Feb
5
Ordinary Time vs. Septuagesima
February 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
Feast of St. Agatha
This is the pre-lent period and Sexagesima Sunday is coming up. One would not know this because of the innovations in the liturgical calendar following the ill conceived reforms of Pope Paul VI. Ordinary time is just that – ordinary and seems to have no reference to any mile post. Now that being said, the old calendar with its emphasis on classes of feasts tended to be confusing, and the time after Epiphany was likewise a bit hard to figure when the later Sundays post Epiphany were transferred to the time after Pentecost if the Lent occurred earlier in the year. But that was what the hand missals were for and the priest kept us on the same page. Nevertheless, the times following Epiphany and Pentecost gave one a sense of orientation, one which is totally absent in “Ordinary Time”, a time which is ordinary, dis-orientated, unmoored.
Thus when I went to my local Novus Ordo parish last Sunday, the one with mandatory hand holding during the Our Father, where the “Gloria” is just another song (sounds like a show tune) done without due reverence, and because there is no TLM in my part of the Diocese of Reno; here one would not know the rapidly approaching season of Lent. Indeed there was no Candlemas, no St. Blaise and I sure could have used having had my throat blessed.
So anyway, Lent is coming, I had to look it up on line to make sure I was in the right place in my breviary. Get ready, fast and pray for the ongoing reform of the reform. may God grant Pope Benedict XVI length of years.
Feb
2
Quadraginta annis: Catholic café communists and bookstore anarchism
February 2, 2010 | 1 Comment
I have written previously:
This can be no more clear than at these “Catholic” blogs where concepts of Catholic social justice and Charity have been perverted to the use of hate speech to condemn fellow Catholics whose political affiliation in the United States may not accord with the liberal and leftist leanings of these authors.
In the days following the 1960s social revolution in which sexuality, politics and drugs became radicalized in the microcosm of University, the provisions of professorial tenure served as a safe intellectual environment, ideal for germinating the seeds of Revolution within the suggestible minds of youth. The University and its tenured professors became a bully pulpit from which radicalized professors inculcated Revolution, students desiring success in their courses were coerced to write papers, theses and dissertations reflecting the biases of their Professors if they wanted to get their degrees. Junior faculty had to toe the party line if they too wanted tenure.
Much the same occurred in the seminaries and monasteries in which radicalized ordained and religious supervised the fate of those in formation – hence the large numbers of hippy priests and women religious whose ideas of social justice make them sound more like Bolsheviks than Catholics. Indeed this is a form of recruitment that none dare denounce for fear of being marginalized by the Academy or by those in charge of religious formation. The infestation of the Academy by radicals in Chicago where much of the more violent and extreme aspects of 60s radicalism were born have come to fruition in the presidency of Barack Obama, a protege of the extremists Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, homegrown terrorists who not only evaded just punishment for their crimes but prospered in the atmosphere of Chicago with its easily infiltrated and corrupt Democratic Party machine.
Likewise many Catholic institutions and orders have become hotbeds of radicalism and dissent in the United States. The Apostolic Visitation of American women’s religious orders has been resisted because of the transformation of women’s religious communities into arenas of feminist separatism, centers of religious dissent and the incorporation and practice of paganism in pursuit of a feminine sense of the divine and/or gender neutrality in liturgy. Nowhere else in the religious landscape of Catholic America is it more evident that there has been a serious derailment of the intentions of the Second Vatican Council than the decline of women’s vocations in the USA and the subversion of much of the remnant to the advocacy of radical feminism and forms of revisionist theology.
Meanwhile the landscape is becoming littered with laity who presume to speak authoritatively rather than disclaim that their writings are opinions only. This latter phenomenon takes the form of lay organizations formed outside of diocesan approval, blogs and internet video. Troubling as this trend is, we are less than a decade into the widespread practice of Evangelization through the internet and one can expect that it is a matter of time before juridical directives from the hierarchical Church come forth placing restraints upon what can and cannot be said under color of ecclesial authority. The author of this blog does not claim to speak authoritatively, however certain other blogs do assume that because of the academic status of some of their authors that they are “more equal than others” to speak; presume to be “better qualified”, to pronounce on theological matters. Being a graduate student in theology at a Catholic or a secular University does not impute any greater authority than the opinions of a well read lay person. In fact no authority exists within the Church unless it is granted from one’s Bishop, or one has a teaching license from an established Catholic University, and then under certain constraints. Academic authority likewise must come from accepted peer reviewed and appointed channels: one’s term paper or Master’s thesis do not count as such per se. It would be wise for the contributors of a certain blog in particular to bear this in mind as they engage in the promotion of suburban bourgeoise liberalism as Catholic teaching- engagement in cultural imperialism in the name of the Church is wrong. As I admonished a certain bloggist, because one is a Catholic who writes a blog, that does not make one’s blog a “Catholic blog” but a blog written by a Catholic, unless of course one has episcopal license to do so.
