Prayer and invitation can help kids’ faith more than pushing them
My mother thinks I look great in red. For years, I did not. We would go shopping, and she’d suggest different shirts or sweaters and if they were red, I’d give them an “ick” face and move on. As soon as I was old enough to start buying my own clothes, all colors were discarded in favor of khaki, denim and black. I thought it made me look sophisticated and intellectual.
Then I had a roommate named Anne who helped me see the light — and the oranges, reds and greens — that had been missing from my wardrobe. She wore color combinations I never would have considered, but she looked so great that I realized what I had thought was “sophisticated” was actually dull. You can imagine my mom’s surprise when I came home sporting red. To her credit, she never pointed out that she had been right. She was just glad someone had talked some sense into me. So was I.
While Mom never spent hours agonizing over my wardrobe choices or praying for my change of taste, there are decisions young adults make that cause parents much more angst, especially when it comes to their religious beliefs and practices. It is painful when children who have been brought to church and sent to religious schools and camps leave home and reject the beliefs of their parents, choosing to live their lives differently. All the power in the world can’t make someone believe, but for parents wanting to do something, prayer and invitations are the first steps.
The life of St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica, offers a great example for parents of children who have strayed from the faith of their childhood. Born in North Africa in the year 332, St. Monica was a devout Christian who was married to a pagan who converted shortly before his death. Her son, Augustine, was more reluctant to adopt his mother’s faith. He was a brilliant scholar, but given to “carousing” and fathered a child with one of several mistresses he would have in his early days.
His mother prayed for him for years and when he finally accepted Christianity at the age of 33, he went on to become a bishop and one of the greatest teachers and writers in the history of the Catholic church. The example of Monica’s perseverance in prayer can serve as a reminder that when there is a crisis of faith in the lives of those we love, prayer should be the first and constant recourse.
When my mother’s suggestions were met by my “ick” face, she never nagged me. She never made me feel dumb and when I did show up with a red dress, it was met with a simple, “You look really nice.”
While spirituality is far more serious than fashion, this illustrates the truth that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. For example, instead of constantly saying, “I wish you’d go to church on Sunday” — or asking, “Did you go to church last week?” — give specific invitations such as “your nephew is singing in the choir. Would you like to come with me on Sunday and hear him?” or “The church is giving a workshop on finances. I was going to go, would you like to come?”
It was Anne, not my mom, who convinced me to change my habits. In the same way, it may be a friend, someone they date or even their children that bring loved ones back to the church.
It’s hard to wait to see the effects of grace, but in the meantime, pray and invite.
And then pray some more.
Columnist Alison Griswold is the director of youth ministry at St. Francis By the Sea Catholic Church. Follow her at twitter.com/alisongriz. Read her blog at www.teamcatholic.blogspot.com.
What the Arab Spring can learn from the history of the Catholic Church and …
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The only real solution to the crisis of publicly funded Catholic schooling in …
OTTAWA, Ontario, May 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The nearly 900 Catholic high school students gathered for the National March for Life Youth Conference on Friday were urged to take an active role in transforming Ontario’s publicly-funded Catholic school system, which has fallen prey to doctrinal errors and general dissent from the Church’s teaching authority in recent decades.
In his homily at the conference’s morning Mass, Ottawa’s Fr. Anthony Hannan said most arguments about saving Ontario’s Catholic schools have to do with constitutional rights. “But if we want to save the system, if we want to save the Catholic schools, we must make them Catholic,” he urged.
While there are faithful Catholic teachers in the system, many teachers do not even attend Sunday Mass, he noted.
Observing that there has been a general reluctance to reform the system, he called on the students to take up the task. “It’s up to you,” he said. “It’s up to you to transform the system from the inside.”
He urged the students to get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church or access it online on their iphones and present the truths of the faith in the classroom with the authentic teaching. “Bring [the Catechism] with you to every class,” he said. “Bring into the class discussion the authentic teachings of the Church.”
Doing this will not only be a way to support the faithful teachers, but will hopefully also inspire other teachers to get their own copy, he explained.
“My prayer is that if you bring the authentic teaching of the Magisterium into the classroom, then they just might be prompted to go get their own copy of the universal Catechism,” he said. “And they will grow in faith, and please God, in the decades ahead we will have Catholic schools and they will be strong Catholic schools.”
Fr. Hannan said it is “ridiculous” that some students feel “ostracized” in the Catholic schools for taking the faith seriously, and urged them to view this as a real injustice.
“As young people I know that you have a strong sensibility to injustice. That’s why you’re here in some way. At the March for Life,” he said.
“The real injustice that I want you to see is that you’re going to a Catholic school – depending on the school and what teachers you get – you are not getting a complete and authentic Catholic education,” he continued.
“Be upset about that. And call your teachers, in the most respectful way, to account for that.”
Aberdeen University becomes font for Scotland’s Catholic heritage
Published on Wednesday 16 May 2012 00:31
TWO priceless collections of manuscripts, books and letters from the archives of the Catholic Church are to be returned to the north-east of Scotland for the first time in more than half a century.
The collections, which include letters from Mary, Queen of Scots, are said to be of “national and international significance” and were last housed together in 1958 at the former Blairs Seminary on the outskirts of Aberdeen.
The archives, covering some of the most turbulent centuries in the history of the Catholic Church, will now be reunited under one roof at Aberdeen University’s new state-of-the-art library.
The main archive, which includes papers from Aberdeenshire and Moray dating back to the 12th century, is currently in the care of Columba House in Edinburgh, where the extensive Scottish Catholic Archive is located.
The university will also become the custodian of the Blairs Library, which has been on loan to the National Library of Scotland since 1974.
The Blairs Library is a valuable collection of 27,000 books and pamphlets dating from 1801. Several of the documents are the only surviving copies.
