Dec
1
The sin of silence in the face of evil
December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dec
1
Dad al Cesar lo que es del Cesar…
December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I am reading the book by Denver Archbishop Chaput, Render Unto Caesar, a most illuminating read on the role of Catholics in American political life. Not just limited to the topic of abortion, this book provides some genuine historical insight into the developments which have resulted in the current state of affairs with Catholics having been intimidated by the sloganeering left that religion is a private matter which should not influence the craft of government. Yes, the 2008 elections are over, and the lessons learned for Catholics require revisiting the principles of the Faith and how these should guide our citizenship. This book is an excellent text for just that. Additionally, it clarifies some nagging questions about Vatican II and its seeming rupture with prior Catholic social teaching. In his book, the Archbishop treats of the manner in which Vatican II came about to address the relationship of the Church to modern society and how the documents such as Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate have been misinterpreted by some to construe a break with traditional Catholic tenets such as the necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation. Additionally, the Archbishop identifies some of the causes of the current decline in Catholic morals and discipline as originating with Catholic politicians themselves, politicians who have sold out their Catholic values to become electable. The author treats of John F. Kennedy’s open affront to Catholic discipline in his eagerness to be president as a clear indictment of just how pernicious Kennedy’s denial of Catholic principle has been a central problem for Catholics in the political sphere ever since. Kennedy’s bad example and evident cultural Catholicism has been imitated by most successful Catholic politicians ever since, most notably the current Vicepresident-elect. To quote JFK,
“I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.”
This Kennedy proclamation sounds strangely reminiscent of Peter’s denunciation of the Scourged One, “I do not know Him“. How sad that our Catholic politicians, save a few, choose expediency over Truth and the common Good.
Archbishop Chaput’s book is well written, clear and forthright and is completely absent the heavily nuanced and evasive language that has come to characterize so many public documents published by American Bishops. Archbishop Chaput calls it as he sees it without being belligerent or antagonistic, he accurately describes the acedia which has gripped the Catholic faithful in America and identifies many of its root causes.
This book is well worth the time to read, it is highly instructive, and I encourage Catholics, born and converted alike to read this book if they read no other this Advent.
Nov
29
SOME THOUGHTS
November 29, 2008 | 2 Comments
Vespers of first Sunday of Advent, it is Thanksgiving weekend.
Been confessed and to Mass, on travel right now visiting family, before returning to the desert of my labors.
Horrifying news, the Mumbai terror attack, and something else which is profoundly disturbing - the Wal*Mart stampede on Long Island, where a temporary worker was trampled to death by greedy shoppers as the doors opened on so-called “Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving.
These two things point the direction things are going in the world; first - America has lost its soul, having become a callous pit of consumerism which manifests in its most malignant form during a shopping season named for the Lord and Savior of humanity; second- the ascent of a religious militancy among Muslims who are undeterred by the fear of death (in much the same sense our X-mas shoppers are undeterred by the fear of killing someone else) in the process of obtaining their goals.
Our godless consumer culture is merrily dancing the night away on a sinking ship which will soon list deeply to the left before being submerged by a tsunami of global political and economic chaos. In its wake will come a militant jihad which will make hasty pudding of the immoral sensuality of American hedonism. Many Catholics keep discussing about a “chastisement” based on various locutions and apparitions, well this may very well be what is coming our way- not a meteor, but the sword of Islam…again…as happened to our ancestors.
It may be too late for a society which has lost the drive to hard work and responsibility and has replaced its traditional values with an ethic of selfishness and covetous acquisition. This type of soft bellied decadent society cannot stand up to the hardened mujahideen just waiting for the opportune moment to strike and take over.
Illustrative of this - Somaili mujahid pirates are seizing huge oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden and holding them for millions of dollars in ransom, meanwhile gays and lesbians are harrassing Christian worshippers to protest the democratically defeated right to same sex marriage in California.
Our priorities? The Freedom of Choice Act and overturning California Proposition 8.
Theirs? Worldwide jihad and the establishment of a global Califate through a program of progressive terror and economic harrassment.
Who has the stronger will? I think the latter.