Bearing this in mind, having a fascination for Dorothy Day does not make all other social activism and protest acceptable, nor does it “baptise” variant forms of Marxism and social anarchy. For example Vietnam War activists from among the Catholic religious did more harm than good to the interests of the American Church and added further confusion to the growing crisis in the Church, positioning chaos where previously order had ruled. Furthermore, liberal politicains who call themselves Catholic have likewise caused great scandal by promoting agendas antithetical to Catholic teaching. The adoption of Chic positions like “Catholic anarchism” and liberation theology, women ordained, and the acceptance of same sex marriage all cause great scandal to the Church, moreso when these positions are advocated by prominent figures. It should be added that theological or philosophical training does not guarantee the orthodoxy of one’s perspectives to wit the theologians Hans Kung, Uta Ranke Heinemann, Leonardo Boff. Indeed it seems that young theologians flock to these authors more from a sense of novelty and reject the staid old premises of more conventional Catholic theologians. It is the new and chic and avant garde which appeals and draws young authors to espouse such contradictions as “Catholic anarchy”.
Thus it is important for Catholics who blog to be mindful that they are writing opinion only and do not write authoritatively for the Church.
Jan
21
Quadraginta annis: “The talk show Mass”
January 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Over at “Acts of the Apostasy” is an illuminating piece called “The Talk Show Mass”. It was brought to my attention by a friend and colleague of mine who had he blessing of going to Kansas City for the investiture of a Sister into the Benedictine habit. The Talk Show piece was appended in the email to contrast the experience my blessed friend had in Kansas City:
“On the Feast of the Epiphany about thirty of us traveled from El Paso to Kansas City for the Investiture of our precious Sister Philomena in the Benedictine habit. She and her community of Benedictines have made themselves strangers to the experimental “Novus Ordo Missae.”
No matter how hard I try, my words must necessarily fall short of the grandeur and beauty of the True Mass in its Low form, not to speak of what we witnessed two days ago, a Pontifical High Mass in the Authentic Rite of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated by Bishop Finn with the assistance of a bunch of priests of the FSSP and the ICK, approximately seven million accolytes and a choir one would happily die for. The MC could have easily been a rocket-scientist had he chosen. As our beloved priest/friend from Brazil, Father Batista commented afterward, “Now that is our Catholic Church.”"
Sigh, you blessed in Kansas City – as an act of Christian Charity please pray for those of us who hunger in the wilderness for the Mass of Ages.
Thanks to “Acts of the Apostasy” for keeping vigilant in this time of American Catholic disorientation.
Jan
17
Quadraginta Annis: misguided ecumenism with Evangelicals
January 17, 2010 | 4 Comments
One of the great hopes of the Second vatican Council and the development of the Novus Ordo Missae was “The restoration of unity among all Christians.” On the heels of this hope came the influx of various protestant mannerisms into the liturgy, including the adoption of protestant hymns, (regardless of the heretical content, for example “Amazing Grace” a paen to the sufficiency and irresistable action of grace alone), protestant styled “Bible study” classes, the Charismatic movement and its distorted offspring Medjugorje, homiletic styles like that of Father Pfleger, the adoption of the Masoretic numbering of the Psalms so as to concord with Protestant Bibles, and so forth. In the process a loss of catholic identity has arisen and with it a spirit of religious indifferentism manifesting in a decline in Mass attendance and persons leaving the Catholic Faith for Charismatic/ Pentecostalist sects, especially in the Spanish speaking dioceses of the Americas.
However, it should be evident to all that some substantive differences exist between the Catholic and Protestant ecclesial communities, especially those ecclesial communities which call themselves “Evangelical” regadless of whether they consider themselves nondenominational or members of an established religious denomination. Nothing could have pointed up the very real lack of depth in Evangelical preaching, teaching and theology – let alone a complete lack of compassion and Christian Charity, than Pat Robertson’s remarks pertaining to the tragic Haitian earthquake stating that Haiti was cursed because the nation had made “a pact with the Devil” in order to obtain its freedom from France.