Many of the artefacts were once hidden at the Catholic Church’s “secret” seminary in Glenlivet on Speyside, which served as a refuge for the training of young students for the Catholic priesthood during the Jacobite rebellion.
Despite attacks by Hanoverian troops following the Battle of Culloden, “Scalan College” survived as a major seat of Catholic teaching in Scotland until the end of the 18th century.
Yesterday Archbishop Mario Conti, president of the Heritage Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said: “At a time when the future location of the pre-restoration archival material belonging to the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust was under consideration, the offer from Aberdeen University to accept it on loan and display it alongside other appropriate collections was carefully considered and prudently accepted.
“The intention of the trustees was to preserve the material in its integrity and make it available to scholars, students and post-graduate researchers in conditions which ensured both its security and its expert care.”
He added: “The whole Catholic community is indebted to Aberdeen University, itself originally a foundation of the church, for this fruitful outcome.”
A university spokeswoman said: “Catholicism was outlawed following the Scottish Reformation in 1560 and, until the restoration of the hierarchy, Catholics in Scotland were ministered to by an underground network of priests.
“During this period, important documents were preserved and collected in the Scots colleges abroad, which also amassed substantial libraries. Both were brought back to Scotland in the early 19th century.”
Professor Ian Diamond, the university’s principal, said: “We are pleased that these important collections are returning to the north-east. Our state-of-the-art Special Collections Centre is one of the best facilities in Scotland, attracting students, scholars and visitors from across the world.
“The Scottish Catholic Archive and the Blairs Library will complement our existing holdings and returns many of these significant documents to the area in which they originated.”
Comments
There are 6 comments to this article
Yes, lets hear it for the Great Mankind. Billions either have already, are waiting to or will die of Hunger – Thirst – Basic Sanitation or lack of Cheap Lifesaving Medication and what’s our answer? Blame someone else. If these people were White would we still turn a blind eye!!! Decades this has been happening, DECADES. Should always be aware that when you point the finger at someone else…..there’s always 3 pointing back at you.
If you agree that identifying the Sun as the centre of our universe is an offence of heresy punishable by death then the Catholic Church is your bosom. If you cannot distance yourself from an organisation that is known to have murdered many thousands for not following their mantra then the Catholic Church is your bosom. If you believe that human beings are fallible you are considered rational, if you believe that the pope is fallible you are being anti-catholic because this messenger of god must be worshipped with more passion than you reserve for the god he supposedly represents. If you think that using a condom is a good idea in terms of preventing the spread of Aids and unwanted pregnancy you are against the Catholic way but fortunately for you your life will be spared until such time as they obtain their power back, the power they crave to control the world the way they once did. If you cannot distance yourself from an organisation known for it’s appalling record of paedophilia then you will feel home at the Catholic Church…The truth is this, if you were introduced to a non-religious organisation whose history was steeped in murder, abuse and the pain and fear of many hundreds of thousands of people and whose many members were responsible for sexual misconduct with small boys you would distance yourself from such filth without a moments thought, why should it be so different when it comes to religion? No organisation with a history like the Catholic Church can be considered peaceful or interested in godly goodness and no amount of protection or defence in their name can be viewed as sane or rational because showing support for any other industry, association or organisation with such a track record would leave you open to absolute criticism.
Are we allowed to bring up the convicted Paedophile gang leader who led the youth LGBT also, or is that homophobia.
Archbishop Mario Conti is in what will probably be his last week in office, we are told by a Glasgow newspaper. But he has made a mistake he may live to regret. Taking away the Scottish Catholic Archives from Edinburgh and sending them to Aberdeen must have seemed a stunning idea but it will put the Catholic Church back 50 years. Perhaps this decision will live to haunt him … Why not send the National Library of Scotland to Aberdeen and the National Museum and the Scottish National Galleries and the National Archives of Scotland? That would make everything OK again. Are the Scottish Catholic Archives not also safe in Edinburgh?
@ albanman. Because it is welcoming that such historic documents can be safe. It is your comments that are unwelcome. Because you are attempting to link the story to anti-Catholicism. No-one is anti-Catholic; they are anti-Vatican. And against an organisation that protects abusing, paedophile priests, that is on record for protecting Nazi war criminals, physically castrating young gay children without parental consent and stealing babies from their mothers.
Nice to see that (at 07:20) this thread is free from the normal ignorant anti-Catholic bile that so often accompanies any article on Catholicism.
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Bishop William Lori’s Homily Before Installation as Archbishop of Baltimore
BALTIMORE,MD (Catholic Online) - We have followed the courageous leadership of Bishop William Lori for years. He is a faithful and inspiring shepherd of the Catholic Church. He is also a heroic defender of religious freedom, marriage and the dignity of every human life during an historic time in the United States of America. Finally, he is an answer to much prayer.
We must face the facts, the first freedom, religious freedom, is under a ferocious assault in the United States of America – and the Catholic Church is increasingly threatened – at the very heart of her mission. I was among the many who expressed my deepest gratitude to the Lord when the Bishops of the United States selected Bishop Lori to Chair their Committee for Religious Liberty.
Bishop William Lori is a highly regarded theologian and teacher of the faith. He is known to be a man of deep prayer and personal warmth – which endears him to the faithful under his pastoral care. The people of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the greater Washington D.C. area have been blesses with an outstanding Shepherd of the Church.
The Nation which we love has now been given one more courageous Catholic Bishop in a position of significant leadership at this critical time in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. Archbishop Elect Lori is being installed as the 15th successor of John Carroll, to preside as Archbishop of Baltimore at a pivotal time in the history of the American experiment.
