Faith alone falls short in Statehouse

A sobbing Chavez pleads for life at Catholic Mass

Depends who you speak to Andrew.
For many peasants and poorer people, he was the only voice of reason.
Many Westerners that are not obsessed with the domination of the US and of Capitalism in this world also saw much good in him.

I am a Jesuit Brother on his way to Venezuela for 2 months of Spanish studies, so I am grateful to see the leader of this ‘socialist’ country pleading to God for his life in a Mass.

I can’t comment about his politics, and personally Andrew, unless you’re living in Venezuela or have family there, I don’t think you can either. All I know is that he waged war against the Rich in order to give more to the poor..at least he wanted to. Perhaps his ‘regime’ didn’t serve that purpose as much as he would have wanted. Maybe he was too autocratic in his approach. But maybe that’s what you need in certain parts of the world, to make people understand that this gap between the rich and the poor in unacceptable. Especially when the rich are so apathetic towards the plight of the poor.

There is something very Catholic about that mission…not the war waging part obviously, but the being a voice for those who are marginalized. That, way more than the battle against abortion and contraception, should be at the centre of our faith.

Christians Celebrate Easter Sunday

Christians Celebrate Easter Sunday

Christians around the world Sunday celebrate the central event of their faith – Easter – the holiday that marks what Christians believe is the triumphant resurrection of Jesus three days after his crucifixion.

Many Christians, including Protestants and Catholics, make it a point to go to church on Easter, even if they rarely do so on other Sundays.

There are a number of Easter customs, including attending sunrise church services, and dyeing and decorating eggs.

Pope Benedict is marking the holy day with a Roman Catholic Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

Thousands of Christians gathered in Jerusalem late Saturday near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.

Eastern Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on April 15.

Tags: Easter
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Laura Marreel: Why Pacelli Middle School? – Post

Pacelli Middle School is a warm, welcoming transition into young adulthood. Our strong focus on academic excellence, service and faith make it an excellent choice for any sixth-, seventh- or eighth-grade student. We offer students an academic and growth opportunity that cannot be matched by any other middle school in our area. Children enter our program, and through our focus on academic excellence, service and faith, they enter High School as young, responsible adults.

Pacelli Catholic Schools are focused on academic excellence. We help students grow in their God-given gifts, stretch their dreams and realize their impact on the world around them through:

• Small class sizes: Because of our dedication to each student, Pacelli Middle Schoolers benefit from our small class sizes and close “family” feel. Each students is heard. Each student has a place.

• Technology immersion: Pacelli Middle Schoolers are connecting with each other and the rest of the world through technology with 30 Apple laptop computers, Google mail accounts for each student and creative, progressive teachers.

Pope in Mexico: "I come as a pilgrim of faith, of hope, and of love"

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Rick Santorum Goes After JFK

By now, most people have heard about the fact that Rick Santorum — and have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick he is? — pretty much renounced Jack Kennedy as a Catholic backslider over the weekend.

To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? … That makes me throw up and it should make every American who is seen from the president, someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you, not that you can’t come to the public square and argue against it, but now we’re going to turn around and say we’re going to impose our values from the government on people of faith, which of course is the next logical step when people of faith, at least according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square.

I will grant you that I haven’t given much thought to those things in the world that make Rick Santorum want to vomit, preferably outside the public square. But, if I did, I probably would have ranked Kennedy’s 1960 campaign speech to those Protestant ministers pretty far down the list, and well behind, say, Hollywood swingers and what ladies do with their ladyparts when Rick isn’t watching.

(Come to think of it, Jack Kennedy was pretty much involved with both of those, so we continue…)

Leave aside for the moment that Santorum’s argument there is a bunch of dead leaves pretending to be a tree. Nobody — N-O-B-O-D-Y — is arguing anything like the kind of positions that Santorum alleges there. It certainly doesn’t follow from anything Kennedy said in 1960. All Kennedy was doing was trying to convince the theological goobers who ministered to thousands of Southern Democrats — the very people who eventually would evolve into the Republican base with whom Santorum is currently pitching woo — that he wasn’t going to be taking orders from John XXIII once they elected him. While unquestionably eloquent, Kennedy’s speech was also a masterpiece of pure realpolitik, a calculation just as political as the one, say, that Rick Santorum made in voting for No Child Left Behind.

But it’s important not to forget history just because Rick Santorum likes to play mumbledy-peg with it. Kennedy’s speech came late on September 12, late in what would be a historically close campaign. He needed the votes of the people to whom those ministers in Houston spoke every Sunday, and a great number of them actually believed that, once inaugurated, Kennedy would receive his marching orders from the Vatican. The reason that whole thing sounds silly now is because Kennedy gave that speech in Houston in which he said, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” Rather than saying that people of his faith “had no role in the public square,” Kennedy in his speech made possible the inclusion of Catholics in our national affairs at the highest levels by denying the power of the most prominent myth that had kept them out, the myth of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion” that Samuel Burchard had hung on the Democratic party in 1884, the myth that had crushed Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate, in 1928.