And American Catholics, where will they be in a generation or two? Given their lack of evangelical will, I suspect they will be either living in a godless Orwellian state where gay school teachers will indoctrinate their children in the political incorrectness of the Catholic prohibitions against sodomy and abortion, OR living under an Islamic rule and paying the Jizya tax to practice their religion under the auspices of the Shariah. Personally, I think the latter is the preferable and most likely option, but either way, democracy and religious freedom are going away in the near future. In fact, that may already have happened, we just don’t realize it yet.
I think it is too late, the 2008 Presidential election, while the results may have satisfied the desires of 54% of the Catholic electorate, was a tipping point, one for which the Church will likely pay a high price, but a necessary one, for failing to provide the required leavening of society - American Catholics have lost their savor and we all know what happens with that.
Nov
28
Peter Kreeft and winning the culture war
November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Please read this blog entry at Da Mihi Animas, I am sure you will read something good here.
Nov
28
Explanations for those 54% of Catholic voters…
November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
You 54% you, you know who you are, I have listened to your “reasons” and they be summarized as follows:
Nov
26
Faith is more than mere belief
November 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
Faith is more than mere belief, it is a supernatural gift which exceeds the light of natural reason or the impressions of sentiment. It is more certain than all human knowledge.
St. Thomas clarifies this matter:
Two things are requisite for faith. First, that the things which are of faith should be proposed to man: this is necessary in order that man believe anything explicitly. The second thing requisite for faith is the assent of the believer to the things which are proposed to him. Accordingly, as regards the first of these, faith must needs be from God. Because those things which are of faith surpass human reason, hence they do not come to man’s knowledge, unless God reveal them. To some, indeed, they are revealed by God immediately, as those things which were revealed to the apostles and prophets, while to some they are proposed by God in sending preachers of the faith, according to Romans 10:15: “How shall they preach, unless they be sent?”
As regards the second, viz. man’s assent to the things which are of faith, we may observe a twofold cause, one of external inducement, such as seeing a miracle, or being persuaded by someone to embrace the faith: neither of which is a sufficient cause, since of those who see the same miracle, or who hear the same sermon, some believe, and some do not. Hence we must assert another internal cause, which moves man inwardly to assent to matters of faith.
The Pelagians held that this cause was nothing else than man’s free-will: and consequently they said that the beginning of faith is from ourselves, inasmuch as, to wit, it is in our power to be ready to assent to things which are of faith, but that the consummation of faith is from God, Who proposes to us the things we have to believe. But this is false, for, since man, by assenting to matters of faith, is raised above his nature, this must needs accrue to him from some supernatural principle moving him inwardly; and this is God. Therefore faith, as regards the assent which is the chief act of faith, is from God moving man inwardly by grace.
Thus the modern idea that one can follow one’s conscience alone and thereby act justly towards the Truth is false, this is Pelagianism which asserts that man’s free-will is sufficient to ascertain the Truth. Conscience must be formed by the motives of the Church. For this two necessary things must come first: God’s revelation of Himself to the soul which is mediated by the Church established by Jesus Christ Who is the Revelation Himself, and man’s assent to the proposed Truth proposed by the Church. These two are necessary, but the sufficiency of Faith is infused by the Holy Spirit which is a supernatural gift.
Nov
24
Eat thy bread with the hungry and needy
November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
From the Book of Tobias:
Ch. 4:6 And all the days of thy life have God in thy mind: and take heed thou never consent to sin, nor transgress the commandments of the Lord our God. 7 Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person: for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee. 8 According to thy ability be merciful. 9 If thou have much give abundantly: if thou have a little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little. 10 For thus thou storest up to thyself a good reward for the day of necessity.
11 For alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. 12 Alms shall be a great confidence before the most high God, to all them that give it. 13 Take heed to keep thyself, my son, from all fornication, and beside thy wife never endure to know a crime. 14 Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning. 15 If any man hath done any work for thee, immediately pay him his hire, and let not the wages of thy hired servant stay with thee at all.
16 See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another. 17 Eat thy bread with the hungry and the needy, and with thy garments cover the naked. 18 Lay out thy bread, and thy wine upon the burial of a just man, and do not eat and drink thereof with the wicked.
Nov
23
Bishop Sheen
November 23, 2008 | 2 Comments
Nov
23
Quis est Caritas?
