CSVF Blog

Still troubled by Luther’s doctrine of justification?  Does sola fide keep you up at night?  Fear not.  Pope Benedict isn’t worried. Read below to see why.

GENERAL AUDIENCE
November 19, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On the journey we have undertaken under the guidance of St. Paul, we now wish to reflect on a topic that is at the center of the controversies of the century of the Reformation: the issue of justification. How is a man just in the eyes of God? When Paul met the Risen One on the road to Damascus he was a fulfilled man: irreproachable in regard to justice derived from the law (cf. Philippians 3:6); he surpassed many of his contemporaries in the observance of the Mosaic prescriptions and was zealous in upholding the traditions of his forefathers (cf. Galatians 1:14).

The illumination of Damascus changed his life radically: He began to regard all his merits, achievements of a most honest religious career, as “loss” in face of the sublimity of knowledge of Jesus Christ (cf. Philippians 3:8). The Letter to the Philippians gives us a moving testimony of Paul’s turning from a justice based on the law and achieved by observance of the prescribed works, to a justice based on faith in Christ: He understood all that up to now had seemed a gain to him was in fact a loss before God, and because of this decided to dedicate his whole life to Jesus Christ (cf. Philippians 3:7). The treasure hidden in the field, and the precious pearl in whose possession he invests everything, were no longer the works of the law, but Jesus Christ, his Lord.

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In his General Audience address yesterday, Pope Benedict continued his catechesis on the life and writings of St. Paul, and in so doing he offered the Church a profound meditation on the resurrection. Pulling together an assortment of Pauline texts and several themes from his encyclical Spe Salvi, the Holy Father explained how the Christian’s faith and hope in his future glory necessarily shapes the way he lives here and now.  In other words, Benedict reminded us that there exists in the Christian life a profound connection between the present and the future.

Read and enjoy.

BENEDICT XVI
General Audience
November 12, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters:

The theme of the Resurrection, which we considered last week, opens a new perspective — that of awaiting the return of the Lord. And therefore it brings us to reflect on the relationship between the present time, the time of the Church and the Kingdom of Christ, and the future (éschaton) that awaits us, when Christ will hand over the Kingdom to the Father (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24). Every Christian discourse on the last things, called eschatology, always starts from the event of the Resurrection: In this event the last things have already begun, and in a certain sense, are already present.

St. Paul probably wrote his first letter in the year 52, the First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he speaks of this return of Jesus, called the parousía, the advent, the new and definitive and manifest presence (cf. 4:13-18). To the Thessalonians, who have their doubts and problems, the Apostle writes thus: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (4:14).

And he continues: “The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (4:16-17). Paul describes the parousía of Christ with very living tones and symbolic images, but transmitting a simple and profound message: At the end, we will be always with the Lord. That is, beyond the images, the essential message: Our future is “to be with the Lord.” As believers, in our lives we already are with the Lord — our future, eternal life, has already begun.

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Building on comments he made two days ago, Cardinal George of Chicago, the president of the USCCB, released the following statement earlier today. In it the Cardinal conveys the collective thinking of the bishops regarding last week’s national election.  In the minds and hearts of our shepherds, joy appears mixed with sorrow as the historical election of Obama remains overshadowed by his promises to roll back recent advances made in the cause of life. Foremost among the bishops’ concerns are the dire consequences that passage of the Freedom of Choice Act could have on national unity and the free exercise of religion, not to mention the lethal consequences it promises for the unborn.  The statement ends with a pledge of prayers for President-elect Obama and those who will help him govern.

STATEMENT of the President
of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” (Psalm 127, vs. 1)

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all. Because of the Church’s history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad. The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.

The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents. A good state protects the lives of all. Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This was bad law. The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.

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Earlier today, our little parish blog received its 10,000th visit.  Most of these have come within the past few weeks.  Word is spreading, and we’re growing fast!

Welcome to all, and come back soon!

