Archives for 2010

Excellent shepherds

Bishop Wenski and his crozier

The Catholic Church has been very successful throughout the ages. It has grown and saved many souls. It has many great accomplishments. It is the largest charitable organization on the planet. It has remained true to Our Lord’s teaching while many non-Catholic Christian communities have continuously adapted their beliefs to the wishes of their flocks.

All of this, and more, has been accomplished in spite of imperfections. The definitive judgments of the extraordinary Magisterium (including when the Pope speaks ex cathedra), protected by the Holy Spirit, is infallible. Nothing else is. Throughout the ages there has been scandal and mistakes. As long as we are imperfect, this will continue. The Church instituted by Christ Himself and whose mystical body remains forever headed by Him, will always right itself and march forward.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In recent years, the sexual concupiscence of the outside world infected our own clergy. It has been not only scandalous, but deeply shocking to Catholics. There was confusion, missteps and mistakes made in addressing the relatively small number of people involved. It is the type of sin that we can never declare completely defeated, but here in the US Church we now have layers of effective, pro-active policies in place. I wrote about this earlier in my piece on the sexual scandal.

Another modern challenge to the Church is a chipping-away of our orthodoxy. Or at least the attempt thereof. Thank God (quite literally!) that Our Lord and Savior personally setup His Church. Our faith is unchanging and the operation of the Church is not subject to popular vote. This does not stop those who would, often for personal political or sinful reasons, have us be “less Catholic.” For a number of reasons, these attitudes have taken root in some countries and in some regions of the US.

In many cases the problem is clear, but the overt actions are kept “under the radar.” For example, in some areas Catholics will commonly put political allegiance ahead of life itself in voting for pro-abortion politicians. These same areas tend to reject other Church teachings on homosexual “marriage,” the impossibility of women priests, subsidiarity, the need to go to Mass every Sunday, the need for confession and much more.

Another big problem is over-reaching in the fulfillment of Vatican II. There are many examples of this in my opinion (some of which you might disagree with). One that is being addressed is the poor ICEL translation of the Mass. In Advent 2011, Mass in English will finally use a single translation worldwide that is far more faithful to the Latin original. US Catholics will notice a lot of “changes” in the corrected Mass.

Often in the orthodoxical challenged areas (I am trying so hard not to call them liberal, progressive, non-faithful, schismatic or heretical) the viewpoints and actions are justified under “the spirit of Vatican II.” That is to say, not suggested by Vatican II at all but something they feel should have been. That is to say, Vatican II did not change the faith but should have. Tip: every time you hear “the spirit of Vatican II,” be very, very suspicious!

So, how will the Church “right itself” from this challenge? Pope Benedict’s New Evangelization initiatives will have long-term, lasting impact. Steps taken to “reform the reform” such as the corrected translation of Mass also move us in the right direction. A return to orthodoxy underway in our seminaries and religious orders will bear much good fruit in the coming decades. Better catechesis is obviously needed.

In the day-to-day life of dioceses, perhaps the most important agent for change is the episcopate – the bishop or archbishop, direct successors of the Apostles. Our extraordinary Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has elevated soundly orthodox men to this and other crucial offices. In the short time that I have been Catholic, I have noticed quite a number of outstanding men leading their flocks back to a more solid faith, including:

  • Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, Lincoln
  • Cardinal-designate Raymond Burke (Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis)
  • Archbishop Charles Chaput, Denver
  • Archbishop Timothy Dolan, New York
  • Coadjutor-Archbishop Jose Gomez, Los Angeles
  • Bishop Robert Morlino, Madison
  • Archbishop John Nienstedt, Minneapolis and St. Paul
  • Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Phoenix
  • Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Archbishop Emeritus of Quebec)
  • Bishop Robert Vasa, Oregon
  • Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Miami

These humble and faithful men boldly proclaim the truth. Their service is genuinely inspiring. If you have read about them in the mainstream media, you will find the assessment of the secular press to be far less glowing. To me, that alone proves they must be doing something right!

Coming up with the above list for this piece was not difficult because…   I keep a list. There is no particular reason for my list other than I want to remember those who have impressed me so greatly. The newest person added just last week, is The Most Reverend Robert Morlino – Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin.

Bishop Robert Morlino

Last June, Bishop Morlino assigned 3 priests from the Society of Jesus Christ to lead the parish of St. Mary’s. Their order is solidly orthodox. Reports are that many in this parish were not. I would say that Bishop Morlino is much more concerned about saving souls than not “ruffling feathers.” Some in the parish did not take this too well.