November 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Part of the actual mission of the laity is the exercise of the prophetic voice of the Church. It is important especially in these degenerating times, when discipline and order and respect for authority are on the decline, for the laity to preserve the traditions which pertain to those aspects of the sensus fidelium which relate to discipline and order and expect their pastors and religious to act in such a manner.
Therefore, even when occupied by temporal affairs, the laity can, and must, do valuable work for the evangelization of the world. But if, when there are no sacred ministers or when these are impeded under persecution, some lay people supply sacred functions to the best of their ability, or if, indeed, many of them expend all their energies in apostolic work, nevertheless the whole laity must cooperate in spreading and in building up the kingdom of Christ. Let the laity, therefore, diligently apply themselves to a more profound knowledge of revealed truth and earnestly beg of God the gift of wisdom. Lumen Gentium (35).
Unfortunately this may mean challenging apparent or presumptive authority when it fails to preserve Catholic tradition, discipline and order, as the recent missives regarding donations to dubious causes (eg., the CCHD) supported by non-magisterial organizations of Bishops. The authority is “apparent” in that Bishops belong to the USCCB, but the actual ordinary magisterial authority rests with the Bishop within his diocese.
Thus, the document referred to as “Faithful Citizenship” which was a misleading and disorientating screed put forth by the USCCB to “guide” Catholic voters in the recent presidential elections had no magisterial weight at all. In fact certain Bishops challenged the authority of this document from their own Sees and taught that certain perspectives were a necessary indicator of a “well-formed conscience”, one of these necessaries was the non-negotiable stance that support for the right to life at all stages of human development, from fertilization (I dislike the use of the word ‘conception’ in this context because of its indefinite application to the clinical progression of pregnancy) to death. Without a clear understanding of the primary importance of this fundamental right to life, can such a person claim to have a well-formed conscience, or is moral relativism in play there, and has the USCCB fallen prey to this trap?
The development of a Catholic conscience is more than just intellectual speculation or sentimental attachment. The conscience must be formed rationally using the organs of the intellect which has submitted itself through assent to the teachings of the Church - and willing conset to her magisterial authority. The primary motive for this exercise of the will is Charity. Docility to rightly ordered magisterial authority in the Church is itself an act of Charity.
Charity is loosely rendered in the modern English language as “Love” and it means this to a limited degree, but because of modern habits of speech, Love has become associated with meaningless sentimentality and erotic attraction, as well as gustatory preferences, such as “I love hotdogs”. How can one love an insensate object such as a food, perhaps before she is dead, the Lion can be said to love a Gazelle, his favorite food, but afterward when she is a carcass? But I digress, this is what it has come to in American culture, words are meaningless and indefinable in the common usage of the English language.
Love has become a sentiment and a justification for all manner of indignities heaped upon each other and upon the sacrament of matrimony and the institution of the family.
“We aren’t married but we love each other”- how often do we hear that these days? How can this be love when the actual commitment to the matrimonial state is absent? There is no sacrament there, there is only concubinage and the use of each other’s bodies for fornication.
“Our love is just as meaningful and sacred as the love between a man and a woman”- how often do we hear this as a justification for the legal recognition of sodomy? Are these feelings, emotions and sentiments properly called “love”? How can love exist in relationships that are destructive of the soul? Of course of you do not believe in such things as “souls” or believe other than the Church teaches about them, then believe what you wish, however, those people who call themselves Catholic are expected to exercise more than just a hormonal response in assessing what constitutes love.
We could go on, but the grave areas where “Love” is invoked in order to justify sexually bonded and disordered relationships between people as being sufficient for their recognition legally and in community are exemplary of just how Love has died and become replaced by erotically founded affections and depraved sentimentality.
Is it “Love”? Romeo and Juliet, that Shakesperian play, has been invoked as a standard of romantic love and an ideal of lovers who would die for each other in defiance of authority. This is not what Shakespere intended. Written during an active persecution of the Church in Elizabethan England, Shakespere wrote this play as an example of how erotic love in defiance of authority is toxic. (In fact a previous monarch, Henry VIII exemplified just how destructive the undisciplined eros can be- he destroyed the English Church and Nation through his self-justification of divorce and remarriage.) Yes Romeo and Juliet died for each other, but this love was not heroic, it was self destructive and deadly. Yet our movie makers and educators teach this depraved eroticism as an ideal, so noble that the lovers died rather than live apart. In consequence, this standard of rebellious eros has permeated our culture so much that erotic expression is considered a right, a common good which is antecedent to the rights of families, parents, the law, the rights of God Himself and the lives of the unborn.
