a great nation. Through the patriarchs, and after them through Moses and the prophets, He taught this people to acknowledge Himself the one living and true God, provident father and just judge, and to wait for the Savior promised by Him, and in this manner prepared the way for the Gospel down through the centuries (3). 

Revelation through the Inspired Word and the Word Made Flesh:  Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, "now at last in these days God has spoken to us in His Son." For He sent His Son, the eternal Word, who enlightens all men, so that He might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost being of God. Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as "a man to men." He "speaks the words of God," and completes the work of salvation which His Father gave Him to do. To see Jesus is to see His Father. For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal (4).

Thoughts:

God spoke the Word of Creation.

He sent the Word Made Flesh to redeem His Creation.
And we have the Word of Witness in scripture, an account of Christ's words and deeds.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gave birth the Church, the living Body of Christ, thus making the Church the living, breathing, thinking, acting Word in the world--the Sacrament of God's Self-revelation for all to see and hear.

In Christ, we have the perfection of God's Self-revelation -----> the Church on pilgrimage in history
In created realities, we have the divine revealed in the natural -----> reason, science
In scripture, we have a record of our ancestors meeting God -----> words, deeds of the faithful

Why did God reveal Himself in these different ways?  


One reason:  to proclaim that "[He] is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal."

Alleluia!

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16 April 2010

Coffee Bowl Browsing

That Icelandic volcano with the Klingon name is still spewing.  If this keeps me from going home in June, I will be most disappointed.

Why is it that Dems only seem to fret about anti-government rhetoric when one of their guys is in the White House?  We need to distinguish between "anti-gov't rhetoric" and "anti-administration" rhetoric.  I'm a big fan of republican (little "R") government.  Just not a big fan of the B.O. administration.

Changes in the tax law and B.O.'s budget proposals will reduce charitable giving.  This is planned.  If charitable organizations go bust, guess who gets to pick up the slack:  Big Government!

Report on the embarrassingly weak turn-out for the Tea Party Crashers.  Like most lefty astro-turfing it was all blow and no hard.  Also, the Partiers shunned the GOP Washington hierarchy, thus putting the lie to the MSM meme that the T.P. is all about Republican astro-turfing.

Hmmmmm. . .forget the Kindle and the iPad. . .what sort of handgun would be right for the discerning friar?

An interview with the woman who helped dioceses and religious orders hold their clergy accountable to the norms in sexual abuse case:  "Several men I know have “tested” the CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) and found no tolerance for sexual abuse in the priesthood and no sympathy for the cleric who disagrees with programs of prayer and penance. Evidence of where Pope Benedict XVI stands can be found in the following examples:  here."

102 Things to Remember if you ever become an Evil Overlord.  My fav is #34:  "I will never turn into a snake.  It never helps."  Hey, that's just good practical advice for every day living.

Foreign Accent Syndrome. . .I wonder if there's a part of the brain you can whack that will  start  you speaking French?

According to complexity evolutionists, if you leave them alone for a billion years they will eventually grow into a real boy.

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15 April 2010

Order your HancAquam post!

Here's your chance to order up a HancAquam post!

When  I started the blog five years ago, my only purpose was to post the texts of my homilies.  With the encouragement of my boss at U.D.'s campus ministry, Denise Phillips, I moved to podcasting.  My natural soap-boxing tendencies compelled me to comment (sometimes crankily) on all things liturgical, theological, and political.  Then, I started getting questions from readers about doctrine, history, pastoral problems.  Eventually, HancAquam turned into an all-purpose Catholic blog with a daily average of about 450 hits.

Since my public preaching has been reduced to a once a week thing with the promise of an un-preached Sunday homily in there somewhere, the original focus of HancAquam has shifted rather dramatically. 

I want this blog to be user-friendly.  As a Dominican preacher and teacher, I want readers to go away knowing more about their faith then when they arrived.  

So, if you could order up a HancAquam post. . .on most any subject. . .what would you order?  I can't promise to fulfill your order, but there's a good chance you'll get your wish!

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Christian, brilliant, and probably teaching near you

A list of the 20 Most Brilliant Christian Professors in the U.S. 

The subject of my thesis, the Rev'd. John Polkinghorne is listed, so is the legendary U.D. English professor, Dr. Louise Cowan.

Also, note the number of accomplished scientists on the list.

H/T:  Newadvent

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

And yet another reason for the U.S. to either ignore the U.N. entirely or withdraw:  proposal to institute "eco-thought crimes."

Sensible suggestions for dealing with Tea Party crashers.  The idea of crashing a Tea Party is to provoke Partiers into angry/violent reactions that get caught on video and provide "evidence" to the MSM that their stereotypes are true.  Since it is clear that crashers are not interested in reasoned political discourse, rhe absolute best way to deal with them is quick exposure and ridicule.