Their response almost leaves me speechless. About 40% of them actually signed an unprecedented petition to have the priests removed. They have organized a boycott of financial donations to pressure the parish – endangering their K-8 school. They even wrote letters to, in effect, report Bishop Morlino – their bishop – to the Pope via the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington. Are these people completely nuts?

Bishop Morlino responded fully, but in part said:

It grieves me to acknowledge that the reputation of three happy, holy, and hardworking priests has been seriously tarnished by rumor, gossip, and calumny (lying with the intent to damage another’s good name) by some within the parish community. Such conduct is gravely sinful, since some parishioners have been driven by fear, anger, or both, to distance themselves from their priests and even the Sacraments. This situation must cease, and charity must prevail on the part of all.

Furthermore, activities such as protest-letter-writing seminars, leafleting of motor vehicles, door-to-door canvassing for signatures on a petition, etc (that is, exerting organized political pressure on people, where the end justifies any means) is an appropriate tactic in a political campaign, but not in the communion of faith which is the Catholic Church. Groups such as “Call to Action” and “Voice of the Faithful” regularly employ such tactics against legitimate authority in the Church. Because these groups dissent from basic tenets of Catholic Doctrine and Discipline, they are not recognized as Catholic in the Diocese of Madison, much less are they able to exercise legitimate authority. It is my hope that these clarifications will prove helpful.

Read the entire letter on The Badger Catholic blog. Father Z makes good comments on this here and here. Other good coverage is at Popin’ Ain’t Easy.

God bless Bishop Morlino and all of our shepherds. The gates of the netherworld will not prevail.

Elsewhere: social justice and inequality

Elsewhere

What the Catholic teaching of social justice is and is not should be clearly understood by all faithful Catholics. Often in the political arena, the term is used to represent goals which are actually contrary to the true Catholic meaning.

In October I wrote a piece on what social justice is and a piece on what social justice is not. A while back, Dr. Mark Hendrickson (faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with the Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College) touched on the same issue for Catholic Exchange.

The modern left’s “social justice” strives for economic equality. It endeavors to reduce, if not erase, the gap between rich and poor by redistributing wealth. This is “justice” more akin to Marx and Lenin, not according to Moses and Jesus. It is a counterfeit of real justice, biblical justice. Modern notions of “social justice” are often wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The fundamental error of today’s “social justice” practitioners is their hostility to economic inequality, per se. “Social justice” theory fails to distinguish between economic disparities that result from unjust deeds and those that are part of the natural order of things. All Christians oppose unjust deeds, and I’ll list some economic injustices momentarily. First, though, let us understand why it isn’t necessarily unjust for some people to be richer than others:

God made us different from each other. We are unequal in aptitude, talent, skill, work ethic, priorities, etc. Inevitably, these differences result in some individuals producing and earning far more wealth than others. To the extent that those in the “social justice” crowd obsess about eliminating economic inequality, they are at war with the nature of the Creator’s creation.

The Bible doesn’t condemn economic inequality. You can’t read Proverbs without seeing that some people are poor due to their own vices. There is nothing unjust about people reaping what they sow, whether wealth or poverty.

Jesus himself didn’t condemn economic inequality. Yes, he repeatedly warned about the snares of material wealth; he exploded the comfortable conventionality of the Pharisaical tendency to regard prosperity as a badge of honor and superiority; he commanded compassion toward the poor and suffering. But he also told his disciples, “ye have the poor always with you? (Matthew 26:11), and in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:24-30) he condemned the failure to productively use one’s God-given talents – whether many or few, exceptional or ordinary – by having a lord take money from the one who had the least and give it to him who had the most, thereby increasing economic inequality.

The Lord’s mission was to redeem us from sin, not to redistribute our property or impose an economic equality on us. In fact, the Almighty explicitly declined to undermine property rights or preach economic equality when he told the man who wanted Jesus to tell his brother to share an inheritance with him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” (Luke 12:14).

Read the whole article at Does Social Justice Allow Inequality?

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #15)

7 Quick Takes Friday

This is a special edition of 7 Quick Takes Friday. This is NOT a political blog. There is, however, an important US mid-term election next Tuesday with repercussions important to faithful Catholics.

This format was launched by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary. Some Fridays I participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. In this special case, the items are all related.

— 1 —

Catholics have a moral obligation to vote and to do so with a well formed conscience:

Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country…

…The Council exhorted Christians to fulfill their duties faithfully in the spirit of the Gospel. It is a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come, we are entitled to shirk our earthly responsibilities; this is to forget that by our faith we are bound all the more to fulfill these responsibilities

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation

USCCB

The EWTN Guide to Catholic Teaching and Voting is very good. The Most Rev. Raymond (Cardinal-designate) Burke (Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis) also published guidance on the obligation to vote properly. Finally, CatholicVote.org is quite informative. Update: see also Marcel’s An Open Letter To Politicians.