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A message from the Sisters of Life:

If you’ve been to some amazing young adult retreats and yet you still have that hunger to go deeper, this is the retreat for you! There are still some spots left for the upcoming “Living the Confidence of the Saints” women’s retreat, but not for long! The retreat will begin on Friday, November 14 with dinner at 5:30 pm and conclude after Brunch on Sunday, November 16. Hosted by the Sisters of Life, the retreat will include conferences on how to pray in silence, learning to live with the confidence of the Saints, and healing. There will be Mass everyday, extended Eucharistic adoration, opportunity for confession, and an opportunity for a personal meeting with a Sister as well. If you’re ready for some one-on-one time with the Lord in preparation for Advent, this is it.

We will be picking up retreatants on Friday at LaGuardia Airport at 3:30 pm and at Westchester Airport at 4pm and dropping off retreatants on Sunday to Westchester at 1:30 pm and to LaGuardia at 2pm. We’ll also be picking people up at the Stamford train station.

The cost of the retreat is a donation (unnamed) towards the works of the Sisters of Life.

If you are interested, you have two options to register. Please either:

1) call Villa Maria Guadalupe at 203.329.1492. If the machine is on, feel free to leave a message that you’re interested in the women’s retreat, your name, age, phone # and mode of transportation to the retreat.

2) e-mail Sr. Mary Gabriel (just respond to this e-mail) that you’re interested in the women’s retreat, your name, age, phone #, and mode of transportation.

Know you are in our daily prayers! We love to hear from you…

In Christ, our Life,

Sr. Mary Gabriel, S.V.

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PRAYER FOR DECEASED VETERANS

O God, by whose mercy the faithful departed find rest, look kindly on your departed veterans who gave their lives in the service of their country. Grant that through the passion, death, and resurrection of your Son they may share in the joy of your heavenly kingdom and rejoice in you with your saints forever. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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As president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Francis Cardinal George of Chicago opened the body’s fall general assembly yesterday with an address that acknowledged first of all the historical significance of last week’s presidential election.  Given our nation’s early acceptance of race-based slavery, the cardinal commented about Senator Obama’s victory: “In this, I truly believe, we must all rejoice.”  George then placed the election within the context of the Church’s ongoing promotion and defense of the common good.  It is not difficult to hear in the cardinal’s words overtones of the general concern that many bishops expressed during the campaign that the full force of the Church’s social teaching was not being adequately applied to the issue of abortion.  In this regard, Cardinal George observed:

In working for the common good of our society, racial justice is one pillar of our social doctrine. Economic justice, especially for the poor both here and abroad, is another. But the Church comes also and always and everywhere with the memory, the conviction, that the Eternal Word of God became man, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, nine months before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This truth is celebrated in our liturgy because it is branded into our spirit. The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice. If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be president of the United States. Today, as was the case a hundred and fifty years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good.

Below you can read the full text of Cardinal George’s address.

Today the bishops are scheduled to discuss how best to clarify the Church’s moral teaching in the public square, especially as it pertains to the Christian obligation to protect innocent human life.  Also on the agenda is how the bishops should engage Catholic politicians who work actively against the stated moral teaching of the Church. 

PLENARY SESSION ADDRESS BY CARDINAL GEORGE

Dear Brother Bishops:

At the opening session of the recently concluded Roman Synod on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on Psalm 118, that magnificent chorus praising the law, the order, that unites us to God. “The Word of God,” the Pope said,” is solid, it is the true reality upon which to base one’s life. Let us recall the words of Jesus: ‘…Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away’…It is words that create history, it is words that give form to thoughts…the Word of God is the foundation of everything, it is the true reality. And to be realists, we must truly count on this reality.”

The Holy Father offered these reflections in the face of bank closures, the collapse of giant corporations, the uncertainty of political regimes, with full awareness of the insecurity and suffering of so many around the world. His words echoed what he had told us in our own country last April, when he constantly directed our thoughts and actions toward the Word of God made flesh, whom the Pope called “Our Hope.”