We present the homily given by the Archbishop Elect at Vespers on Tuesday evening in the Basilica of the Assumption. It shows not only the depth of his gifts but the historic significance of this pregant moment in the history of the Catholic Church in America.
The homily was provided by the great Rocco Palmo on Whispers in the Loggia. We ask our readers around the globe to pray for the Archbishop as he assumes this office of such significance. We ask you to pray for the Catholic Church in America. may God Bless America.
*****
Homily of Bishop William Lori
Together with Cardinal O’Brien, moments ago, I stood in reverence before the tombs of the Archbishops of Baltimore, beginning with Archbishop John Carroll, our nation’s first bishop. With architect Benjamin Latrobe, he envisioned this, the nation’s first cathedral, as a place of great beauty that would embody the Catholic Tradition while reflecting the distinctiveness of the American experiment of limited government, designed to recognize and protect religious freedom.
We paused before the resting place of Francis Patrick Kenrick, a man of great scholarship and refinement, remembered for translating the Bible into English and for launching the first of three Plenary Councils of Baltimore.
With Cardinal O’Brien, I stood before the tomb of Martin John Spalding, who belonged to a family with deep Maryland roots but who, like myself, came from Louisville to Baltimore.
We stood also in the shadow of the great James Cardinal Gibbons, arguably the most influential Catholic leader in the United States for forty years and one of the great architects in the ongoing project of true faithful citizenship. There also, we looked upon the tomb of Archbishop Michael Curley,both the tenth Archbishop of Baltimore and First Archbishop of Washington.
In my day, it was said that Archbishop Curley was not enamored of the federal city and even less enamored of the proposal to separate Washington from Baltimore. Be that as it may, what we should remember about Archbishop Curley is that he loved the poor, African Americans, immigrants, and the elderly – at his death in 1947 he was penniless.
In this very place the contours of the church in the United States began to take shape: the parish system, Catholic schools, the Baltimore Catechism, the founding of The Catholic University of America, laws of fast and abstinence, a spirited defense of the Church against the anti-Catholic bigotry of the day, and more.
It is a rich legacy, stretching from 1634 to the present, which author Thomas W. Spalding captured with three words: The Premier See. It is a legacy of which we are proud but also a legacy which can weigh heavily upon us. I can well imagine myself some sleepless night tiptoeing by the imposing portraits of my predecessors on my way to the kitchen to get a glass of warm milk!
But how should we think about this legacy? Is it like a grand castle in the English country-side
which the landed gentry can no longer afford to maintain? Is it a mere distraction amid the very real problems and challenges which the Church of Baltimore is facing as we look to the future?
Or is it a living legacy, more than a collection of historical facts, which continues to provide us with fresh strength and hope in our …
America, Religious Freedom, and the Natural Law
A George Weigel recent commencement address.
Defending Religious Freedom in Full: A Generation’s Challenge
“[A] special word of thanks, today, to the parents of today’s graduates — and the grandparents, and the other family members — who have helped bring you, the Class of 2012, to this pivotal moment in your lives.
Today is, by its nature — and I think at Benedictine College we can still speak of the “nature” of things! — a day of celebration, a day of remembrance, and a day of thanksgiving.
We share, today, a unique and critical moment in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics accounted for less than one per cent of the population of the thirteen colonies — a tiny population clustered primarily in my native Maryland and a few Pennsylvania counties. Yet within a few decades of the Founding, the great tides of European immigration that began to wash onto the shores of the new nation – those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as they are memorialized on the Statue of Liberty — brought millions of Catholics to the New World: at first, Irish and Germans; later, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians, and the many others who wove their lives, their traditions, and their aspirations into the rich tapestry of American democracy. Those 19th century immigrants felt the sting of anti-Catholic prejudice, even anti-Catholic violence. But notwithstanding that bigotry, Catholics have, I believe, almost always felt at home in these United States.
We have felt at home because we have thrived here; with the exception of immigrant Jews, no religious group has prospered more in America than the Catholic community. Yet Catholic “at-homeness” in the United States has had a deeper philosophical and moral texture. One of the great Catholic students of American democracy, Father John Courtney Murray, described that side of the Catholic experience of America in these terms, in We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition, a book published fifty-two years ago:
In this second decade of the third millennium, there are many grave questions be debated in America: the question of the legal protection of innocent human life from conception until natural death; the question of long-term strategy and morally worthy tactics in the war against Islamist jihadism; the question of how we attend to the sick and how we manage immigration; the question of fitting public policy ends to fiscal means; the question of building an appropriate regulatory structure around the biotech revolution so that the new genetic knowledge leads to genuine human flourishing rather than to a stunted and manufactured humanity; the question of the health of American civil society and of the American national character; the list goes on and on. The very question of what should be on “the public policy agenda,” and what ought to be left to the private and independent sectors, is being as vigorously contested in our country today as at any time since the Great Depression and the New Deal. Yet amidst all this churning, the gravest question for our public culture is whether what Father Murray called the “American consensus” — that ensemble of “ethical and political principles drawn from the tradition of natural law” — still holds.
There are reasons to be concerned.
In October 2009, the nation’s political newspaper of record, the Washington Post, ran an editorial condemning what it termed the “extremist views” of a candidate for attorney general of Virginia who had suggested that the natural moral law was still a useful guide to public policy. The Post, determined to nail down the claim that homosexual orientation is the equivalent of race for purposes of U.S. civil rights law, deplored this as “a retrofit [of] the old language of racism, bias, and intolerance in a new context.” Yet the Post’s own claim was, to adopt its language, “extremist.” For it suggested that the label “bigot” ought to be applied to notable historical personalities who had appealed to the natural moral law in causes the Post would presumably regard as admirable: figures such as Thomas Jefferson, staking America’s claim to independent nationhood on “self-evident” moral truths derived from “the laws of nature”; or Martin Luther King, Jr., arguing in his Letter from Birmingham Jail that “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law”; or Pope John Paul II, who, at the United Nations in 1995, suggested that the truths of the natural moral law — “the moral logic which is built into human life,” as he put it — could serve as a universal “grammar” enabling cross-cultural dialogue.
