Monthly Archives: June 2015

Public-Personal

Answers to a Survey on the Family–part 8

In early 2015, our Archdiocese like many others was offered a 47-question open-ended survey in order to gather information about what people throughout the world understand about the Church’s teaching, her pastoral practice, current conditions, and the reality of marriage and family life.  The survey was probably a poor translation, and the questions were ill-structured, so I ended up writing about 15,500 words in the one week window for completing it.  I have chosen to share a few of these, here, as well, for your comments.  I will quote the question, and what follows is my answer.  I have edited the answers slightly for brevity, politeness, and clarity.

17. What initiatives in catechesis can be developed and fostered to make known and offer assistance to persons in living the Church’s teaching on the family, above all in surmounting any possible discrepancy between what is lived and what is professed and in leading to a process of conversion?

It will be necessary to build a two-headed approach.

On the one hand, we need to bring families more formally into the life of the parish, and neighborhood-building more concretely into perspective as a good of parish life, so that the practical life of families becomes both the functional life of the parish and the means of diffusing the graces of Matrimony throughout the parish. On the other hand, we should make it an intentional practice to attach singles and “the stranger among you” to household through bonds of shared hospitality and shared work. This requires a more thoroughly practical understanding of the fruits of religion than is common in American thought, today, where “separation of church and state” has become an ideological fixation that prevents clear understanding of spiritual formation and religious obligation as concrete, consequential, and local. Even well-meaning and faithful teachers often express their understanding of the faith in almost Gnostic terms, incorrectly bifurcating material/spiritual and bodily/eternal as though the eternal were the invisibly ideal, rather than the durably and essentially real; as though any good could be spiritual if it were merely notional.

In integrating these two prongs (family-to-family and attaching-to-families), it will be necessary to rely on a diversity of informal education methods as well as any formal methods that may be available. Responsible teachers should be prepared to direct interested groups of the faithful to approved materials, and to integrate such studies with the teaching ministry of the Church by involving both catechists and priests in visitation and assessment of these efforts, concentrating on their doctrinal and spiritual-formation effects without ignoring their practical and social worth.

Quotables

Being Made, Being New

He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Consequently, from now on
we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.

(source: Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Public-Personal

Thank You, Archbishop Coakley!

It is a great gift from God to have clear, measured, authoritative teachers who will both cultivate the faithful’s “sense of the faith” and safeguard the deposit of faith: 

Advocates for so-called “marriage equality” claim that the traditional definition of marriage unjustly discriminates against homosexual persons. Unjust discrimination is always wrong. But treating different things differently is not unjust discrimination. Protecting marriage is a matter of justice.

(source: The future of marriage hangs in the balance – Archdiocese of Oklahoma City)

Remember that “every form of unjust discrimination” is forbidden to Catholics by our own Catechism, and by the Gospel.  That does not diminish our responsibility to see ourselves as both reason and revelation inform us we really are, and it cannot absolve us for our failures to preserve and pass on that understanding.

But all sins can be forgiven as we turn from them to take the pierced hand of Mercy.

Public-Personal

Slattery, Campolo, Mohler, and an ecumenical moment

A good choice, but a sad occasion for having to make it:

The Catholic Diocese of Tulsa has resigned from membership in the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice because of the organization’s involvement in last Saturday’s Tulsa Pride parade, according to a letter from the Rev. Msgr. Patrick Gaalaas to OCCJ President and Chief Executive Officer Jayme Cox and Board of Directors Chairman Russ Florence.
…
“The executive committee’s decision to join officially in Saturday’s ‘Tulsa Pride’ parade, inviting board members to celebrate the event by marching behind the OCCJ banner, was, we are fairly certain, not made without careful thought,” Gaalaas wrote. “To march in such a parade seems to us to be a deliberate and full-throttled expression of support for the so-called gay agenda, a central component of which is same-sex marriage. Unless a clear statement can be made by OCCJ that its participation does not imply support for same-sex marriage or be seen to condone sexual acts outside of marriage, we have no option but to withdraw from membership.”