This statement alone speaks volumes as to why Catholics should approach all ecumenical gestures with Protestants and especially Evangelicals with caution: Evangelicals in particular do not respect the religious beliefs of non-evangelical Christians. Haiti is a nation whose population is 80% Catholic, thus Pat Robertson knowing this fact has chosen to speak as if the people of Haiti had no Christian religion at all and therefore according to him “cursed.”
But is is true, Evangelical Protestants with their heretical beliefs in the sufficiency of a vocalized faith alone, one which cannot be lost no matter how much one sins- “once saved always saved”- truly they presume on God’s mercy and the satisfaction made for our sins by His Son, Jesus Christ.
But the point here is that there are limits as to how far ecumenical outreach can proceed with Evangelicals and the laity need to be informed and well aware that the reception they get from Evangelicals is one which presumes that the lay Catholic will abandon his Catholic faith and adopt the Evangelical view of salvation: a “personal relationship with Christ”. Indeed nothing is further from the Truth: Christ comes in the End for His Bride, the Church, not for individuals save they be members of His Body, the Church. Thus “Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus”, no salvation outside the Church. Christ does not enter into “personal” salvation of individuals but of persons as corporate members of the Church. Thus, one is saved by the agency of the Church and the Sacraments: “”The sacraments are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace.” Mere evangelical preaching and Bible study do not suffice, save to bring one to the Church and the reception of the Sacraments.
Jan
9
Quadraginta Annis: Don’t Chew the Baby Jesus
January 9, 2010 | 1 Comment
Epiphany 2010: some 2 millenia ago the Magi of the East followed a Star and came to visit the new born Incarnation of God, a God laid in a Manger with Ox and Ass as sentinels. Yet Epiphany is not Epiphany anymore with a Second Vatican Council having renovated the liturgical calendar and removing once familiar temporal markers of Seasons. Epiphany is no longer celebrated on Epiphany anymore in most of the United States but rather on the Sunday after January 1 because it is not an Holy Day of Obligation. Likewise in my own dear Diocese of Reno the Feast formerly known as Of The Circumcision but then transferred to the Virgin Mary and the Feast of World Peace has been suspended from obligation as well.
*le Sigh*
So as I watched the faithful present themselves for the Body and Blood of Our Savior I observed some manner of receiving which I have always abhorred, something which offends the Catholic Sensibility more egregiously than the obvious reception “in the hand” rather than “on the tongue” : Rather the bovine-like mastication of the Hostia Himself within the dentition of the Catholic – horrors. Surely had the custom “receptio in manibus” not been established thanks to the innivations following the 1970 Missal, there would not be the evident witness of ”manducare Corpus sicut bos et asinus ad praesepibus” – to munch the Body like the Ox and the Ass at the cradle.
To thus very day I see in my mind’s eye the kind yet firm figure of Sister admonishing us at catechism instruction prior to First Holy Communion: “Do NOT chew the Baby Jesus!”, rather we were to allow His Body to dissolve gently in the saliva of our tongues. Now as I watch the Novus Ordo faithful receiving in the hand and irreverently chewing the Corpus, grinding and abusing it with their molars, looking for all the world like a cow in the pasture thoughtlessly chewing her cud, I place by head in my hands and close my eyes and say the “Anima Christi”, trying desperately not to think of the loss of reverence and Catholic identity that has resulted from 4 decades of liturgical abuse and innovation following the introduction of the 1970 Missal during Advent 1970.
Don’t chew the Baby Jesus, have some respect for His Mother who gazes patiently as you chomp on the Body of her Son given graciously by Her to the Cross and the Will of His Father. Rather patiently let the Host dissolve and then say the Anima Christi and and Ave, a Pater and a Gloria to Her honor for the restoration of true Catholic tradition and identity. Say them in Latin.
Let us also pray for a restoration of the Epiphany and the Time after Epiphany to the Church calendar and the abolition of “Ordinary Time” because no time is Ordinary in the Liturgy, it is all referent to the events of the Life of the Church and Her Bridegroom.