Another tactic that Partiers ought to adopt: proudly embrace the "Tea Bagger" slur as your own.  It worked for the gay rights movement.  Yes, I know what "tag bagging" is. . .but English is a nearly infinitely malleable language.  It will contain the multitudes.  (NB.  Ten brownie pts to anyone who can identify the allusion in the last sentence.)

I am quite proud of the fact that lawyers in my home state of Mississippi are attacking ObamaCare with a novel legal theory:  individual mandates violate privacy rights.

A reasonable clarification from the Vatican on Crdl. Bertone's controversial remarks.

Diogenes asks:  "Now, did you ever wonder why so many Irish bishops were forced to resign within weeks of the Irish report on sex abuse while no US prelate resigned after the release of the John Jay Report?"

Great Moments in Alternative American History:  the battle G. Washington never fought. 

This pic thawed my normally icy heart.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. . .

Beautiful butterfly sculptures made from beer cans.

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14 April 2010

Truth spoken and done in the light

2nd Week of Easter (W): Reading
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

What does it mean to live under a spirit of salvation? First, let's think about what it means to live “under a spirit.” If we take “spirit” to mean something like “what animates one's mind and body,” or “the vital force of a person,” we understand spirit to be a neutral term, being neither negative nor positive. One's mind and body could be animated by a spirit bent on destruction. And a person's vital force could be sacrificial love. Some Christian communities use phrases like “a spirit of sickness,” “a spirit of rebellion,” “a spirit of mercy,” to describe basic personality traits in individuals, enduring dispositions that characterize a person and describes the condition of a soul. We might think too about how one's spirit constitutes a fundamental way of taking in the world, processing the information our senses gather up, and using all that data to make decisions, choose actions. Medieval physicians often used the theory of humors to classify types of diseases. Depending on the relative levels of the four humors in your body, you could be sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholic. This theory has the advantage of diagnosing the overall condition of the person by accounting for both the state of the body and the state of the soul. Though we no longer use the humors to diagnose disease, we still talk about someone's melancholic or sanguine spirit. Given all these different uses for the notion of the spirit, what does it mean the Christian soul to live “under a spirit of salvation”?

John teaches us that “. . .God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned. . .” Anyone who believes in His Son is given eternal life; they are saved from eternal perishing. But before those who have been saved from an everlasting death die their natural deaths they live on and do so under a spirit of salvation. If we are saved in Christ—who is the way, the truth, and the life—then we are participants in his truth, intimate players in the life of human salvation. Christ's truth is not a warm bath to lazily soak in, or a prize bed for us to linger in but an active, enlivening force, a vital spirit that animates us to not only speak the truth but to act truthfully as well. To speak and act out of the fullness of his truth that fills us to overflowing. If our truthful speech and acts are to be ministerial, a service to others, then they must be done in the light for all to see.

John writes, “. . .whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” The apostles have been imprisoned by their religious enemies. The Lord sends an angel to free them. This same angel instructs them on how to use their newly gained freedom: “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.” They do exactly that. For those who have been freed from the prison of sin, those who would walk the way of Christ's truth, their words and deeds must be spoken and done in the light so that a witness may be given. This not to be playacting or street theater but a genuine expression of a soul living under the spirit of salvation, the words and deeds of one who is infused to the bone with the truth of Christ's saving mercy. The spirit that animates you as a person, the vital force that drives you must be the spirit of Christ resurrected—a new life risen from death, freed from sin, given to you so that you can bring those enslaved by darkness to the light. 

Lest we bear false witness to those whom God loves and intends to save, we must be Christ's truth always and always in the light.


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13 April 2010

Cardinal Bertone is Mistaken

The AP is reporting on controversial remarks made by the Holy Father's right hand man, Crdl Bertone in Chile:

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments [linking pedophilia to homosexuality] during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls.

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true," said Bertone. "That is the problem."

If the translation of Crdl Bertone's comments is correct, then I believe he is mistaken about there being a link between homosexuality and pedophilia. 

Some distinctions are necessary to make his mistake clear.  The very definition of the word "homosexual" is "one who is sexually attracted to one's own sex," perhaps even exclusively so attracted.  "Pedophilia" is a sexual attraction to children (pre-pubescents, non-adolescents) with no indicated preference for one sex over another.  Psychologists do not distinguish between "homosexual pedophiles" and "heterosexual pedophiles."  If any such term were to be used, it would be "bisexual pedophiles."

Pedophiles tend to be opportunistic, molesting when the chance to do so arises.  Generally, they also regard certain physical characteristics (hair and skin color, precociousness) as the most important in choosing their victims.  