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ELECTION PRAYER

Lord God,
as the election approaches,
we seek to better understand the issues and concerns
that confront our city, state, and country,
and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community.
We ask for eyes that are free from blindness
so that we might see each other as brothers and sisters,
one and equal in dignity,
especially those who are victims of abuse and violence, deceit and poverty.
We ask for ears that will hear the cries of children unborn and those abandoned,
men and women oppressed because of race or creed, religion or gender.
We ask for minds and hearts that are open to hearing the voice of leaders
who will bring us closer to your Kingdom.
We pray for discernment
so that we may choose leaders who hear your Word, live your love,
and keep in the ways of your truth
as they follow in the steps of Jesus and his Apostles
and guide us to your Kingdom of justice and peace.

We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

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Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI addressed the members of the Pontifical Academy of Science as they gathered in Rome for their plenary session and an international conference entitled “Scientific Insight into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life.”  Among those attending the Pope’s audience was the world-famous mathematician and physicist Stephen Hawking (pictured above).  What catches our eye is that, in his address, the Holy Father drew on the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas to outline an understanding of creation that underscores God’s continued relationship with created being.

The whole text is worth reading, of course, but it’s nice to see Aquinas here still going to bat for the Church and her teaching.

To state that the foundation of the cosmos and its developments is the provident wisdom of the Creator is not to say that creation has only to do with the beginning of the history of the world and of life. It implies, rather, that the Creator founds these developments and supports them, underpins them and sustains them continuously. Thomas Aquinas taught that the notion of creation must transcend the horizontal origin of the unfolding of events, which is history, and consequently all our purely naturalistic ways of thinking and speaking about the evolution of the world. Thomas observed that creation is neither a movement nor a mutation. It is instead the foundational and continuing relationship that links the creature to the Creator, for he is the cause of every being and all becoming (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q.45, a. 3).

The proceedings of the conference will certainly provide excellent prep for our upcoming St. Albert’s Day Lecture.

Photo credit: Reuters

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On this All Hallows’ Eve, I link to two items that might interest you.

First, Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP, gives us a brief history of Halloween in a piece he penned a few years ago entitled “Surprise: Halloween’s Not a Pagan Festival After All.”  You can find the article posted here.  An excerpt:

It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on October 31–as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints, or “All Hallows,” falls on November 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to November 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland.

The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, “All Hallows Even,” or “Hallowe’en.” In those days Halloween didn’t have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans.

In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in southern France, added a celebration on November 2. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.

So now the Church had feasts for all those in heaven and all those in purgatory. What about those in the other place? It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the unfortunate souls in hell. After all, if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble. So it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland at least, all the dead came to be remembered–even if the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned Day into the church calendar.

But that still isn’t our celebration of Halloween. Our traditions on this holiday center on dressing up in fanciful costumes, which isn’t Irish at all. Rather, this custom arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. Late medieval Europe was hit by repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague–the Black Death–and it lost about half its population. It is not surprising that Catholics became more concerned about the afterlife.

Second, Joseph Pearce, author of the celebrated Literary Converts, has edited a new edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  Click here for a radio interview Pearce recently gave in which he challenges the contemporary interpretation of the novel.  He sees in Shelley’s famous tale a principled rejection of atheistic dogmatism and the unfettered science it tends to advocate.  Behind this rejection, Pearce argues, lies Shelley’s defense of tradition and the family.

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*(As they are released, the most recent statements from bishops from around the country will be linked at the bottom of this post.)

As the political debate leading up to the general election has become more rancorous, so too has the discussion among Catholics over how best to apply the moral principles set forth in the US Bishops’ pastoral letter “Faithful Citizenship.” 

To assist Catholics in their dioceses, several bishops have written their own pastoral letters explaining “Faithful Citizenship.”   Several of these letters are exceptional for their brevity and clarity.  The bishops of New York State have issued this statement.  

In addition to the pastoral letters of individual bishops, several Catholic intellectuals and writers have produced their own guides to “Faithful Citizenship,” to admittedly varying degrees of success.  Among some of these works there appear modes of moral reasoning that clearly diverge from the bishops’ original teaching.  The ensuing confusion among Catholics has prompted the bishops to offer yet another clarification of “Faithful Citizenship.”