Appeals to the natural moral law we can know by reason underwrote the American civil rights revolution. Appeals to that same natural moral law underwrite the pro-life movement, the successor to the civil rights movement. And appeals to the natural moral law have underwritten U.S. international human rights policy for the past thirty years. Until, that is, December 2009, when the Secretary of State of the United States, in a speech at Georgetown University, emptied the concept of religious freedom of everything save the “freedom to worship” while asserting, in a catalogue of what she claimed were fundamental international human rights, that people “must be free…to love in the way they choose” — which “choice” must, presumably, be protected by international human rights covenants and national and local civil rights laws.
This speech, as things turned out, was one harbinger of an assault on religious freedom that continues to this day — an assault that imagines “religious freedom” to be a kind of “privacy right” to certain leisure-time activities, but nothing more than that. This dramatic misconception of religious freedom was evident in the present administration’s attempt to re-write federal employment law by dissolving the “ministerial exemption” that had long protected the integrity of religious institutions. It was evident in the administration’s refusal to continue funding the U.S. bishops’ efforts to help women who had been victims of sex-trafficking (because the Church refused to provide abortion as part of that work). And it has been most dramatically evident in the January HHS mandate that requires all employers (including religious institutions with moral objections and private-sector employers with religiously-informed moral objections) to facilitate the provision of contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacient drugs like Plan B and Ella to their employees.
All of this suggests that one of the great challenges of your generation, my fellow-members of the Class of 2012 of Benedictine College, will be to rise to the defense of religious freedom in full. And, indeed, what could be a more apt challenge for the graduates of a college named in honor of the saint whose inspired vision and evangelical vision saved the civilization of the classical world when it was in danger of being lost? What better challenge for the graduates of Benedictine College, named for one of the patrons of Europe, whose life-work saved the West as a civilizational enterprise built from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome?
For the defense of religious freedom in full which you must mount must be both cultural — in the sense of arguments winsomely and persuasively made — and political, in that you must drive the sharp edge of truth into the sometimes hard soil of public policy.
What is this “religious freedom in full” that you must defend and advance?
It surely includes freedom of worship, but it must include more than that; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is content with freedom of worship, so long as the Christian worship in question takes place behind closed doors in the American embassy compound in Riyadh. Religious conviction is community-forming, and communities formed by religious conviction must be free, as communities and not simply as individuals, to make arguments and bring influence to bear in public life. If religiously informed moral argument is banned from the American public square, then the public square has become, not only naked, but undemocratic and intolerant. If, on the other hand, religiously informed moral argument is welcome in public life, then we have the possibility of rebuilding, not a sacred public square (a goal the Catholic Church rejected at the Second Vatican Council), but a civil public square, in which tolerance is rightly understood as differences engaged within a bond of civility formed by a mutual commitment to reason.
It is a matter of both political common sense and democratic etiquette that Catholics in public life should make our arguments in ways that our fellow-citizens, who may not share our theological premises, can engage and understand — which is to say, in our particular case, that Catholics should bring to bear in public life the moral truths we hold through arguments framed by the grammar and vocabulary of the natural moral law. That is what John Paul II did at the United Nations in 1979 and 1995. That is what Benedict XVI did at the in 2008 and in the German Bundestag in 2011. That is what the bishops of the United States, and lay Catholics in their millions, have done over the past four decades in defense of life. And if there are some who consider such appeals to the natural moral law a form of tarted-up bigotry, well, we shall simply have to inform them, politely but firmly, that they are mistaken, and then demonstrate why.
Religious freedom in full also means that communities of religious conviction and conscience must be free to conduct the works of charity in ways that reflect their conscientious convictions. This is neither the time nor the place to discuss the problems that have been posed by tying so much of Catholic social service work and Catholic health care to government funding — save, perhaps, to note that these problems did not exist before the Supreme Court erected a spurious “right to abortion” as the right-that-trumps-all-other-rights, and before courts and legislatures decided that it was within the state’s competence to redefine marriage and to compel others to accept that redefinition through the use of coercive state power. What can be said in this context, and what must be said, is that the rights of Catholic physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals are not second-class rights that can be trumped by other rights-claims; and any state that fails to acknowledge those rights of conscience has done grave damage to religious freedom rightly understood. The same can and must be said about any state that drives the Catholic Church out of certain forms of social service because the Church refuses to concede that the state has the competence to declare as “marriage” relationships that are manifestly not marriages.
My fellow-graduates, your defense of religious freedom is going to require the skills of reasoning and argument that you acquired here at Benedictine College. It is going to require that some of you accept the risk and challenge of public service in elective office. And it going to require all of you to support those who take, as their vocation, the defense and promotion of religious freedom in full.
This will be the work of a lifetime. But it must begin sooner rather than later, for the threats to religious freedom among us are great, and many of them are deeply embedded in postmodern American culture. This work will not be without cost. Some of you may suffer various forms of martyrdom in taking up this cause: the martyrdom of ridicule, of being labeled “intolerant” and “bigoted”; the martyrdom of career paths blocked and promotions denied because of your adherence to the moral truth of things; the martyrdom of political defeat, or a judicial case well-argued but lost. Fidelity to the truth can have its costs. Yet as Blessed John Paul II taught young people all over the world, those costs are worth paying because the truth sets us free in the deepest sense of human liberation. Thomas More, patron saint of Catholics in public life, was never more a free man than when he bent his neck to the executioner’s axe in free adherence to the truth.