The sexual attraction to adolescents is called ephebophilia.  In the U.S. clerical abuse cases, the overwhelming number of victims were adolescent males, mostly in the 15-17 year old range.   In classical Greece a sexual relationship between an adult male and an adolescent male was called pederasty and was accepted as a positive stage in the younger male's education as a citizen.  Once the boy became a man, the relationship stopped.  If it did not, the couple was often subject to public humiliation and risked being socially ostracized.  There was nothing more damning to a Greek man's virtue than to be though of as a woman.

It is clear from the evidence gathered by the John Jay Study on the Church's abuse scandals in the U.S. that there is a direct link to be drawn between sexually active homosexual priests and the sexual molestation of adolescent males.  This does not mean that all homosexual priests are molesters.  Nor does it mean that most homosexuals in the general population are molesters.  In fact, the overwhelming majority of molesters in the U.S. identify as heterosexual.

The media persists in calling clergy involved in the abuse of adolescents "pedophile priests" b/c they are loathe to draw attention to the politically incorrect fact that a vast majority of abusers were "ephebophile priests," thus avoiding an emphasis on the link between the sexual abuse cases and clerical homosexuality.  

By the same token, some in the Church have wrongly concluded that a homosexual inclination (exclusive of behavior) is a sufficient reason to exclude a man from seminary or religious formation.  This sort of exclusion fails to take into consideration that not all homosexual men experience their sexuality in exactly the same way.  The "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" approach to excluding same-sex attracted men from seminary is uncharitable and unjust.  By excluding homosexual men who are capable of living chastely in sexual continence, the Church is depriving herself of the service of potentially exemplary priests and encouraging those called to priesthood to begin their ministries under a shadow of deceit.  The emphasis in formation needs to be squarely and heavily placed on chaste, celibate continence, regardless of sexual orientation. 

It is entirely possible that Crdl Bertone is confused about the terminology he is using, or perhaps he is trying to point out that the current crisis is mostly about sexually active homosexual clergy.   Whatever he may have intended, it is wrong to suggest that there is a link between homosexuality and pedophilia.  They are two completely different burdens.

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Wow. . ."the public and obstinate betrayal of religious life"

Tom Peters, the American Papist, excerpts portions of a speech given by Archbishop Raymond Burke, the "Chief Justice" of the Church's Supreme Court.  The excerpted portions speak boldly to an old and on-going problem in the Church:

[...Our joy today is] overshadowed by the public and obstinate betrayal of religious life by certain religious. Who ever could have imagined that religious congregations of pontifical right, would openly organize to resist and attempt to frustrate an apostolic visitation, that is, a visit to their congregations carried out under the authority of the vicar of Christ on earth, to whom all religious are bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty and obedience?

Who could imagine that consecrated religious would openly, and in defiance of the bishops as successors of the apostles publicly endorse legislation containing provisions which violated the natural moral law in its most fundamental tenets – the safeguarding and promoting of innocence and defenseless life, and fail to safeguard the demands of the free exercise of conscience for health care workers?

We witness a growing tendency among certain consecrated religious to view themselves outside and above the body of Christ as a parallel institution looking in upon the Church with an autonomy which contradicts their very nature. We have certainly come a long way from the total loyalty to the Roman Pontiff which was at the heart of the foundation of the Society of Jesus and of every religious congregation. Religious life lived in the heart of the Church, and for that reason religious congregations are, by their very nature, bound in strictest loyalty to the Roman Pontiff. It is of course an absurdity of the most tragic kind to have consecrated religious knowingly and obstinately acting against the moral law.

The spiritual harm done to the individual religious who are disobedient and also the grave scandal caused to the faithful and people in general are of incalculable dimensions.

[Do not doubt the influence of consecrated persons] … Was not the Speaker of the House [Nancy Pelosi] glowing to report that so many religious sisters were in support of her proposed health care plan? Was not a religious sister [Sr. Carol Keehan, President of CHA] one of the recipients of a pen used by the President of the United States to sign the health care plan into law?

Now is the time for us all, and in particular for consecrated persons to stand up for the truth and to call upon our fellow Catholics in leadership to do the same or to cease identifying themselves as Catholics.

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Address change. . .

Since I will be visiting my family in Mississippi in about two months, I have changed the shipping address for my Amazon WISH LIST.

So, if you have been flinching at paying $13 for international shipping, now's the time to earn my gratitude and a place on my daily prayer list by sending me a book for the dissertation!

USED books are perfectly OK with me. 

I thank you.  My measly book budget thanks you.  And my provincial bursar thanks you.

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Without reservation we must proclaim the Risen Lord!