Dec
26
Merry Christmas – Quadraginta Annis, Title X and Planned Parenthood
December 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Merry Christmas to all:
I have refrained from posting through the Fast of St. Martin. This period of reflection was essential in determining the direction of these posts and this blog. I had initially started as a way of calling for penance and spiritual perfection in the laity since as you all know by now such things are regarded as dated, old and no longer apropos of the modern Church by many. But this was all flower-power foolishness of the past 40 years influenced by the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed it would seem that a Marxist Social revolution took place in the United States and Europe and these influences spilled over into the Church on several levels, including the interpretation of the documents of Vatican II.
I say social Marxism rather than economic Marxism because the revolutionaries themselves realized that the way to bring about their economic aim was to first cause class warfare between the sexes, between parents and children and to create a whole new class of gender identity – the LGBT – and to cause social struggle with this new and altogether unbiological, hence unnatural, sexual identity. By creating a type of natural relativism through the use of gender identity, the societies of the wold and the Church itself have been rocked and the mission of evangelization has been turned on its head through the perversion of the mission of the Church to convert sinners, done by means of normalizing gay/transgendered sexual identity through biological relativism and thus challenging the moral authority of the Church to preach against the sins of Sodom.
“If God created us like this then it can’t be a sin can’t it?” This is the line of attack used by lay and clerical enemies of the teachings of the Catholic Faith on Matrimony and the Family.
The decline of the family got its impetus during the Protestant reformation with the “Great Matter” of King Henry VIII of England causing the formation of the Church of England and giving way to the normalization of serial adultery that we see as commonplace today. In fact divorce and remarriage is so common that even the most stalwart opponents of the “gay marriage agenda” think little of the offense to God that divorce and remarriage causes – just so long as the marriage is between a man and a woman. For this reason the conservative cause against gay marriage in America does not consistently defend the cause of families because in fact the divorce laws of the Unitied States must be revised so that divorce is dificult to obtain. Furthermore marriage ought to be allowed only as a religious ceremony and all other cohabitations registered as domestic partnerships for the purpose of taxation and keeping of common property. Thus, any who are married and divorced ought not to be allowed to marry again but may register their adulterous new “relationship” with the Government and live happily ever after: Should they choose to suit their fancy with another, said registration may be voided, conditions of separation honored according to the contract and new arrangements made. There is no need to call the serial adultery common in the United States “marriage” because its is no such thing, and these are no less an offense to God and immoral than sodomite relations save for the biological unnaturalness of the latter.
This social Marxism was aided and abetted by the Republicans themselves, most exceptionally on on Christmas Eve, 1970 when both houses of Congress approved PUBLIC LAW 91-572-DEC. 24, 1970, the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970 which was signed by President Richard M. Nixon on December 26, 1070. Title X, which funds family planning agencies like Planned Parenthood, was constructed under this act. Republicans under the guidance and initiative of President Richard M. Nixon were instrumental in sowing the seeds of political forces which have borne mass abortion, global warming causes, cap and trade legislation, and the resurgence of population control initiatives resulting from the Copenhagen meetings of December, 2009. Nixon, a republican, first gave legal credence to the Mathusian doctrines now being used to herd mankind into smaller pens for industrial servitude, while in China the Cultural revolution was underway – the temporal convergence suggests an underlying common agenda.
As for the Pro-Life Movement, they have made too much common cause with the Republican Party and have compromised themselves by prostituting themselves to the Republican political agenda. To put this another way, the Republican Party has used the Pro-Life movement as a whore to pleasure itself but has not committed itself to make any meaningful change in the nations abortion laws either at the Supreme Court or in Congress or in the White House. Let us not forget that Roe v. Wade was decided during a Republican presidency and by Supreme Court Justices appointed by a Republican president. Associate Justice Harry Blackmun was a Republican and nominated to the Supreme Court by Richard M. Nixon in 1970. Associate Justice Blackmun wrote the Court’s opinion on Roe v. Wade in 1973. Since that time Republicans have controlled the White House under Ford, Reagan and the two Bush Presidencies, not to mention the period when the GOP controlled Congress under Newt Gingrich’s leadership and there have been little more than limited and cursory restrictions placed on abortion access in the United States.