(source: Tulsa Catholic diocese drops out of OCCJ over Pride parade participation)

It is important to realize that these decisions are being made for reasons.  If we do not want to anticipate the moment, or overreact, neither do we want to wait until “it’s too late now” or “how can you object to this, when you didn’t object to that” become the arguments that envervate, emasculate, and sterilize our participation in reality–as they have so many times in the past, and in recent years.  It is never less than about “witness,” though it is almost always more than that.

Protestant friends have been seeing the same thing happen.  A not-particularly-orthodox figure in American evangelicalism, predictably in line with “progressive” groupthink, suddenly announces as a change what his organization had quietly supported for years.  Christianity Today, the flagship publication of the Billy Graham segment of American evangelicalism, had the gumption to respond appropriately:

The unity and depth of Christian teaching on marriage may not be news. Neither are the hundreds of thousands of planes that land safely each day. It’s not novel. It’s not surprising or counterintuitive. But it is reality—and a reality that is not going away anytime soon. Any time at all, for that matter, because it is grounded in the deepest realities.

We at CT are sorry when fellow evangelicals modify their views to accord with the current secular thinking on this matter. And we’ll continue to be sorry, because over the next many years, there will be other evangelicals who similarly reverse themselves on sexual ethics.

We’ll be sad, but we won’t panic or despair. Neither will we feel compelled to condemn the converts and distance ourselves from them. But to be sure, they will be enlisting in a cause that we believe is ultimately destructive to society, to the church, and to relations between men and women.

So yes, another couple of prominent evangelicals have come out in support of gay sexual ethics. It’s disappointing, but no reason to react defensively or angrily. We plan to treat with charity and respect those with whom we disagree, while we continue to call for a sexual ethic that, by God’s design, is one of the key ways to foster human flourishing.

(source: Breaking News: 2 Billion Christians Believe in Traditional Marriage)

And I agree that there is no reason to “feel compelled to condemn,” and indeed that even the “distance” we may not be able to avoid is a “distance” created when others push off against us or insist on our approval, coerced if necessary, for what we cannot possibly call good without being condemned in what we approve.   But I do also understand why conservative Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler felt the need to point out the uncomfortable possibilities latent in such nuance:

Those statements, drawn from the editorial, are clear, convictional, and timely. Galli put Christianity Today on the record as opposed to same-sex marriage and to the affirmation of same-sex relationships in the church.
…
I have to admit that I do not understand how those two sentences can be combined. If the view of the “converts” to same-sex marriage and the acceptance of homosexual partnerships is “ultimately destructive to society, to the church, and to relations between men and women,” how can that distance be avoided?

The reality is that it cannot. This is a moment of decision, and every evangelical believer, congregation, denomination, and institution will have to answer. There will be no place to hide.

(source: Which Way, Evangelicals? There is Nowhere to Hide)

The time of decision is, indeed, upon us.  Has been, in fact, for longer than most people think.

You cannot serve two masters.

Public-Personal

Answers to a Survey on the Family–part 7

In early 2015, our Archdiocese like many others was offered a 47-question open-ended survey in order to gather information about what people throughout the world understand about the Church’s teaching, her pastoral practice, current conditions, and the reality of marriage and family life.  The survey was probably a poor translation, and the questions were ill-structured, so I ended up writing about 15,500 words in the one week window for completing it.  I have chosen to share a few of these, here, as well, for your comments.  I will quote the question, and what follows is my answer.  I have edited the answers slightly for brevity, politeness, and clarity.

12. How can people be helped to understand that a relationship with God can assist couples in overcoming the inherent weaknesses in marital relations? (cf. n. 14) How do people bear witness to the fact that divine blessings accompany every true marriage? How do people manifest that the grace of the Sacrament sustains married couples throughout their life together?

Does not the last part of this question subtly confuse the direction of ministry in the Sacrament of Matrimony? The Sacrament, celebrated and ratified by the couple and ministered to the faithful, is solemnized and witnessed and blessed by the Church. Nor is the Sacrament one which, like Holy Communion or Reconciliation or Anointing of the Sick, is fundamentally oriented to the renewing and nourishing of the wayfarer; it is one which, like its correlative Order, conveys divine grace precisely for the purpose of faithfully responding to a certain call. Thus, in large measure, the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony is manifested precisely insofar as the bond itself is honored and fruitful; by being fruitful, especially in bearing and rearing children, and also in every avenue of service to which the Church calls them, the couple ministers the grace of the Sacrament among the faithful. As a sentimental favorite says,

He giveth more grace, when the burdens grow greater;
He giveth more strength, as the labors increase;
To added afflictions, he addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

Therefore, when the Church calls on the couple to be faithful, the Church calls forth the grace of the Sacrament which is already theirs.