Let us pray that it does not come to that for any of you, or indeed for any of us. But let us also be clear on the stakes for which your generation is playing, which are nothing less than the long-term integrity of American democracy. So: be the culture-forming heirs of St. Benedict that your education here has prepared you to be. Be the champions of religious freedom in full. In doing that, you will give America a new birth of freedom — freedom tethered to truth and ordered to goodness, freedom that sets us free in the noblest sense of human liberation.
Godspeed on your journey.
Delivered May 12, 2012 at Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas.
Un-Sebelius Commencement Address
Delivered today at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas:
Defending Religious Freedom in Full: A Generation’s Challenge
Your Excellency, Archbishop Joseph Naumann; members of the Board of Trustees; President Minnis and members of the faculty and staff; Benedictine fathers and sisters; parents, grandparents, and family members of the graduates — and especially mothers of the graduates, who celebrate a double-header today; and my fellow-classmates of the Class of 2012 of Benedictine College:
Thank you for inviting me to join you on this great day. Thank you for honoring my work with the gift of a degree. It has been one of the great graces of my professional life to have been given the opportunity to work regularly with young men and women of intelligence, wit, and character — after their parents had done the heavy lifting! So a special word of thanks, today, to the parents of today’s graduates — and the grandparents, and the other family members — who have helped bring you, the Class of 2012, to this pivotal moment in your lives.
Today is, by its nature — and I think at Benedictine College we can still speak of the “nature” of things! — a day of celebration, a day of remembrance, and a day of thanksgiving. Permit me to take a few minutes to suggest that you consider it a day of challenge as well: a challenge that might lead to a certain kind of vocational commitment.
We share, today, a unique and critical moment in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics accounted for less than one per cent of the population of the thirteen colonies — a tiny population clustered primarily in my native Maryland and a few Pennsylvania counties. Yet within a few decades of the Founding, the great tides of European immigration that began to wash onto the shores of the new nation – those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as they are memorialized on the Statue of Liberty — brought millions of Catholics to the New World: at first, Irish and Germans; later, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians, and the many others who wove their lives, their traditions, and their aspirations into the rich tapestry of American democracy. Those 19th century immigrants felt the sting of anti-Catholic prejudice, even anti-Catholic violence. But notwithstanding that bigotry, Catholics have, I believe, almost always felt at home in these United States.
We have felt at home because we have thrived here; with the exception of immigrant Jews, no religious group has prospered more in America than the Catholic community. Yet Catholic “at-homeness” in the United States has had a deeper philosophical and moral texture. One of the great Catholic students of American democracy, Father John Courtney Murray, described that side of the Catholic experience of America in these terms, in We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition, a book published fifty-two years ago:
“Catholic participation in the American consensus has been full and free, unreserved and unembarrassed, because the contents of this consensus — the ethical and political principles drawn from the tradition of natural law — approve themselves to the Catholic intelligence and conscience. Where this kind of language is talked, the Catholic joins the conversation with complete ease. It is his language. The ideas expressed are native to his universe of discourse. Even the accent, being American, suits his tongue.”
In this second decade of the third millennium, there are many grave questions be debated in America: the question of the legal protection of innocent human life from conception until natural death; the question of long-term strategy and morally worthy tactics in the war against Islamist jihadism; the question of how we attend to the sick and how we manage immigration; the question of fitting public policy ends to fiscal means; the question of building an appropriate regulatory structure around the biotech revolution so that the new genetic knowledge leads to genuine human flourishing rather than to a stunted and manufactured humanity; the question of the health of American civil society and of the American national character; the list goes on and on. The very question of what should be on “the public policy agenda,” and what ought to be left to the private and independent sectors, is being as vigorously contested in our country today as at any time since the Great Depression and the New Deal. Yet amidst all this churning, the gravest question for our public culture is whether what Father Murray called the “American consensus” — that ensemble of “ethical and political principles drawn from the tradition of natural law” — still holds.
There are reasons to be concerned.
In October 2009, the nation’s political newspaper of record, the Washington Post, ran an editorial condemning what it termed the “extremist views” of a candidate for attorney general of Virginia who had suggested that the natural moral law was still a useful guide to public policy. The Post, determined to nail down the claim that homosexual orientation is the equivalent of race for purposes of U.S. civil rights law, deplored this as “a retrofit [of] the old language of racism, bias, and intolerance in a new context.” Yet the Post’s own claim was, to adopt its language, “extremist.” For it suggested that the label “bigot” ought to be applied to notable historical personalities who had appealed to the natural moral law in causes the Post would presumably regard as admirable: figures such as Thomas Jefferson, staking America’s claim to independent nationhood on “self-evident” moral truths derived from “the laws of nature”; or Martin Luther King, Jr., arguing in his Letter from Birmingham Jail that “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law”; or Pope John Paul II, who, at the United Nations in 1995, suggested that the truths of the natural moral law — “the moral logic which is built into human life,” as he put it — could serve as a universal “grammar” enabling cross-cultural dialogue.
Appeals to the natural moral law we can know by reason underwrote the American civil rights revolution. Appeals to that same natural moral law underwrite the pro-life movement, the successor to the civil rights movement. And appeals to the natural moral law have underwritten U.S. international human rights policy for the past thirty years. Until, that is, December 2009, when the Secretary of State of the United States, in a speech at Georgetown University, emptied the concept of religious freedom of everything save the “freedom to worship” while asserting, in a catalogue of what she claimed were fundamental international human rights, that people “must be free…to love in the way they choose” — which “choice” must, presumably, be protected by international human rights covenants and national and local civil rights laws.