Despite current restrictions on the use of Federal funds to provide abortion services, Planned Parenthood receives TITLE X funding for birth control services, funds which could have been restricted under the Presidency of George W. Bush, but were nevertheless signed into law by this Republican president:
Public Law No. 107-
116. It says, in part:
That of the funds made available
under this heading, $265,085,000
shall be for the program under Title
X of the Public Health Service Act
to provide for voluntary family planning
projects: Provided further, that
amounts provided to said projects
under such title shall not be expended
for abortions, that all pregnancy
counseling shall be nondirective,
and that such amounts shall not be
expended for any activity (including
the publication or distribution of
literature) that in any way tends to
promote public support or opposition
to any legislative proposal or candidate
for public office
Would it not make eminent sense to restrict federal funding for any and all organizations that provide abortion services? While the language of the law specifically restricts funding abortion services, we all know that this funding keeps Planned Parenthood and similar organizations fiscally solvent. Why then, if the conservatives in America demand greater personal responsibility have they failed each time to restrict funding abortion by this means of indirect funding: as if somehow this language makes a difference in limiting access to abortion?
Clearly had the political will been there Planned Parenthood and her like organizations would depend entirely upon private sources of funding and would be unable to survive in an economically competitive marketplace – abortion could be seriously limited and even eliminated in most places without resort to repealing Roe v. Wade save for the federal largesse abortion providers receive through indirect funding of these agencies.
Had there been political will of the type used to prosecute the Iraq War, the type of will necessary to devastate a nation that had no direct relation to the 2001 World Trade Center attack, a nation which had no weapons of mass destruction as was known then and has been proven now: Had the political will been there in the mind of George W. Bush, and a Republican congress, there would have been the means of removing all Federal funding from reproductive service agencies that provide abortions.
Witness the manner in which Health Care Reform is being pushed through Congress and the Senate without regard for the sentiments of the amjority of Americans who opose these measures. Does one honstly believe that abortion would be funded by the Federal Government had a similar initiative been acted in a similarly forceable manner? Indeed, such an intiative would have secured he support of the majority of Americans and the opposition of anti-life and anti-family groups which I decry in the first part of this post.
I submit, had the elected Republicans had the will to severely curtail abortion services in the United States, they would have done so. Instead President George W, Bush indirectly funded abortion services through the use of circumlocutory language to fund agencies that provide other reproductive services thus enabling these agencies to use other funding sources for the abortions while keeping themselves fiscally solvent with government money.
The recent negotiations in the Senate by Senator Nelson of Nebraska have been criticised for allowing indirect funding of abortions through a separate funding stream. Foolishly these critics fail to realize that similarly duplicitous language has been used to fund abortions indirectly through TITLE X.
So Catholics: it is time to regain Catholic Identity and to cease considering yourself a member of just another “religious denomination.” It is clear that left to its own devices the American Conservative movement in general, and the Republican Party in particular, have not only failed to secure conservative legislative protections to defend families and the unborn, but in fact have enacted initiatives which erode the foundations of marriage, as well as support abortion directly and indirectly. Roe v. Wade, Title X, federally funded family planning and population research were all done by Republicans as cited above. Does this make the democrats any better…of course not, but my critique of that party has been ongoing. It is time for Catholics to understand the limitations of secular American politics and the degree to which it can aid the defense of religious Liberty, the Right to Life and the rights of parents and families. Likewise we must regard American Evangelicals, who have by and large been the base of the Republican Party as of limited usefulness in the defense of said liberties, families and children since they have in themselves tolerated without much resistance contraception, divorce and remarriage in their ecclesial communities, speaking out only against the extremes of gay marriage and abortion and failing to support families and the rights of the unborn with the same degree of zeal with which they oppose restrictions of the Second Amendment.
I submit that had American Evangelical Christians, the Republican base of support for the Reagan and two Bush presidencies, opposed abortion to the same degree they opposed gun control, there would be no abortions in the United States. Evangelicals and their support for these conservative presidencies have failed broadly in defending the rights of the unborn and have succeeded only in generating a popular backlash against Christianity. It is time for the Catholic Church to take the lead in this regard.
In conservative circles there is a sense of American Exceptionalism, one which asserts the superiority of the American nation owing to its constitutional, economic and demographic structures which are unique to the secular world.
Catholics: I say it is time to assert our Catholic Exceptionalism because we are unique: the Bible was compiled and issued by our Church, we are the original Church founded by Jesus Christ, our liturgies are the most beautiful religious expressions in the world, our theology is universal and comprehensive, we are Universal: The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and we should and must inform our secular governments and cultures and not be informed by them. We must instruct the Protestant ecclesial communites and welcome them back with open arms and instruct them in the meaning of how a “personal relationship with God” is only possible through the Church, how “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” predicates such a personal relationship and how the Eucharist is Jesus Christ present among us, and in us. WE are the salt of the earth and we must fulfill our mission here on earth or be cast into the street and trodden under foot as unsavory and unfit for consumption.