To prevent further misinterpretation or misapplication of “Faithful Citizenship,” the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the USCCB issued late yesterday the following statement.

Joint Statement by
Cardinal Justin Rigali
Chairman, Committee on Pro-Life Activities
and
Bishop William Murphy
Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
October 21, 2008

In Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (2007), the Catholic bishops of the United States urged Catholic voters to form their consciences in accord with the Church’s moral teaching. We emphasized that: ”Both opposing evil and doing good are essential obligations” (No. 24). Unfortunately, there seem to be efforts and voter education materials designed to persuade Catholics that they need only choose one approach: either opposing evil or doing good. This is not an authentically Catholic approach.

Some argue that we should not focus on policies that provide help for pregnant women, but just focus on the essential task of establishing legal protections for children in the womb. Others argue that providing life affirming support for pregnant women should be our only focus and this should take the place of efforts to establish legal protections for unborn children. We want to be clear that neither argument is consistent with Catholic teaching. Our faith requires us to oppose abortion on demand and to provide help to mothers facing challenging pregnancies.

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Popular podcasting priest and apologist Fr. Robert Barron has announced an ambitious project.  His Word on Fire Catholic Ministries plans to produce for TV and DVD a 10-part video series that presents the history and teaching of the Catholic Church “on our own terms.”  Fr. Barron is calling his new project simply “Catholicism.”  Still in production, this series is attracting a lot of positive attention.  George Weigel has this to say about it:

“‘Catholicism’ could well become one of the most significant efforts ever to advance what Pope John Paul II called ‘The New Evangelization.’ Truth, goodness, beauty — they’re all here, in a stimulating and compelling exploration of the spiritual, moral, and intellectual riches of the Catholic world. This is the Catholic story told from inside, with knowledge, sympathy, and passion, rooted in friendship with Jesus Christ.”

Check out the trailer below, and click here for the episode list.

Click here for Fr. Barron’s latest update on the project.

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This weekend I’ll be attending the Magnificat “Pilgrimage of Hope” in Boston. As a result, blogging may be light through Tuesday.

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Yesterday the Catholic Bishops of New York issued a statement entitled “Our Cherished Right, Our Solemn Duty.”  In it the bishops reflect on the duties and responsibilities Catholics have in democratic societies.

Discipleship should shape our public life, the bishops argue, for faith in Jesus Christ adds clarity to our moral reasoning.  As believers in the one who shows us perfect humanity, we Christians enjoy a privileged vantage point from which to promote and defend the common good.  Faith aids reason to establish the right “hierarchy of values” according to which prudential political decisions should be made.

Every four years, 12 months prior to the presidential election, the Bishops of the United States issue a statement calling Catholics to faithful citizenship. Simply put, faithful citizenship refers to our duty as Catholics to be full participants in the public square in order to make our nation and the world a better and more just place. With this duty comes the responsibility to exercise our right to vote and to be engaged in the political process. This right did not come easily, having been bought with the blood of our forebears and protected through the centuries by our Constitution and the men and women in uniform who defend it.

We Catholics are called to look at politics as we are called to look at everything – through the lens of our faith. While we are free to join any political party that we choose or none at all, we must be cautious when we vote not to be guided solely by party loyalty nor by self interest. Rather, we should be guided in evaluating the important issues facing our state and nation by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church. 

[. . .]

It is the rare candidate who will agree with the Church on every issue. But as the U.S. Bishops’ recent document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship makes clear, not every issue is of equal moral gravity. The inalienable right to life of every innocent human person outweighs other concerns where Catholics may use prudential judgment, such as how best to meet the needs of the poor or to increase access to health care for all. 

The right to life is the right through which all others flow. To the extent candidates reject this fundamental right by supporting an objective evil, such as legal abortion, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research, Catholics should consider them less acceptable for public office. As Faithful Citizenship teaches, “Those who knowingly, willingly, and directly support public policies or legislation that undermine fundamental moral principles cooperate with evil.” 

The statement concludes with a list of questions useful for evaluating candidates’ platforms.