My list (consistent with the above) of areas in the US election next week that should be of particular concern to faithful Catholic voters include:

  1. Life issues, especially abortion – pro-abortion candidates support an intrinsic evil through their votes. There is no valid justification for any faithful Catholic to vote for a pro-abortion candidate over a pro-life one.
  2. Homosexual “marriage” – is an attack on the family, harmful to society and harmful to Catholics who are necessarily part of that society. It is seriously misguided to believe that the normalization of the grave sins embodied in homosexual acts do not affect you and your family. There is no God given right to such sinful unions. Opposing sinful behavior is never discrimination.
  3. Slipping into socialism – an attack on true Catholic social justice beliefs. Saints and popes have warned us of the evil inherent in this political philosophy.

Your vote is powerful and desperately needed. There is no charge. You can make a difference, but not if you sit on the sidelines. Please vote!

— 2 —

The Catholic “five non-negotiables” briefly explained by Tim Staples:

— 3 —

Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama speak on socialism and nationalized healthcare:

— 4 —

Not Democrat. Not Republican. American, the last best hope:

— 5 —

As Catholics, we hate it when non-Catholics tell us (incorrectly) what we believe. We also hate it when we see our faith distorted then attacked by the “press.” No matter what your political views, we at least share a lot with the “tea party” in suffering those same problems. Bill Whittle explains what the tea party actually believes and – very importantly – why. You might be surprised:

Bill continues with a very good defense of the Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity (herein discussed as “elitism” for a wider audience):

Bill concludes his excellent primer by explaining the very, very basics of microeconomics:

— 6 —

The secular mainstream media (MSM), never friends of Catholics BTW, is in a panic. It would appear that despite their best efforts, many American voters are discovering the truth anyway and thinking for themselves. Andrew Klavan explains their frustration:

— 7 —

Next Tuesday we have a choice. Elections have consequences and when the polls close, we must live with ours.

…this choice:

…or this choice:

Choose wisely. Vote Catholic.


Loyal readers, there will be no new post next Tuesday in order that this one may remain the first item through election day. It also gives me a day off! The usual (Tuesday / Friday) schedule continues next Friday.

Passover

Passover

While Catholics are sometimes less able to quote “chapter and verse,” they often know more of the Biblical stories than many non-Catholics. This seems particularly true of the Old Testament. We believe that the Old Testament foretells the New Testament and the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament.

One really good example of this is the Last Supper and Passion of Our Lord. There are actually several applicable Biblical stories, but one especially stands out for me. That is, the story of Passover.

First, the “backstory.” The time is around 1441 BC. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, had fallen on hard times and been enslaved in Egypt. Moses, an Israelite by birth, has been raised since infancy by an Egyptian Princess (long story).

Moses will be successful in winning freedom for the Israelites. When he does, they will leave Egypt. The pharaoh will have a change of heart, ordering his army to pursue and kill them. God, working through Moses, will part the Red Sea and they will escape. The Egyptian army will have a bad day. The Jews will wander in the desert for 40 difficult years before coming to the promised land.

Before all of that, the Israelites must be freed. Moses witnesses the beating of a Israelite slave and kills the attacker. This did not sit well with the pharaoh and Moses leaves. The Lord remembers His promise to His people and called upon Moses (through the burning bush) to free them. Moses approaches the pharaoh but he refuses. God worked through Moses to pressure the pharaoh in a series of plagues (water turned to blood, frogs, lice, hordes of wild animals, diseased animals, boils, violent hailstorm, swarms of locusts and blanket of darkness).

Okay, we are finally up to a plague that will finally convince the pharaoh. An angel of death will visit every house and every first-born will die. No exceptions, other than those who know the only means of protection that God tells Moses as explained in Exodus 12:1.

To protect themselves, the Israelites are to select a lamb for sacrifice. It must be a male without defect. No bones were to be broken in its slaughter. They must eat the flesh that night with unleavened bread. They are to also take hyssop branches, dip them in the blood of the lamb and mark the lintel and doorposts of their homes with it.

That evening, the angel passed throughout Egypt taking the firstborn. However, the Israelites were spared by following God’s word through the marks on their homes and receipt of the passover meal.

In the morning, there was a great cry in Egypt as every home except the Israelites’ was touched by death. With the death of his own son, the pharaoh was finally convinced and the Israelites were freed after 400 years.