Nov
11
St. Martin of Tours
November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The ancient penitential season begins with fasting and abstinence following today’s feast. Anterior to the keeping of Advent in more recent customs, this 40 days of penance was kept in the ancient Rule of 1221, the original rule of the Third Order of St. Francis at a time when the Franciscan Third Order had standards consistent with the practice of the virtue of Penance, standards that reflected the actual manner of the Saint rather than the lax rule observed today in the name of St. Francis following the Pauline Reforms of the last century. But we can recover our sense of Catholicity and resume being of Catholic mind by doing penance and fasting for the salvation of souls.
More on this topic as the 40 days of the small Lent progress.
Nov
10
Memo to the Bishops: Catholic Campaign For Human Development
November 10, 2009 | 1 Comment
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) collects money for the Catholic Campaign For Human Development (CCHD) every year. It is time to tell our Bishops “NO!”. “No!” now and a permanent “No!” to this continued assault on the Catholic Faith in the name of “social justice”. The CCHD has been found to give large sums of money to corrupt political organizations like ACORN as well as other organizations that openly undermine Catholic teaching. This has to stop, and has stopped as in the instance of ACORN, but one wonders if it would have stopped save for the vigilance of a few laity? Must the laity act as watchdogs over our Shepherds, must we now view every act by our Bishops with suspicion and vet their opinions for fidelity to the magisterium of the Church, for example the scandalous participation of the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston at the Senator Ted Kennedy funeral?
As I have said previously, the same forces at work in Washington DC today, forces which are pushing socialist change on American society, have been at work in the Catholic Church for the past 4 decades under the rubric of “The Spirit of Vatican II” a spirit recognized for the demonic force that it is by at least one Bishop.
The evidence of the USCCB funding these same radical political forces is no more plain than what has been uncovered by the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry in its expose of the CCHD funding radical leftist pro-abortion orgainizations with Catholic donations, donations given by an apparently gullible Catholic population who have been deceived by the rhetoric of “social justice”. In response to this expose some of the more egregiously objectionable organizations have been defunded, but again this begs the question: Had it not been for the vigilance of the laity would this have happened? For this reason alone the CCHD should receive no more contributions until it is plain that the USCCB is acting in good faith, as trustworthy stewards of our hard earned donated money.
Place this in your donation envelope instead of money. More information may be viewed here:
Oct
31
Happy Halloween
October 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Today is the Vigil of All Saints, known in the Anglophone world as Halloween. Rather than go on mightily against the custom of dressing in devil’s costumes and going door to door begging for candy, there are plenty of more qualified persons who have warned of the Diabolic influence and anti-Catholic bias of that, I will entertain the possibility that Catholics of good will would do well to recite the Traditional breviary in honor of tomorrow’s feast.
The Communion of Saints which includes those who are presently living (and who have the opportunity to lose membership through committing mortal sin) and those who are with the Lord (and who have the honor of having been properly vetted and are redeemed) and those undergoing purgation, but are nevertheless saved.
Indeed, this Communion is that of the Body of Christ of Whom we partake at Holy Mass, regardless of the other distractions of bad liturgical presentation and horrible guitar music, the very Body persecuted by Paul and Who knocked him off his horse and blinded him on the way to Damascus. This Body is Real and speaks as One in union with Christ as His Bride.
This Communion of Saints must take form as a reality in the hearts of Catholics because it is ontologically active in the world today as the leaven by which pagan culture is transformed and through which souls are redeemed. There is no “personal relationship with Christ” without a personal membership in His Body. This is more than just belief, Faith indeed is remaining true to this ontological reality, one which is as present as the sun in the sky and if seen as the Truth would be more than an object of philosophical speculation and abstraction.
Let us then have a day of pious reflection and prayer and prepare to celebrate the coming Feast of All Saints. Happy Halloween.
Oct
29
Health care reform: necessities versus rights
October 29, 2009 | 1 Comment
Health care is not a “right”, it is a necessity like clean water, food, clothing and shelter. Rights include such things as the right to be paid for one’s work, yet there are those who presume to be Catholic, such as the late Senator Ted Kennedy, that believe health care should be given freely as it is a “right of the people”. It does not appear meaningful to these persons that medical care is a product of human labor and skill, not unlike agriculture and industrial manufacturing, that people must be paid, equipment bought and supplies and medications purchased. Only the most juvenile minds would presume to think that health care can be a free thing provided at no cost to all people and that the government ought to provide it. Since when does government have medicine as its area of competence?