2nd Week of Easter (T): Readings
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

If there were ever a day in our lifetimes to believe the apostle's witness to the resurrection of the Lord, it is today. And not just today but tomorrow as well. And then again tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. If we failed to believe yesterday, or fail to believe even now, today is the day to set aside doubt and worry and choose to believe the ancient and living testimony of Christ's friends. The Lord is risen from the tomb! His grave is empty. Resurexit sicut dixit, Alleluia! This is the solemn witness of generations, of centuries of men and women who have lived their lives and died their deaths, walking the passionate path of Christ's Way. They followed him to Jerusalem and to the Cross. To Corinth, Thessalonia, Alexandria, Rome, and on to Lagos, Las Angeles, Tokoyo, Mumbai, Melbourne, and Moscow. And when and if the time comes, we will follow him out into the stars and plant the church on truly alien soil. Our solemn witness is a proclamation for all of creation to hear: the Lord is risen indeed! Therefore, we must speak of what we know so that all may come to believe.

Jesus himself confirms the necessity bearing witness when he answers Nicodemus, teaching him that all men must be born again in order to enter heaven. When Nicodemus expresses doubt about how such a rebirth is possible, Jesus answers, “. . .we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.” We speak. We know. We testify. And yet our testimony is not believed. Jesus doesn't argue with Nicodemus, or perform a miracle, or offer a naturalistic explanation for what he knows to be true. Instead, he says, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. . .so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” How does anyone come to believe if there is no one to give witness? A word cannot be heard unless it is spoken. The Word made flesh and risen from the tomb must be spoken by those who believe, by those who know because they believe.

Among the first witnesses to the empty tomb were apostles, men and women who went out and gave their voices to the truth of Christ's resurrection. Luke tells us in his Acts of the Apostles that these faithful souls founded communities of believers who were of one heart and mind, holding everything in common, they claimed no possessions of their own. Bearing witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, God's grace flowed freely among them and they received His gifts with thanksgiving. From these small, local communities God's Word spread like a forest fire, burning away anguish, despair, and the futile longing for worldly prizes. Thousands were set free in the Spirit and then sent to free thousands more. They bore under the burden of witness, they spoke of what they knew so that all may come to believe. 

Thomas the Twin doubted and Christ showed him the truth. Nicodemus doubted and Christ taught him the truth. Today, perhaps more than any other day in our lifetimes, we too are confronted by doubters, sometimes hostile and violent doubters. Today, the integrity of the Church's witness is attacked from within and without, by doubters among us and doubters separated from us. To the degree that we have failed to bear faithful witness to the Risen Lord, their doubt is our burden to bear. For those who doubt despite our faithful witness, we can nothing better for them them than to remain steadfast in the preaching and teaching of the gospel the apostles have given us. If we remain one body with one heart and one mind, speaking the One Word of God, proclaiming without reservation or fear of rebuke, the integrity of our witness will be invincible. To do anything less is retreat and surrender.


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12 April 2010

Yup, that's about right. . .

























Michael Ramirez

Pulitzer Winner in Poerty

Not many HancAquam readers are into contemporary the way I am, but for those few out there, here's this year's winner and finalists for the Pulitzer Prize:

Winner: Versed, by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press), a book striking for its wit and linguistic inventiveness, offering poems that are often little thought-bombs detonating in the mind long after the first reading. 

Finalists: Tryst, by Angie Estes (Oberlin College Press), a collection of poems remarkable for its variety of subjects, array of genres and nimble use of language.

Inseminating the Elephant, by Lucia Perillo (Copper Canyon Press), a collection of poems, often laced with humor, that examine popular culture, the limits of the human body and the tragicomic aspects of everyday experience. 

I've not read any of these poets. . .been out of the poetry loop for too long. . .sigh.

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Scuba Becky update

Good News:  Scuba Becky is out of the hospital and already back at work.  She seems to think that the bank where she works will self-destruct if she's not there.

My thanks for all the prayers and kind comments/emails.  She's promised to stay out of the hospital for at least a year.

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Destroying the smoking gun case of abuse out of Oakland

John Norton of the OSV does an excellent job of summarizing, in plain English, all the errors of the alleged "smoking gun" case of sexual abuse in Oakland, CA.

This is the case where the headline blared something like "Pope delayed punishing priest child molester."

With journalists like the ones working for the NYT and CNN, we don't need the National Inquirer or Jerry Springer.

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Question for Geeks

A techy question for my Geek Readers:

Why is it that when I watch videos and enlarge them to full screen size, my mouse scrolling function is disabled? 

I have to empty the cache every time I finish a video in order to restore the scrolling function.

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No problem with the media when they do their job

Because there seems to be some doubt on this issue, let me say this as plainly and as clearly as I possibly can:

I have no problem whatsoever with the media reporting on the facts of the Church's sexual abuse scandal.  None.  Zero.  Zilch.  In fact, I credit the media with breaking the story and pushing the Church toward dealing with the problem. 