To read the entire statement, click here.

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In these days of continued financial distress, good news–and good advice–emerges from Wisconsin.

For more, click here.

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Join young adults for a series of lectures at Metro 53 Bar and Restaurant, 307 East 53rd Street, between 2nd and 1st Avenues. The event is from 7pm-8:30pm.

The second lecture of the Fall 2008 season is on October 6 by Kathryn Lopez, editor of National Review Online. Her topic this night will be “Faith and Politics: What is a Catholic to Do?” For more details, visit www.totnyc.org.

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Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver sat down recently with the Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson to discuss his new book entitled Render unto Caesar. In the resulting five-part interview posted at National Review Online, the archbishop comments on a number of topics, including the increased clarity with which the Church now treats the responsibilities of Catholics in public life.

All five parts of the interview are posted below.

Part I - Archbishop Chaput comments on the recent statements made by Speaker Pelosi and Senator Biden

Part II - Archbishop Chaput discusses the “decline” of the Church’s vibrancy in the years after the Second Vatican Council

Part III - Archbishop Chaput examines three aspects of Jesus’ relation to Caesar

Part IV - Archbishop Chaput highlights the West’s growing culture of death

Part V - Archbishop Chaput discusses abortion in American political life

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The Diocese of Beaumont (Texas) has begun to assess the overall toll taken by Hurricane Ike.  As you can see from pictures published on the diocesan website, several of its parishes suffered severe damage.  The bishop has adjusted the diocese’s ordinary fundraising goals to meet the immediate needs created by the storm.  As always, the faithful of eastern Texas would be grateful for any support or assistance you could give.

The Diocese of Lake Charles (Louisiana) has posted similar pictures here, here, and here.  They are also requesting help.

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On September 9, Sr. Marie Pappas, host of “Pathways of Learning,” invited me on her show to discuss the Year of St. Paul.  Over the course of the program we focused on many things, including the Apostle’s life, conversion, travels, and theology.

“Pathways of Learning” airs each Tuesday at 1:00 PM on Sirius 159, The Catholic Channel.

Click below to hear the show.

 

 Pathways of Learning - September 9, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (18)

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Every once in a while, something like this slips into the pages of the New York Times.  It’s a must read.  

Not everything described squares perfectly with the Church’s teaching on life, but the experience of this couple lends real life credence to the episcopal responses given recently to Speaker Pelosi and Senator Biden.  Stories like this one can flesh out for us the core of Church’s Gospel of Life.

Click here for the full text of David Hlavsa’s “My First Son, A Pure Memory.”

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This is the last weekend to see the Museum of Biblical Art’s exhibition “Albrecht Durer: Art in Transition.”  

Born in 1471 in Nuremberg, Germany, Albrecht Dürer began his career immersed in a conventional naturalism found in the Low Countries. Although his artistic inheritance was rooted in Flemish late Gothic painting, he became profoundly influenced by the work of Italian contemporaries, and struggled to blend the Gothic traditions of the North with Italy’s triumphs in mathematical perspective and color. Painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and art theorist, Durer was perhaps the only Northern artist to fully grasp the complex relationship between scientific theory and art in Italy. Drawing from the formidable collection of Durer graphics at the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany, “Albrecht Durer: Art in Transition” is a chronological presentation of the artist’s life and times and the advances he made to improve the popular perception of graphics as a higher art form. The exhibition, which is restricted to only three venues in the United States, includes a fully-illustrated catalog with text by Dr. Mechthild Haas, Graphics Curator, Hessisches Landesmuseum.

“The Florence Portfolio” is composed of 20 etchings created in July 1993 by six contemporary artists exploring the theme of sacrifice in the Old and New Testaments. Selections from each artist’s contribution to “The Florence Portfolio” are on display in the Museum’s Education Gallery. The etchings - probing, surprising, and haunting - represent high achievement in the graphic arts and comprise a modern compliment to the masterful engravings in “Albrecht Dürer: Art in Transition.”

Beginning Monday, the museum will remain closed until October 7, when it will debut its new exhibition “Chagall’s Bible: Mystical Storytelling.”