Erotic expression is now viewed as a right, and even more, an entitlement. Women now expect to be able to access birth control and abortion as an entitlement. If they can’t pay for it their insurance or the government has to so they can be sexually active as often as they wish without regard for the consequence of pregnancy. Gays and lesbians demand the legal recognition and right to their relationships with the same status as marriage between man and wife, indeed believe they are entitled to the privilege of marriage. Thus “Love” in its modern usage and the cultural baggage that accompanies it has eroded the very foundations of civilization itself and has become a counterfeit of the real Love, Who died on the Cross.
Real Love, Agape is primarily a motive which is transcendent of the emotions and affections, feelings may reflect love, but Love may express itself without the gooey sentimentality, the hearts and flowers, that modern romanticists expect. The dark night of Mother Teresa is an example, did she habitually feel warm and fuzzy feelings? Her biographers suggest she in fact was accompanied by the most desolate sense of abandonment. Yet this is true Love, binding the wounds of the unwanted and dying.
Dying on the Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ in His agony cried out “my God My God why have you abandoned Me?”, no gooey sentiment there either, but this was Love, Love which was obedient to death, death upon a Cross.
Without Charity, without that oblation and self-immolation in the Divine Love of God, the conscience is a barren desert incapable of following anything other than rules. Is it any surprise then that 54% of Catholic voters rejected the pro-life vote and voted for their appetites - the economy, ignoring Love for the smallest and most defenseless of citizens in order to vote for secondary issues? Love has grown tepid, as has Faith, in America, let us then Hope then for better days.
The American Catholic must first rediscover what “love” means in its fullness in order to begin to develop more than a vestigial sense of right and wrong which can easily be deceived, the well-formed conscience must be informed by Charity.
Quis est Caritas? Deus Caritas Est!
Nov
22
Not a Penny to the CCHD!
November 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This Sunday in the diocese where I work- that is where I engage in labor to earn a living, there will be the second collection for the Catholic Campaign For Human Development (CCHD), a project sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Those who follow the relations of Catholics to secular politics are well aware that the USCCB, through the CCHD, has given MILLIONS of dollars over the years to a federation of community organizations called ACORN. This same ACORN is under investigation for allegations of voter registration fraud. The CCHD had suspended its support for ACORN last June (2008 ?) when the CCHD “learned about a major case of embezzlement eight years ago that was covered up by ACORN staff leadership. This theft and cover-up raised serious concerns about national ACORN’s financial accountability, transparency, governance and organizational integrity. Even though CCHD was only funding local ACORN organizations, and not these national structures, we felt it was necessary to cut off CCHD funding and review support of all ACORN groups.“
What?! It took 8 years for these administrators in the CCHD to discover this embezzelment by ACORN? Now this begs the question about accountability and oversight of the hard earned money contributed by the faithful laity to be squandered in such a manner by the USCCB and their staff at the CCHD.
Neverthless, in the broadcast of The World Over on 11-21-2008, Raymond Arroyo interviewed Russell Shaw, Catholic author and former spokesman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the following fact came out about the CCHD- groups offering direct services, e.g., soup kitchens, day care centers, homeless shelters, etc. are ineligible for funding.
The faithful have been deceived into believing that the USCCB and the CCHD are aiding the poor - all they do is fund community organizations and economic development projects and there appears to be no accountability - these funds do not directly alleviate human misery and suffering. Thus the mandate of the Gospel of Matthew 25 is not being addressed by these wastrels and money squanderers:
The Gospel of Jesus Christ preaches direct care of the poor, the oppressed, the suffering, it does not advocate the funding of godless community organizations like ACORN to provide salaries and monies for embezzlers, pickpockets and thieves.
So, my dear Catholic friends, do not be deceived by this appeal at the second collection - if you are looking for a worthy place for your donation I recommend these medical missionaries who go directly to the poor and the sick and provide the services necessary as mandated by Jesus Christ- Epiphany Medical Missions.
Having said this, I will not be giving one penny to the Catholic Campaign For Human Development this year nor ever, and I suggest neither should any other Catholic.