This speech, as things turned out, was one harbinger of an assault on religious freedom that continues to this day — an assault that imagines “religious freedom” to be a kind of “privacy right” to certain leisure-time activities, but nothing more than that. This dramatic misconception of religious freedom was evident in the present administration’s attempt to re-write federal employment law by dissolving the “ministerial exemption” that had long protected the integrity of religious institutions. It was evident in the administration’s refusal to continue funding the U.S. bishops’ efforts to help women who had been victims of sex-trafficking (because the Church refused to provide abortion as part of that work). And it has been most dramatically evident in the January HHS mandate that requires all employers (including religious institutions with moral objections and private-sector employers with religiously-informed moral objections) to facilitate the provision of contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacient drugs like Plan B and Ella to their employees.
All of this suggests that one of the great challenges of your generation, my fellow-members of the Class of 2012 of Benedictine College, will be to rise to the defense of religious freedom in full. And, indeed, what could be a more apt challenge for the graduates of a college named in honor of the saint whose inspired vision and evangelical vision saved the civilization of the classical world when it was in danger of being lost? What better challenge for the graduates of Benedictine College, named for one of the patrons of Europe, whose life-work saved the West as a civilizational enterprise built from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome?
For the defense of religious freedom in full which you must mount must be both cultural — in the sense of arguments winsomely and persuasively made — and political, in that you must drive the sharp edge of truth into the sometimes hard soil of public policy.
What is this “religious freedom in full” that you must defend and advance?
It surely includes freedom of worship, but it must include more than that; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is content with freedom of worship, so long as the Christian worship in question takes place behind closed doors in the American embassy compound in Riyadh. Religious conviction is community-forming, and communities formed by religious conviction must be free, as communities and not simply as individuals, to make arguments and bring influence to bear in public life. If religiously informed moral argument is banned from the American public square, then the public square has become, not only naked, but undemocratic and intolerant. If, on the other hand, religiously informed moral argument is welcome in public life, then we have the possibility of rebuilding, not a sacred public square (a goal the Catholic Church rejected at the Second Vatican Council), but a civil public square, in which tolerance is rightly understood as differences engaged within a bond of civility formed by a mutual commitment to reason.
It is a matter of both political common sense and democratic etiquette that Catholics in public life should make our arguments in ways that our fellow-citizens, who may not share our theological premises, can engage and understand — which is to say, in our particular case, that Catholics should bring to bear in public life the moral truths we hold through arguments framed by the grammar and vocabulary of the natural moral law. That is what John Paul II did at the United Nations in 1979 and 1995. That is what Benedict XVI did at the in 2008 and in the German Bundestag in 2011. That is what the bishops of the United States, and lay Catholics in their millions, have done over the past four decades in defense of life. And if there are some who consider such appeals to the natural moral law a form of tarted-up bigotry, well, we shall simply have to inform them, politely but firmly, that they are mistaken, and then demonstrate why.
Religious freedom in full also means that communities of religious conviction and conscience must be free to conduct the works of charity in ways that reflect their conscientious convictions. This is neither the time nor the place to discuss the problems that have been posed by tying so much of Catholic social service work and Catholic health care to government funding — save, perhaps, to note that these problems did not exist before the Supreme Court erected a spurious “right to abortion” as the right-that-trumps-all-other-rights, and before courts and legislatures decided that it was within the state’s competence to redefine marriage and to compel others to accept that redefinition through the use of coercive state power. What can be said in this context, and what must be said, is that the rights of Catholic physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals are not second-class rights that can be trumped by other rights-claims; and any state that fails to acknowledge those rights of conscience has done grave damage to religious freedom rightly understood. The same can and must be said about any state that drives the Catholic Church out of certain forms of social service because the Church refuses to concede that the state has the competence to declare as “marriage” relationships that are manifestly not marriages.
My fellow-graduates, your defense of religious freedom is going to require the skills of reasoning and argument that you acquired here at Benedictine College. It is going to require that some of you accept the risk and challenge of public service in elective office. And it going to require all of you to support those who take, as their vocation, the defense and promotion of religious freedom in full.
This will be the work of a lifetime. But it must begin sooner rather than later, for the threats to religious freedom among us are great, and many of them are deeply embedded in postmodern American culture. This work will not be without cost. Some of you may suffer various forms of martyrdom in taking up this cause: the martyrdom of ridicule, of being labeled “intolerant” and “bigoted”; the martyrdom of career paths blocked and promotions denied because of your adherence to the moral truth of things; the martyrdom of political defeat, or a judicial case well-argued but lost. Fidelity to the truth can have its costs. Yet as Blessed John Paul II taught young people all over the world, those costs are worth paying because the truth sets us free in the deepest sense of human liberation. Thomas More, patron saint of Catholics in public life, was never more a free man than when he bent his neck to the executioner’s axe in free adherence to the truth.
Let us pray that it does not come to that for any of you, or indeed for any of us. But let us also be clear on the stakes for which your generation is playing, which are nothing less than the long-term integrity of American democracy. So: be the culture-forming heirs of St. Benedict that your education here has prepared you to be. Be the champions of religious freedom in full. In doing that, you will give America a new birth of freedom — freedom tethered to truth and ordered to goodness, freedom that sets us free in the noblest sense of human liberation.
Godspeed on your journey.
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Published: May 1, 2012
Honorary Committee for archbishop filled with Church enemies
As Archbishop George Niederauer prepares to lay down the burdens of his episcopacy, he is receiving many thanks. On Saturday, April 28, Catholic Charities Catholic Youth Organization of San Francisco honored the archbishop at its 2012 Loaves and Fishes dinner.