I have no problem with the media reporting on the Holy Father's involvement in the scandals if he was in fact involved.  None.  Zero.  Zilch.  Truth is truth and the truth sets us free.

What I object to is shoddy reporting based exclusively on material leaked to the media from the lawyers of alleged victims.  Any reporter worth her journalism degree should know that lawyers are advocates for a paying client.  There is only one side to any story when you're paid to tell your employer's side. 

What I object to is media habit of relying almost exclusively on Church dissidents, disgruntled former Catholics, and anti-Catholic "experts" to comment on the scandals.  Are Joan Chittister, Richard McBrien, and Thomas Reese the only Catholics in the media Rolodex?

What I object to is the media's obvious obsession with using the scandals to advocate for changes within the Church that cannot/will not happen.  Reporters report facts; they do not advocate for reforms that suit their political and ideological goals.

What I object to is the woeful ignorance of the media when it comes to the Church's history and her canonical processes and their apparent invincible unwillingness to learn.  What's so difficult about reporting that Crdl Ratzinger didn't take over the investigations of sexual abuse cases until 2001?  What's so difficult about reporting that canon law underwent a substantial reform in 1985?

So, let me say it again just in case: I have no problem whatsoever with the media reporting on the facts of the Church's sexual abuse scandal. None. Zero. Zilch. 

What I object to is the media spreading misinformation, distorting the facts, and outright lying. 

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11 April 2010

Hitting the Holy Father where he is strongest

Let me draw your attention to an excellent article by Sandro Magister of Chiesa Espresso.

Magister outlines six charges that have been made against the Holy Father since he took the Chair of Peter five years ago.  Magister points out that all six charges leveled against BXVI have struck at areas where this pope has tried to bring Christian clarity and charity.

These are exactly the areas where one would expect the Devil to focus his attention in an effort to derail true progress.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

More happy consequences from those who bring us gov't run health care. 

Hmmmmm"The eurozone area and wider European Union is now “on the brink” of disintegration unless Germany steps up and provides loans at below-market rates to Greece, George Soros, the hedge fund manager, has warned."  I have no love for the E.U. as a political entity, but the collapse of the euro would devastate the economies of the zone.  Another reason to scrap the whole bloated, over-priced edifice and allow nation states to be. . .ya know. . .sovereign.  Of course, Soros, a leftist billionaire, wants the collapse so he can make the case for the U.N. (or some other unelected body of elites) to grab control of the global economy.

The "Tea Parties Are Really Just Racist Confederates in Disguise" meme is gaining steam in the Old Media.  Only the woefully historically ignorant would buy such nonsense.

Completely flushing what little credibility he has left, whiny atheist biologist, Dick Dawkins, threatens to arrest the Pope when the Holy Father visits the U.K. in September.  Note to the Holy Father:  "Your Holiness, if you need a 300 lbs. Dominican to watch your back--one with years of experience dealing with the mentally unhinged--, I live fewer than two miles down the road from place.  Just let me know."

A run-down of the likely 2012 GOP presidential candidates.  Looks like a very fallow field.

Maureen Dowd, the NYT's resident self-loathing Catholic, sees the Taliban when she surveys her Church.  So, the obvious question is:  Maureen, why are you still a member of this horrible woman-hating institution? Diogenes has an intriguing proposal for Dowd. . .one I doubt very much that she will entertain.

The Anchoress spanks the "Women are Oppressed in the Catholic Church" meme and, in the process, exposes the self-loathing sexism of our Cultural Betters.  

Speaking of privileged feminists. . .one of my fav TV actors has died:  Dixie Carter.  When I was Big Liberal back in the 80's, her character on Designing Women, Julia Sugarbaker, was probably one of my top ten lefty heroes.

A new low in anti-average American politics:  an organized effort to crash Tea Party protests with racist signs.  Watch the MSM lap this up. 

Wow. . .and Catholics complain that our bishops can be wimpy when faced with difficult decisions.

Doing what the MSM can't be bothered to do:  Fr. Z. does a little fair and balanced reporting on clerical sexual abuse. . .among non-Catholic clergy.

John Allen throws a small cup of cold water on the smoldering hopes of those who see Archbishop Jose Gomez's appt. to replace Crdl. Mahony as a conservative revolution in the making. Generally speaking, BXVI is not appointing conservatives to the American episcopate.  Rather, he is appointing pastorally astute, sensibly orthodox men to serve the Church in the U.S. . .which is exactly what we need.

Of course men are happier than women.  Here are about 30 reasons why.  My fav: "Your underwear is only $8.95 for a three-pack."  Heck, if you shop at WalMart you can get a 10-pack for $9.00. 

Ooooooooooo. . .I need one of these to get around Rome's sidewalks when it rains!