No other modernist painter melded the traditions of Jewish Hasidism, eastern Orthodoxy, and western catholic tradition into such dramatically rich and personally significant expressions of biblical narratives. From his White Russian youth in Vitebsk to his professional life as a painter in Paris, Chagall recorded in his graphic works and paintings symbolic elements derived from each of these religious traditions. The intersection of Hasidic and Christian iconographies in Chagall’s representations of biblical heroes, prophets, or scenes of the Crucifixion yields an intriguing dynamic tension, which has never been adequately addressed in a major museum exhibition. This exhibition will identify salient details in Chagall’s oeuvre that demonstrate the intersection of his fascination with Jewish and Christian traditions, as well as, the interaction between his cultural roots in Russia and his fondness for France.

Click here for the museum’s hours and location.

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Mollie Zeigler Hemingway has an excellent piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal commenting on the long noticed fact that the decrease of a people’s belief in God often leads to an increase in their superstition.

On the “Saturday Night Live” season debut last week, homeschooling families were portrayed as fundamentalists with bad haircuts who fear biology. Actor Matt Damon recently disparaged Sarah Palin by referring to a transparently fake email that claimed she believed that dinosaurs were Satan’s lizards. And according to prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins, traditional religious belief is “dangerously irrational.” From Hollywood to the academy, nonbelievers are convinced that a decline in traditional religious belief would lead to a smarter, more scientifically literate and even more civilized populace.

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won’t create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that’s not a conclusion to take on faith — it’s what the empirical data tell us.

“What Americans Really Believe,” a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians.

St. John Vianney summarized the point nicely when he said: “Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest, and beasts will be worshipped there.”

For the full text, click here.

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Below is a note written by Sr. Lucy Marie of the Sisters of Life.  The event she mentions was advertised here.

As Sr. Lucy explains, witnessing makes a difference one life at a time.

Dear Friends who Witness for Life,

Many of you were among the approx 70 who participated with us in our First Helpers Prayer Vigil this past September. The prayer and witness of all of you was so powerful. Was it really - do we ever know?

One young man who was present with us that day provided prayer support at another clinic elsewhere in our area this past Saturday. I was at home preparing to sit down to breakfast and we received a call from this young man that a woman had turned around at a clinic. He brought the young woman over. Another sister and I spent the morning meeting with her and giving her examples of all of the various resources and people that were available to assist her in her pregnancy. She left our convent having a new perspective and a new sense of life.

She kept telling us - “this was my second time coming to the clinic and I just didn’t want to do it. I read the brochure… but what really changed my mind was that young man who approached me and told me there was another way. He never condemned me and he was just so nice….I am so glad he was there… he was so nice.”

It make a difference to witness to life - this woman’s life is forever changed and she and her child are eternally grateful to each of you.

Next prayer witness and vigil - Sat, Oct 4th - Mass at 8am - St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral.

God Bless You.

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PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.

We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here—
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.

We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.

We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.

God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.

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“This is like deja vu all over again.”

Two weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi grievously misrepresented the Church’s teaching on life and earned herself an unprecedented rebuke from the nation’s bishops, Senator Joseph Biden, also a professed Catholic, answered the same question, from the same journalist, on the same show, in the same scandalous way.  Other than substituting the name “Aquinas” for “Augustine,” Biden simply copied Pelosi’s script when he claimed that medieval debates over delayed ensoulment reveal a loose thread in the Church’s otherwise seamless defense of life, a thread on which a Catholic politician may licitly hang a political defense of legalized abortion.  The argument made little sense when Pelosi made it, and after the corrections offered by the bishops it makes even less sense now.