Garry Wills wrote brilliantly about the Houston speech long ago in his book, Bare Ruined Choirs. In what he called “The Two Johns” — Kennedy and The XXIII — Wills saw “two men who had wrought a public change in Rome’s attitude toward pluralism and the whole secular realm.” It was the high noontime of liberal Catholic theology and the energy that eventually would crest (and, sadly, roll back) at the Second Vatican Council. Wills argues convincingly that Kennedy’s very detachment from religion, as declared in the Houston speech, was central to the liberal Catholic theology of the time.

“This detachment from religion was the president’s main virtue and advantage,” Wills writes. “Political man is secular man, since religion and politics have a high wall reared between them.”

Wills describes in detail the limitations of this approach, and he is unsparing in describing how the New Frontier (and the Catholic liberals within it) were flatfooted and reactionary when younger Catholics like Tom Hayden and the Berrigans responded with commendable “vigor” to the military adventurism in Southeast Asia that was sold as part of “paying any price” and “bearing any burden” in the “long twilight struggle.”

“Liberals,” he writes, “had, then, finally realized (when they’d settled into power) that Power Purifies. The whole mystique of the two Johns was based on the belief that awesome responsibilities sober those who bear them, instill a wisdom not granted men of lesser sway… The new authoritarianism had been born, one in which Lyndon Johnson could say, ‘I am your president,’ assuring others that they could not know all the things that went into a decision affecting Vietnam.”

But Wills’s criticisms are not those of Santorum, who seems to be hungering for an earlier, lost time when Catholics literally were kept out of “the public square” due to cultural ignorance and religious bigotry. Is he seriously arguing that Kennedy should have worn his “faith” on his sleeve the way Santorum does? Kennedy would have fallen down laughing at the very suggestion.

Borgia: Faith and Fear – …

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the lengths the producers of the gritty and provocative drama Borgia: Faith and Fear went to in order to accurately depict violence during this period of history. Available on DVD and Digital Download on February 21, 2012.

Created by Emmy® winning drama veteran Tom Fontana (HBO’s Oz, TV’s Homicide: Life on the Street), the sweeping international TV series Borgia: Faith and Fear follows the rise of the world’s most notorious crime family, which would open the most infamous chapter in the history of the Catholic Church.

Catholicism: A tradition of respect for women and femininty – The Beacon-University of Portland’s student

I trust that it is out of ignorance, not malice, that many people accuse the Catholic Church of being a harsh patriarchal religion with a disregard for women. In my experience, Catholicism not only upholds respect for women, it also celebrates the unique aspects of femininity.

It is often pointed out that the Catholic Church is built upon a hierarchy of men. However, what is often ignored is one of the most controversial practices of Catholicism: the veneration of Mary.

Distinct from other religions, Catholicism places Mary, a woman, in a special light, claiming that God blessed her more “than any other created person” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition, p. 124) when he allowed her a very important part in the salvation of humanity by asking her to carry Jesus in her womb.

The veneration the Catholic Church gives to Mary is so intense that Catholicism has actually been (falsely) accused of worshipping her above God! How is that for respect for women?

Some argue that Mary’s veneration in the church is based on two “demeaning” aspects: her servitude and her ability to bear children. While it is true that these two aspects do play a part in the Catholic Church’s respect for Mary, they are by no means demeaning.

In the Catholic Church, obedience to God is highly thought of. According to the Church, “by her complete adherence to the Father’s will, Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition, p. 252).”

By saying this, Catholic theology is clearly stating that obedience to God is something desirable, not only in women, but in all members of the Church.

Some people seem to be under the impression that in order for women to be truly appreciated, we must be seen as the same as men. To say that to be respected, we must lay aside what makes us unique as women, is ultimately a continuation of the idea that men are the desired sex.

From this ideology springs the belief that having children is demeaning because it reduces women to “baby makers” and keeps them from being viewed as carbon copies of men.

It is my opinion that real feminism entails demanding the right to be seen as equal to but unique from men. Real feminism is to celebrate and respect not only what both men and women can do, but also the strengths that are exclusive to the female sex.

One of these strengths is the ability to bring new life into the world. One of the ways Catholicism shows its respect for the female sex is through its deep regard for giving birth.

The Catholic Church is often misconstrued as forcing women to be subordinate to men. It is through a deeper understanding of Catholicism and its intense respect for Mary and for human life that we can begin to understand the true regard the Church holds for women.

Ann Cowan is a senior nursing major. She can be reached at cowan12@up.edu

Balancing Faith and Contraceptives

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Letter: Church should support Denum

Published on Saturday 28 January 2012 08:00

As the mother of an autistic man aged 47, I am in total agreement with Denum Ellerby’s mother.

She says her seven-year-old Downs Syndrome son is being discriminated against, because he is not allowed to take his first Holy Communion with the other youngsters.

This is a ‘faith’ issue, not an ‘age’ issue, or understanding, either. How can anyone measure ‘faith’ except God?

Diocese spokesman said Denum’s family has not participated in the regular life of the church, or in the preparation preceding First Communion.

Has this spokesman ever realised the demands on the time of conscientous parents caring for a child or adult with ‘special needs’? Time for such unselfish parents can be very limited.

The Church should support and feel privileged that they even go to church. It is no wonder that people like ourselves can be reluctant to attend regular worship. God loves us and wants us in his house and not made to feel unwelcome and uncomfortable because our children are ‘different’.

To God the creator everyone is acceptable, however old or young they may be.

J WOOD, by email

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