Every couple, and each husband and wife, and every child, will likely fail in great ways or small, to heed this call and realize the goods of Matrimony and family life; the grace will be “spilled,” or wasted (at least in appearance, and for a time). These failings will affect the family, and certainly the family must be reminded of the special gift of frequent forgiveness that belongs to the “domestic church”; yet these failings do not only affect the family’s internal working, but affect the whole Church—they impede the ministry of grace that flows from the Sacrament of Matrimony, they distort the currents of her working, they leave ruptures within and among her members, ruptures which must be healed at their source or repaired when the harm is done and the cost is higher. Therefore the Sacrament of Matrimony must not be treated as self-healing, or self-supporting, as though for all things marriage we had only one relevant Sacrament. Rather, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the importance of performing penances and reparations, as well as living in justice and charity in more easy and obvious ways, must be taught boldly as the necessary supports to Matrimony as well as other states in which we live the life of the Body of Christ together. Reconciliation must not be understood only as the technical precondition for Communion for those consciously guilty of a narrow class of not-quite-rationalized sins, but as the remedy that it is for breaches in the life of the Church; when we are angry with each other in marriage, we harm not only ourselves, but the whole Church, and it is an act of the whole Church, of the “one Christ” that is Head and Body, through which the life of Matrimony is faithfully lived. Therefore both frequent and full Confession and the performance of truly healing penitential and reparative acts, and the worthy and reverent reception of Communion with clear conscience and right disposition, should be treated as necessary adjuncts to fidelity in marriage.

When the Sacrament of Matrimony is treated as graced for the service of the Church, and the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist are treated as the necessary adjuncts of Matrimony for the free and full sharing of the graces needed for fidelity in marriage and fruitful service in the Church, then we may expect to see “divine blessings” manifested in transformed lives and transformative bonds.

Public-Personal, Quotables

Thawing the Chilling Effect

Some ridiculous ideological cant, well exposed.  Keep working and keep submitting, whoever you are, if you’ve got the goods!

Gabbert has effectively done away with imagination. She has reduced art to dressed-up autobiography. That’s why “colonization” is an omnipresent danger. Since all art is predicated on personal history, a white male in Minneapolis should not write about an Afro-Cuban lesbian in Havana; doing so steals from Afro-Cuban, Havanan lesbians their stories.

But the whole point of imagination is that it is borderless.
…
Gabbert’s view of art destroys art’s universality — what Aristotle called “general truths,” which are the stuff of the poet, as opposed to the “particular facts” in which the historian traffics. For this reason, said Aristotle, poetry is more philosophical than history.

(source: Elisa Gabbert: Blunt Instrument Column—Advice for White Males)

Public-Personal, Quotables

The Dead Elephant Walk

90% of the young people influenced to subscribe to this vote were formed in Catholic schools. The vote was less in favor of inversion and more in hostility to a Church whose Jansenism and clericalism had incubated corruption and lassitude. While most of Europe suffers from the deadly sin of indifference, or sloth, Ireland is in adolescent rebellion, virulent and irrational. This was exploited by political interests hostile to Christian civilization, and their propaganda combined legitimate accusations against ecclesial failings with a left-wing, secularist agenda.

Ireland helped to bring the Faith to America, and when the flourishing of that Faith degenerated here, that donation was returned in the form of a bacillus. Ireland today has among the highest rates of suicide and mental illness in all Europe, and one-third of children there are born out of wedlock. Things are worse in the United States. Look at the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City to see what happens when the honor of a saint is dishonored, and when ambassadors for Christ become nothing more than goodwill ambassadors.

What happened in Ireland was not sudden. Like a dead elephant that remains standing for a short while before collapsing, so the Flame that Patrick kindled on Tara had died long before Catholicism was mixed up with political causes, and ethnic drollery replaced dogma.