In at least one way, however, Biden’s answer to the question “When does life begin?” does more damage than Pelosi’s to the public’s perception of the Church’s teaching.  More than twice on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Biden asserted that the statement ”life begins at conception” is an article of faith which a Catholic must accept under the authority of the Church’s Magisterium.  As a witness to his Catholic credentials, Biden proudly proclaimed his obedience and fidelity.  But Biden’s presentation of the Church’s teaching is not true.  The statement “life begins at conception” is not an article of faith.  It is a statement rooted in reason and science used by the Church to explain the full scope of the fifth commandment.  By arguing that “life begins at conception” constitutes a tenet of a religious creed, Biden erroneouly reduces the Church’s Gospel of Life to a sectarian, fideist claim unsupported by either reason or science.  As a definition of a particular creed, Biden argued, the statement “life begins at conception” can hold no sway in modern democratic debate.

As expected, the bishop’s have begun to respond.

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Statements released this week by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops clarify the Church’s teaching on two issues that dominate today’s cultural and political discourse.  The first concerns the Church’s consistent teaching on life, and the second is a joint statement with Orthodox Jews regarding marriage.  

The first statement is a fact sheet that further contradicts the erroneous summary of the Church’s tradition given recently by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Her comments necessitated an elaboration of this earlier statement.  The second text bears witness to the Church’s ongoing efforts to find religious allies in its cultural fight to preserve and defend the natural definition of marriage.

From “Respect for Unborn Human Life: The Church’s Constant Teaching”:

Thus modern science has not changed the Church’s constant teaching against abortion, but has underscored how important and reasonable it is, by confirming that the life of each individual of the human species begins with the earliest embryo.

Click here for the entire text.

And from “Created in the Divine Image”:

God’s design for the continuance of human life, as seen in the natural order, as well as in the Bible  (Gen. 1-3), clearly revolves around the union of male and female, first as husband and wife, and then as parents. A unique goal of marriage, which is reproduction and the raising of families, exists apart from that of same sex unions, which cannot equally participate in this essential function. While others may claim the right to establish private relationships between persons of the same gender that simulate marriage, the legal classification of such relationships as marriage dilutes the special standing of marriage between a man and a woman. Since the future of every society depends upon its ability to reproduce itself according to this natural order and to have its young people reared in a stable environment, it is the duty of the state to protect the traditional place of marriage and the family for the good of society. 

The entire text can be found here.

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Hurricane Gustav’s notable but less than expected severity offers us only momentary gratitude as we look ahead to the impending threats named Hanna, Ike, and Josephine.  In what’s turning out to be a busy hurricane season, those residing on our nation’s shores continue to need our prayers.

After Hurricane Audrey in 1957, Bishop Maurice Schexnayder, the second Bishop of Lafayette, penned a prayer that is still used yearly by Catholics in Louisiana and all over the Gulf Coast.  I pass it on for your use.

PRAYER FOR HURRICANE SEASON

O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude. You are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control: the Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land, and spread chaos and disaster.

During this hurricane season we turn to you, O Loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time.

O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a stormless eternity awaits us.

Amen.

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In today’s first reading from Second Thessalonians (2:1-3a, 14-17), St. Paul diffuses a situation disturbing the young Church in Thessalonica.  Word reached them, purportedly from Paul himself, that the anticipated “Day of the Lord” had already come and gone.  Imagine if you were told that the Second Coming of Christ had happened, and that you missed it.  As an apostle, Paul first calms the anxiety of the Thessalonians.  He convinces them that the word they received was false.  Then, he sets out to strengthen them against spurious teaching by telling them, among other things: “hold fast to the traditions you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.”

Here we see the apostolic ministry of the Church at work.  Because of sin, ignorance, and weakness–and sometimes through malice–error often affects the lives of believers.  But watchful shepherds, commissioned by the Lord to lead and teach, detect the error, confront it, correct it, and then restore the faithful to right teaching.  In the Church, the apostolic office is a mercy given us by Christ himself to protect and guard the fullness of his salvific truth.  The teaching office of the bishops, who at their head sits the Pope, possesses the grace of infallibility when it defines and interprets issues of faith and morals.  Within the past few days, we’ve seen the grace of this office enacted in rather dramatic ways.

As is now well known, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), made over the weekend woefully inaccurate statements regarding the consistency of the Church’s teaching on life.  Here is a transcript of the remarks she made on Sunday’s Meet the Press:

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