As soon Archbishop Niederauer arrived in San Francisco in 2006, he had to deal with the same-sex adoptions fiasco, caused by the youth organization’s placing of children in same-sex households. That mess didn’t get cleaned up until 2009 – but it was not the only headache the group caused the archbishop during his years in San Francisco.
At its 2008 Loaves and Fishes dinner, the Catholic Charities youth group honored George Marcus. In 2004, Marcus had given $50,000 to Proposition 71, which authorized public funding for embryonic stem-cell research. In 2005-06 Marcus gave $125,000 to oppose initiatives that provided for parental notification when minors seek an abortion. California’s bishops opposed Proposition 71 and favored the parental notification initiatives.
In 2007 and 2008, a transvestite and homosexual activist named “Donna Sachet” made news by appearing as the entertainer at Catholic Charities events.
The honorary committee for this year’s Loaves and Fishes dinner included Brian Cahill, immediate past executive director of Catholic Charities Catholic Youth Organization. On April 27, just one day before the dinner honoring the archbishop, the San Francisco Chronicle published a column by Cahill titled, “U.S. Nuns Deserved Support.” In the column. Cahill condemned the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for their recent crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization whose departures from Catholicism have been thoroughly documented. Cahill wrote that “the word bully comes to mind” and said of the bishops, “It is becoming increasingly obvious to many Catholics that these ‘men only’ club members are not in control, are not relevant and have lost their moral authority.”
The April 27 column was not the first time Cahill’s dissident opinions have appeared in the Chronicle. In a Feb. 21 Chronicle column, Cahill attacked the bishops for their opposition to the recent HHS mandate.
Other members of the honorary committee included Sen. Diane Feinstein, who has never in her senatorial career received anything less than a 100 percent approval rating from Planned Parenthood. Only four times, since 1995 has Feinstein received a less than 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, the most powerful homosexual lobbying organization in the country. Of those four times her lowest approval rating was 75 percent. Feinstein also voted to table the Blunt Amendment, which would have provided conscience protections under Obamacare. In 2010, Feinstein called the ruling of Judge Vaughn Walker, which declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional and invalidated the votes of a majority of Californians, “very good news.” Archbishop Niederauer was one of the major players in the passage of Prop 8 – even earning a “pink brick” negative award from the organizers of San Francisco’s gay pride parade in 2009.
On the same dinner committee was San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen, who introduced an ordinance restricting freedom of speech at San Francisco’s crisis pregnancy centers, First Resort and the Alpha Pregnancy Center. That ordinance, passed 10-1, is currently being challenged in court. The webpage of the Office of Public Policy and the Office of Social Concerns of the Archdiocese of San Francisco currently carries the banner, “Support our Crisis Pregnancy Centers against San Francisco’s Attempted Free Speech Attacks.”
San Francisco supervisors David Campos, David Chiu, Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd, Mark Farrell and Jane Kim were on the honorary committee. Elsbernd cast the only vote against Cohen’s ordinance. All of them have expressed their support for “abortion rights” and same-sex “marriage” – two moral issues Pope Benedict has declared “non-negotiable” for Catholics.
The rest of the members of the honorary committee included San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who kicked off the city’s 2011 Transgender March, the city’s police and fire chiefs, and Fr. Stephen Privett, SJ, president of the heterodox University of San Francisco.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 12:21 AM By Dan
I love the Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. Therein he counsels against receiving honor from those who would flatter, or seek favor by flattery, and in general calls for devout souls to do just the opposite, to fly from fame and notoriety. He should have declined the invitation, and used the occasion to give reasons why.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 12:47 AM By Kenneth M. Fisher
From what I have seen and witnessed from Niederauer’s reign, If I were his spiritual advisor, I would tell him to find an obscure, strict, orthodox Monastery and go there for the rest of his life to ask God to forgive him for his sins of both commission and omission!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:44 AM By Canisius
Coming from this “diocese” is anyone really that surprised
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 6:30 AM By St. Christopher
Yes — the good bishop is just like Jesus, dining with Romans, Sanhedrin and Pharisees. What a complete and utter failure as bishop, and in a place and at a time when the Church needed someone to simply stand up in the public square and quietly say, “enough”. Instead, Bishop Niederauer was busy giving communion to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the like, and being completely tone deaf to the moral scandal in his own Church (and true needs of the community in his charge). Until the Church stops such men as this from being bishop and appoints men who are faithful to the Magisterium, including the Pope, this type of behavior will continue. Of course, the Bishop should decline this dinner and say why, publicly. Too tough for many bishops to do this, as they were raised to be soft and feminine, when what was needed is a shepherd, one who does not run when the wolf arrives to find a meal among the sheep.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 6:56 AM By Marie Searles
Let’s make it clear that those radical anti-Catholic/anti-life individuals honoring the archbishop are enemies of the Catholic Church, but apparently not enemies of the archbishop.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 7:21 AM By MacDonald
Archbishop Niederauer must be REALLY looking forward to retirement. His many years as Bishop of Salt Lake City were a breeze compared to this place, where everything is a hot button issue. His heart problems flared up again recently, forcing him to miss the “ad limina” visit with the Holy Father, the last one he would have enjoyed before retirement. Every nut case is attacking him for what he said, didn’t say, did, failed to do, or simply for the Church he represents as Vicar of Christ in his Archdiocese (as the Catechism calls it). Some vandals have even spray-painted swastikas on Most Holy Redeemer Church in the Castro, attacking his (and the Holy Father’s) German heritage to compare them to Nazis, saying: “Niederauer and Ratzinger – where is the love?” I hope Archbishop Niederauer gets to enjoy a peaceful retirement soon, far from the nuttiness that this archdiocese pushes upon the faithful: including our bishops and priests, nuns, sisters, brothers, and laity!!!