Also, check out the updated WISH LIST.  A few new books added for the dissertation.  Grazie!

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"What can I do about the scandals?"

I've received many emails and comments asking for advice on how individual Catholics can deal with the current spate of media reports on the Holy Father's alleged involvement in obstructing investigations into clerical sexual abuse.
The requests for advice all more or less ask:  what are those of us in the pews supposed to do?

I suggest three things:

1).  Fast and pray
2).  Seek the truth and never fear it
3).  Live in hope

Fast and Pray

Fasting and praying in times of spiritual distress is the natural Catholic reaction.  We seek out the voice of God for comfort, guidance, and to accept His blessings to endure with strength.  Fasting with the intention to repair the damage done by clerical sexual abuse is not only worthy but necessary.  If there were ever a time for the laity to exercise their baptismal priesthood, it is now.  By offering the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, lay Catholics fulfill their priestly vows made at baptism and renew the spiritual heath of the whole Church.  So, pray for the victims and their families; the predators; the lawyers and therapists who aided in the cover ups; the bishops who failed to be teachers and pastors of the faith; the Holy Father, and for the Church as a whole.  I believe the intercession of the Blessed Mother is particularly called for in this current crisis.  Nothing works quite like prayers to focus the soul on what's essential to one's spiritual health.  When one part of the body is sick, the whole body is sick.  When one part of the body is healed, the overall health of the body improves. 

Seek the truth and never fear it

We know that the truth will set us free.  There is nothing for the Church to gain in hiding from the truth of these scandals.  Priests, bishops, religious sexually molested children and teens.  Some bishops and diocesan curial officials worked overtime to hide the abuse and spent millions from the collection plate to keep it all a secret.  The result?  An even bigger, deadlier scandal.  Whatever the motives for trying to hide the abuse, hiding these sins only made them more poisonous to the Body.  Like an infected wound on the body, the scandals must be thoroughly cleansed, competently medically treated, bandaged and left to heal.

If seeking the truth means exposing the scandals to the disinfectant of sunlight, then we  must look to the media for support.  However, the media have proven themselves again and again to be a voice for anti-Catholic bigotry in the cultural war against the gospel.  Because professional journalistic standards have given way to ideological advocacy and propagandizing, we are saddled with the difficult task of reading their reports with a healthy dose of suspicion.  No one denies the fact that children and teens have been abused by clergy.  No one denies that bishops have tried to hide this abuse.  In so far as the media have brought these terrible crimes to light, we should thank them.  We are not, however, obligated to thank them when they print and broadcast outright lies, distortions, or misleading omissions.  Nor are we to thank them for failing to take the time to learn something about the canonical procedures of the Church or her history.  Nor are we to thank them for using the scandals as an excuse to advocate for suicidal reforms to the Church's internal structure.  

The media's current campaign to fabricate a direct connection between the Holy Father and the abuse scandals is nothing more than a smear campaign designed to destroy his moral authority at a time when globalist secularism is fighting to move the Church out of the public square.  The ministerial hierarchy of the Church must be called to seek out the truth and proclaim it.  No matter how difficult, embarrassing, or expensive.  Likewise, the anti-Catholic media must be called upon to return to their professional journalist standards and restrict themselves to reporting verifiable facts.  The media's malpractice only serves to further erode what little trust they have with their readers and viewers.  At some point, we simply stop listening.

Live in hope

Even as the Church is pounded on all sides by those who would see us silenced, we must always keep in mind that our faith, our trust firmly rests in Christ Jesus.  No scandal--financial, sexual, political--can dislodge Christ as the head of his Body.  Our strength as the redeemed children of a loving God comes from an eternal source, the unshakable rock of ages.    Popes come and go from Rome.  Bishops rise and fall in a diocese.  Priests ebb and flow out of parishes everyday.  We lose buildings, vestments, books, vessels, ancient treasures nearly everyday.  None of these can be the source and summit of our faith.  Even the Church herself is an impermanent sacrament, a means of seeing, hearing, tasting God's boundless grace while continue our pilgrimage here on earth.  Given the hard realities of human sin, it is inevitable that filth will leak in and poison the body.  And it is just as inevitable that the body will heal and continue on.  Do we need to review the bloody persecutions of the first two centuries of Church history?  Or the Church's expulsion from France, England, China, Russia, Mexico, the Middle East?  The martyrs of Africa, Vietnam, Japan, even North America?  How about the near genocidal persecutions of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria and the Sudan?  The faithful have died, yes. . .but the faith never has and never will. 

As followers of Christ we are promised trials and persecutions.  Being a faithful Christian isn't for the easily spooked, or for the squeamish.  The core spiritual strength of Christ's faithful is the rock solid conviction that God has already won His battle against evil.  Our hope isn't a gamble against the odds of losing, but rather the assurance  of God's loving-care and that the final victory is ours.