(source: Most Recent Column from Fr. Rutler)

Public-Personal

Possibly the Best News of the Past Half Century

There is NO SHORTAGE of young people seeking Catholic vocations — they simply need your help!

Labouré exists to provide financial assistance and spiritual support to individuals, who must resolve student loans in order to pursue their vocation to priestly and/or religious life in the Catholic Church.

Labouré assists vocations to religious communites that are in communion with the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church through fidelity to the Holy Catholic Church’s doctrines and dogmas in their community statements and the activities of their individual members.

(source: Aspirants Winter 2015 – Home)

Consider carefully before borrowing for school.  All that well-meaning advice is unfortunately suffused with unexamined ideological cant–and outright lies from the powerful who buy and sell the poor, starting with the Department of Education and its corrupt financier cronies.  

And ACT NOW to free those who want to serve God from the shackles of student loans!

Public-Personal

Shear, Shearing, Sheared, Done Been Shorn

Hear, hear!  Kevin Williamson comes through with another solid critique of “security theater.”

The scale of the intrusive, 4th-Amendment violating TSA bureaucracy is simply out of line.  It is neither just, nor necessary, nor effective–but like most fascist cooperations between the corrupt and the corruptible, assertive regime and avaricious corporation, it uses the fears of the ignorant and supine to subject us all to humiliation and extortion.

We are about a decade past the time for reforming this mess.

When he lamented the crimes of socialism in arms, George Orwell received the usual rejoinder, that one has to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Orwell, who was unique among the literary men of his generation, had the insight to ask the necessary question: “Where’s the omelet?”

We might ask the same thing regarding the Transportation Security Administration.

(source: The TSA’s 95 Percent Failure Rate: Security Theater as Farce | National Review Online)

Quotables

Well said.

Why does the intolerant Left so vigilantly police speech — introducing even a Twitter “bot” to automate the scolding about the “correct” gender pronoun to use in reference to Jenner? Because they know speech — including simple pronouns — matter. Don’t consent. Laverne Cox is not a woman, and neither is “Caitlyn Jenner.” He is a man with breast implants. He’s always been a man, and he will always be a man. Yes, he’s deeply troubled. Our hearts go out to him in his pain, but the answer is not found in radical self-regard, and it’s certainly not found in surgical mutilation. He is a man created in God’s image, yet a man experiencing deep anguish about his very creation. He needs our prayers, not our applause.

(source: Bruce ‘Caitlyn’ Jenner Needs Our Prayers, Not Our Applause)

Public-Personal, Quotables

Wow–More Like This, Please!

The idea is not to create a new order, but to deepen the existing order’s apostolate to include work in teaching and training in the beauty of Natural Family Planning and Theology of the Body.

“We have been awakened to the serious consequences and the evil of contraception and sterilization and see the need for valiant women to come to the defense of our sisters and brothers in the fight against the culture of death,” says an ad that the order will be placing in various publications. “Armed with the truths presented in the Bible, Humanae Vitae, and the Theology of the Body, we will articulate these powerful truths to our younger generation and encourage them to embrace the richness of the Church’s teachings on sexuality and married love.”

“We would go out like missionaries for Humanae Vitae,” said Sister Boushey. “It’s been a dream of ours to go out and do conferences and retreats for parish groups and married couples.”

(source: Religious Order Seeks Recruits to Teach Theology of the Body and NFP)

See also the order’s own page.

Quotables

A Study in Contrasts

In the spirit of “Martyrs Read Joel Osteen,” the main point of this article bears contemplating on the Feast of St. Justin Martyr.

So with that in mind:

A group of 50 bishops and theologians meeting in Rome last week has announced that they have discovered an apparently new element in Christian morality: love, as in a new “theology of love.” They say it is needed to replace the tired old theology of the body famously propounded by Pope St. John Paul II, who, after all, has already been dead for 10 years.

A “theology of love”? I thought we already had that: “God is love.” “If you love me, you will keep my commandments and my Father will love you and we will come and make our home in you.” “Greater love than this has no man.”

We must proceed with caution. As Chesterton said, “A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.” No doubt the same is true of a new theology.

(source: Who’s Afraid of the Theology of the Body?)

[sorry, the article’s not very well written–some writers just haven’t been told that half-sarcasm, half-polemic never works well in print, and works less well the longer it continues.]