The Passover foretells the crucifixion of the Lamb of God in many ways:

  • in the Jewish Passover celebration, the lamb is selected 5 days before slaughter – Jesus entered Jerusalem 5 days before His crucifixion
  • the Passover lamb was a “male without defect” – the same description applies to Jesus
  • the Passover lamb is faultless as is Jesus
  • for the previous 1,200 years a priest would blow a horn at 3:00pm when the lamb was to be slaughtered – Jesus died at 3:00pm
  • the lamb must have no bones broken – Jesus bones were not broken at His crucifixion
  • Passover consumes unleavened bread and a lamb – at the Last Supper, the unleavened bread becomes the body of Christ
  • the Passover meal must be consumed as must the Eucharist
  • Passover gave victory over the bondage of slavery – the crucifixion gave victory over the bondage of sin
  • Passover freed people to the promised land – the crucifixion freed people to eternal life
  • the Passover lamb’s blood was shed to avoid death – Jesus’ blood was shed to spare us from death (the consequence of sin)

There are other striking similarities too. Additionally, many find meaning in other aspects of the Seder (Passover) meal – particularly the 3rd and 4th cups. That will be a good topic for another post.

One final thought…   many ask if we could substitute grape juice for wine or crackers for unleavened bread. If that had been done at the Passover, the family would have awoken to find their oldest son dead. No substitutions!

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #14)

7 Quick Takes Friday

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Without further ado:

— 1 —

Support of Susan G. Komen is support for abortion. Last year, they passed along some of the money you gave them to Planned Parenthood to the tune of $7.5 million. Nancy Brinker, Komen’s founder, was a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood and and advisory board member. Komen theoretically restricts its funding. Do not let this claim confuse you for a moment, it simply frees Planned Parenthood to reallocate other funds to abortion.

— 2 —

They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks Isaiah 2:4. Technology originally developed for the US Military has been adapted to enable some paralyzed people to once again walk:

— 3 —

Denver’s Archbishop Chaput is an insightful shepherd. Recently he wrote a piece entitled Repentance and renewal in the mission of catechesis. It is all really good, particularly:

We need to really believe what we claim to believe. We need to stop calling ourselves “Catholic” if we don’t stand with the Church in her teachings – all of them. But if we really are Catholic, or at least if we want to be, then we need to act like it with obedience and zeal and a fire for Jesus Christ in our hearts. God gave us the faith in order to share it. This takes courage. It takes a deliberate dismantling of our own vanity. When we do that, the Church is strong. When we don’t, she grows weak. It’s that simple.

In a culture of confusion, the Church is our only reliable guide. So let’s preach and teach our Catholic beliefs with passion. And let’s ask God to make us brave enough and humble enough to follow our faith to its radical conclusions.

— 4 —

The Most Rev. Raymond Burke (Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis) was just named as a new cardinal. He commented recently at the Human Life International Prayer Congress, calling for public repentance of professed Catholic politicians who have supported abortion:

Turning to the issue of scandal within the Church, the archbishop said, “We find self-professed Catholics, for example, who sustain and support the right of a woman to procure the death of the infant in her womb, or the right of two persons of the same sex to the recognition which the State gives to a man and a woman who have entered into marriage. It is not possible to be a practicing Catholic and to conduct oneself publicly in this manner.”

To resounding applause Burke said, “When a person has publicly espoused and cooperated in gravely sinful acts, leading many into confusion and error about fundamental questions of respect for human life and the integrity of marriage and the family, his repentance of such actions must also be public.”

— 5 —

What happens to your beloved pet after the Rapture? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA offers a type of insurance if you live in one of the 24 states they serve. For $110, their network of certified atheists will rescue and care for your pet should the Rapture happen in the next 10 years.

They even have a complete FAQ. For example “Q: What if one of my family members are [is] left behind. Will you still take possession of my pet? A: That depends. When the rescuer arrives, if your loved one wants to retain possession of the pet, the pet stays in the home. We expect in these circumstances that the pet will offer the family member some comfort and stability given the trauma of what has occurred. If the family member prefers, we will adopt the pet per our contract.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

— 6 —

President Obama has once again misquoted the Declaration of Independence. Our founding document says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

This is now the third time he has chosen to omit “by their Creator.” One wonders who he thinks granted those rights. The government? Certainly one would assume that this Harvard educated lawyer would be familiar with the actual document establishing our sovereignty.

— 7 —

Quote of the day:

The wise man’s understanding turns him to his right; the fool’s understanding turns him to his left.

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