Whatever you do don't allow those who are using these scandals as an excuse to leave the Church discourage you.  If the poor will be with us always, so will those who stand on the sidelines and whine about every inconvenience, every perceived slight, every imagined insult.  Pray for them as you would a faithful brother or sister, but pay no attention to their discouragement.  They are as free as any of us to choose hope over despair!

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10 April 2010

Good Friday 2010 at the Vatican

Another video of the Good Friday Service at the Vatican.  You can see yours truly between 3:30-3:37.  The priests who will distribute communion are processing to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.



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Questions the media wouldn't ask

Phil Lawyer of Catholiculture.org asks the questions the Pope-hating media couldn't be bothered to ask:

Was Cardinal Ratzinger responding to the complaints of priestly pedophilia? No. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which the future Pontiff headed, did not have jurisdiction for pedophile priests until 2001. The cardinal was weighing a request for laicization of Kiesle.

Had Oakland's Bishop John Cummins sought to laicize Kiesle as punishment for his misconduct? No. Kiesle himself asked to be released from the priesthood. The bishop supported the wayward priest's application.

Was the request for laicization denied? No. Eventually, in 1987, the Vatican approved Kiesle's dismissal from the priesthood.

Did Kiesle abuse children again before he was laicized? To the best of our knowledge, No. The next complaints against him arose in 2002: 15 years after he was dismissed from the priesthood.

Did Cardinal Ratzinger's reluctance to make a quick decision mean that Kiesle remained in active ministry? No. Bishop Cummins had the authority to suspend the predator-priest, and in fact he had placed him on an extended leave of absence long before the application for laicization was entered.

Would quicker laicization have protected children in California? No. Cardinal Ratzinger did not have the power to put Kiesle behind bars. If Kiesle had been defrocked in 1985 instead of 1987, he would have remained at large, thanks to a light sentence from the California courts. As things stood, he remained at large. He was not engaged in parish ministry and had no special access to children.

Did the Vatican cover up evidence of Kiesle's predatory behavior? No. The civil courts of California destroyed that evidence after the priest completed a sentence of probation-- before the case ever reached Rome.

Read the whole article and lament the decline in professional journalistic standards.

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Apple Cider Vinegar cure-all?

Anyone out there ever tried drinking diluted Apple Cider Vinegar as a tonic?

I tried it years ago and was generally unimpressed by the results.  I recently ran across a "folk remedy" site that has a huge amount of material on ACV and its alleged benefits.  

Always willing to give most anything a go (legal and moral, of course!), I bought a bottle of organic, unfiltered, unpasteurized ACV.

I add about a tablespoon of ACV to my two liter water bottle and drink it all before lunch.  The results?  The most noticeable result for me has been a rather dramatic increase in energy.  I find myself chaffing at sitting inside to read. . .I'm going out of the priory most everyday. . .I'm actually sleeping through most of the night now.  ACV is also supposed to help with excessive sweating by correcting the magnesium imbalance that often causes this problem.  No results on this front just yet.

ACV is also touted as a natural way to prevent infections.  Since I rarely get sick, this benefit might not be all that apparent for me.  We'll see. . .

Anyone else ever tried this?

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Steven's resignation will move Kennedy in the Right direction

The Legal Fanboy in me couldn't resist posting this insightful analysis on the effect Justice Steven's resignation from the SCOTUS would have on future court-rulings.

The bottomline: it's pretty much good news for the Court's "conservatives."

from SCOTUSblog:

[. . .]

First, take the issue of Kennedy’s soon-to-emerge role as an “assigning” Justice. When the Court is divided on any case being decided on the merits, the senior Justice in the majority gets to select a colleague (or take on personally) the task of writing the opinion for the majority. Depending upon who gets the assignment, that can shape the actual outcome of the case, and also influence its breadth or narrowness. Also, a colleague whose support may be somewhat shaky can be handed an assignment in order to nail down that colleague’s vote and preserve a narrow majority.

If the Chief Justice is in the majority when the Court divides, the Chief always has the assigning function, because, however long in the job of Chief Justice, that member of the Court always has top seniority. Only if the Chief Justice is not in the majority does the assigning task then fall to the Justice next highest in seniority. That has been Justice Stevens, for 16 years of his 34 years on the Court.

But Kennedy is moving up only a single notch in seniority. He is still outranked in seniority by Justice Antonin Scalia. So, if the Court’s eight other Justices were to split along conservative and liberal lines, and the four most likely conservative Justices attracted Kennedy’s vote, the assigning task would fall to the Chief Justice. In any divided Court with Kennedy and Scalia on the same side, Scalia would always be the assigning Justice should the Chief Justice not be on that side.