Perhaps then it should follow that food is a right and farmers should also work for free and yield their produce at no cost so as to give everyone something to eat as a “right to low cost food”. It then follows that automobiles and transportation should be a right therefore the autoworkers and those who operate trains and airplanes should give us all free transportion in the name of these same human rights. Then it should be evident to all that since shelter is a right, as these well meaning Catholics often claim, then they should perhaps share their dwellings with those who haven’t any home, perhaps build a separate home for them on their own property, out of respect for their right to privacy, and of course give it freely since these same human persons have a “right” to such things, and so forth. There is no end to the claims persons will make to enjoy the fruits of the hard work and labor of others in the name of “human rights”. It is also evident that the use of “rights” has become a means of exploiting working people who have the capacity to pay for things that other people want but do not wish to work for yet expect as an entitlement just for being able to cast a shadow and stand on two legs – like abortion and birth control for unwed, yet sexually active and unemployed females: Heaven forbid we should deprive these women the “right” to sexual pleasure without the unwanted consequence of having babies and then having to feed and clothe them for the following 2 decades of life. But hey, there are government programs for that too – but I digress.
In fact the following New Testament verse is often used to support such claims to “health care rights” by our fellow theology of social justice Catholic types:
(James 2:14-17), “My brothers and sisters, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it? Such faith has no power to save one, has it? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, ‘Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed,’ but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that? So it is with the faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless.”
How often we hear that scripture, but fail to hear the corollary:
2 Thessalonians 3:7-10
“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
The Apostle clearly states in his passage that he has a RIGHT to such assistance however, he gives us a model for obtaining he benefits of his right – through work. Thus a human right and obligation to work and to pay for one’s needs is mandated in the scriptures, and this is the means by which the mandates of St. James are to be implemented; by providing succor as a means to sustainable effort and productivity.
Unfortunately there is the belief among novus ordo Catholics that somehow benefiting from the produce of one’s hard work is in some way sinful and that we must strive for a utopian world in which everyone has free things, given in the name of Charity and Justice: this is just a revision, an updated version of the pre-Vatican II scrupulosity that resulted in the excessive emphasis on externals like chapel veils and abstaining from meat on Fridays, rather than emphasizing the underlying virtues of practicing modesty and penance. Likewise we are brow beaten by the Post-Modern-Jansenists of the Novus Ordo, ordained and religious who, possessed by the “Spirit of Vatican II”, proclaim with bitter zeal that thrift and industriousness are mere greed and covetousness; that we ought to give everything to the various projects funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (which doled out parishioners charitable contributions to ACORN as you recall) and similarly diabolically disorientated and nominally Catholic “good works” or we are all indeed sinners and pharisees, guilty of keeping poor old Lazarus at the door with the dogs licking his wounds.
Indeed, social activism in the Church has become unmoored from the underlying requisite of personal holiness, “social justice” has become an end in itself, a mantra deprived of any sanctified meaning, one muttered endlessly by the lips of activists who seek to emulate the totalitarian solutions of repressive regimes in order to impose the world view of university academicians from a dominator culture on peoples of color and diversity, this is cultural imperialism at its worst. When a government “Czar” sees common cause between Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Chairman Mao and equates them in a public speech, calling them her major philosophical influences, it is self evident that the holy message of a Catholic Saint has got lost in the currently popular Bolshevik-appearing presentation of Catholic Social teaching. Evidently there are some who think that Mother Teresa and Chairman Mao were of like mind – this is the effect of the Catholic self presentation over the past decade: the loss of Catholic identity, the encroachment of “Liberation theology”, Youth Teen Masses and other brands of religious indifference, indeed the scrapping of Catholic discipline in favor of social activism in the name of peace and justice for its own sake has resulted in a widely perceived chaos, perhaps this is the “diabolical disorientation” spoken of at Fatima.. Has the Catholic Church become just another NGO? An arm of the United Nations or a subsidiary of the United Way? So now politicians think that Catholic Saints and Communist ideologues eat from a common pot? Is Christianity just an early form of communism in the eyes of these people?
It is time to re-brand Catholic Social teaching and actually make it “Catholic”, instead of appearing as Maoism with a Crucifix.