But, if Kennedy were to line up, in a divided case, with the Court’s four moderate-to-liberal Justices (assuming Stevens’ replacement sides with that bloc), Kennedy would always have the assigning task, inheriting it from Stevens. He would outrank, in seniority, all of the Justices in that bloc. He thus will be able to shape even the Court’s more liberally inclined outcomes, by the way he chooses the opinion authors. And, if he thought any of the other four might use an assignment to write an opinion more sweeping than he would want, he could assign the task to himself, and keep it within whatever bounds he chose so long as it did not drive off one of the four other votes he would need to keep a majority.

[. . .]

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Too much? Maybe. . .

I'm no fan of B.O., but I think DRUDGE may be piling it on a little thick, don't you?

GINGRICH: Obama 'most radical president ever'...

LIMBAUGH: Obama 'inflicting untold damage on this great country'...

MARK LEVIN: Obama 'Closest Thing to Dictator We've Ever Had'...

PALIN: Obama's 'vast nuclear experience he acquired 'community organizer'...

LIZ CHENEY: Obama Putting America on 'Path to Decline'...

HANNITY: Obama 'Is a Socialist'...

SAVAGE: 'Obama The Destroyer'...


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Advances in anti-Zombie weaponry

The Coming Zombie Apocalypse fix for the day:






















Yeah, OK. . .but does it have a flamethrower?

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Justice Stevens will leave the Supreme Court at the end of this term.  What does this mean?  Another summer of listening to Senate confirmation hearings on NPR while commuting to Irving.  Why they bother holding these hearings is beyond me.  Nominees never say anything of substance.  Every word is carefully crafted to make the nominee as inoffensive as possible.  It's a choreographed dance.

Oh, if only women and married men could be swim coaches, this sort of thing would've never have happened!

Jonah Goldberg:  "We can’t become Europe unless someone else is willing to become America. . .Europe is a free-rider. It can only afford to be Europe because we can afford to be America."  Ouch.

A preview of the chaos that ObamaCare will cause. 

Richard Bastien asks the pertinent question:  "Why the near hysteria regarding sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, most of which occurred decades ago, from a society that celebrates the lack of constraints against almost every form of sexual activity, no matter how degraded?"

75 Books Every Man Should Read. . .and it would't hurt women to read them either.

Need help separating fact from urban legend?  Go to Snopes. I recently rec'd this one at my email account:  Giants Found

Fascinating solutions to everyday problems. . .


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Call it anything but sin

Bishop James Conley sticks up for the Holy Father.  Here are three excerpts that deserve special attention:

[. . .]

Sexual abuse of children cries to heaven for justice. It violates everything that is good and holy. It mocks everything Christ said in the gospels. Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to the innocence of a little child. And for a Catholic priest to commit a crime and a sin like this is profoundly evil [Except for murder, I would say that there is no more evil act a priest could commit.  The damage done to children who have been sexually violated is enduring and often leads them into becoming predators themselves.]

[. . .]

And no person has done more to rid the Church of the evil of sexual abuse than the current successor of St. Peter, Benedict XVI. As archbishop of Munich thirty years ago, then as the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now as the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict has always been dedicated to his responsibilities of purifying the Church in this area [and this is likely why he is currently the focus of these vicious media attacks:  does anyone think that a permissive, doctrinally lazy pope would be attacked like this?].

[. . .]

No other world religious leader, Jewish, Muslim or other, would be treated in this way. Contempt for the Catholic Church—and don't be fooled; the contempt is directed not just at Church leaders, but at ordinary believers as well—no matter how vulgar or bitter, is the last acceptable prejudice. Why? Because the Catholic Church is one of the few remaining voices that speaks effectively against the moral confusion of our day. The Catholic faith does not and will not bless the damaging moral path some people now seem to prefer [Amen.  The general line of attack here is fairly obvious:  if you can't beat the message, beat the messenger and hope that the message is discredited in the process.  The duplicity here is exposed when media talking-heads and church dissents immediately start touting their reform agenda as the only possible answer to the crisis.  What do they fear?  That the Holy Father's sincere efforts to return the Church to the principal task of preaching and teaching the gospel will succeed in unraveling the unmitigated disasters of the Spirit of Vatican Two revolutionaries.] 
 
I wonder when some prominent member of the Spirit of Vatican Two cadre will man-up and accept partial responsibility for this mess.  As I have already noted many times, the root cause of the scandal is sin.  Not ecclesial structures.  Not processes, procedures, or policies.  So, the question is:  what has happened in the Church in the last forty years to turn sin into any and everything but sin?  We talk endlessly about psychological disorders, legal responsibilities, criminal negligence, financial culpability, and the failure to self-actualize.  Why have we been so reluctant to call this outrageous behavior what it is:  sin?

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