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 7:46 AM By Elizabeth
As I pray for the AB everyday……
This is the reason we need an ORTHODOX new
Archbishop and one that doesn’t have ANY TIES to
San Francisco and will CLEAN HOUSE.
Please EVERYONE pray for the archdiocese of San Francisco!!!
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 8:30 AM By Fr. Richard Perozich
Cardinal Oulette will have to vet some younger priests with strong character and the ability to “set their faces like flint” in order to recapture the faith for San Francisco.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 8:31 AM By Dan
Talk about mixed messages, the Jesuits are awarding honorary degrees at USF to Lynn Woolsey and Goodwin Liu. Honoring these two pro-abort and pro-hmoxexual marriage stalwarts, the Jesuits are once again thumbing their nose at the faith. What kind of protest shall we hear from Archbishop Niederauer, now that he has been honored by the same crowd at Loaves and Fishes?
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:07 AM By Peggy
Elizabeth, do you want to bet that the next AB will be McElroy?
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:17 AM By ldc
I agree with all, I know as a cradle practicing Roman Catholic that we cannot ‘fight’ or ‘judge’…but the Bishop should have denied the invitation like one of the previous commentator suggested and take the opportunity to give the REASON why not…PREACH THE FAITH that he and we well know, as for the other ‘nut-case’, no I don’t think they are nuts the devil knows what he is doing, like Obama, DIVISION…if that was not the case they can leave the Catholic Church and go to the many others that are there…BUT OH NO THEY HAVE TO COME TO THE TRUTH, TO THE STRONGEST, I say pray for this is not over nor the end, this is the beginning of a rough year, we can try and make a difference come November 2012. God Bless our Country, and may our Blessed Mother be at our side always, PRAY…!!! Thursday is National Day of Prayer, pray from whenever you are let us just unite in prayer wherever you are driving, walking, cooking….etc. lift our hearts to Him.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:34 AM By max
Kenneth M. Fisher : your comments abouty the need to be “orhtodfox” are a big laugh, given sthe fact you attned a parish that is not in communion with the Roman CAtholic Church, and your pastoar is not even considered a real priest by the Roman CAtholic Church. I’vae read all about the INDEPENDENT aprarish you attend, and you are the one who should be asking GOD to forgive you for you sins in choosing a parihxsh that is not trulya Catholic!
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:47 AM By Ron
Google “the refusal Niederauer” and watch the YouTube made by the SJMS.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 10:04 AM By Maryanne Leonard
MacDonald, thank you for a great post. I have met Archbishop Niederauer and attended his lectures at seminary and have to say he is a good man and a scholar. I have never met the man who is up to the task of changing the Archdiocese of San Francisco with its Most Holy Redeemer Church and others. I have often wondered if being appointed to this archdiocese, where the most dastardly crime possible was perpetrated against me in the 1960′s, yes, on church property, is a mark of remarkable confidence in a single human being or a cursed yoke that could kill a good man before he had a chance to retire. I admire Archbishop Niederauer as a good and kind human being, but I wouldn’t wish that archdiocese on anyone. So many of its glorious landmark institutions, including churches and hospitals, have been defiled beyond redemption by mere mortals. It will take the Holy Spirit of God to save this tragically corrupted, completely ungovernable archdiocese, a shameful scourge on the American Catholic Church. Its shame cannot be explained away by merely looking to its historical roots in a wildly sinful San Francisco of the 1800′s or its huge population of scandelous sinners actively working to destroy the leadership and spiritual architecture of the archdiocese. This archdiocese has been infected by evil so broadly that we cry to the Lord to save it from itself, as we have failed so honorably and so miserably.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 10:41 AM By Doc Mugwump
We cannot judge the heart of this bishop; but also we can heed the words of Christ, “By their fruits you shall know them.” Am relieved, … yes relieved he is retiring. Pope Benedict XVI will be in charge of appointing a new Archbishop. Pray that this new man is a Good Shepherd and not a wolf in sheeo’s clothing.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 10:48 AM By Abeca Christian
Fancy this, we expect His excellency to clean house when the majority of the Catholics there are heretical, who knows how many threats he received that caused him to lead with fear or he just doesn’t really understand the real issues facing that area and rather would ignore it. If only the people would unite in a peaceful protest every time they had a scandal coming from that area. We may see better improvements. I think everyone is afraid or there isn’t enough with the convictions to stand up for what they believe in. There are still faithful living there but probably just a few and that few is what is saving San Fransisco from the wrath it deserves!
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 11:01 AM By pjdjmj
When the Bishop was appointed I looked up his record, It was not good. As with many Bishops, I want to know who was recommending them. We need to get rid of the person(s) foisting them off on us. The SF Diocese should have put a stop to the CYO’s pro-Sodomite stance before it started. Why was Cahill allowed to run anything Cathlic especially one concerning on children? Our Church has had big problems for many years with many in power pushing their own religion. Years ago there was one Bishop in Lincoln, Nebraska who was actually a holy Priest – a real Catholic. Of course, he was ignored and ridiculed by the rest. This all brings to mind the old saying, “The Irish are Catholic in spite of the Church”. It applies to America also. Read Fr. Malachy Martin’s books. VatII obviously was a big error.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 12:20 PM By Pauline
If anyone has recommendations on the type of Bishop needed in their Diocese, they should write to the US Papal Nuncio and state the reasons why. Thank goodness that the Pope accepted the mandatory age retirement of both Niederauer and Mahoney, rather than asking them to continue. No one need pay attention to them any longer. Many Souls may have been lost under their leadership which caused Scandal, and lack of upholding the teachings of the Church which are stated in the CCC.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 1:04 PM By Samuel
What a messs! I would not agree to become a Bishop for a trillion dollars — not that anyone has offered me the chance. I of5ten read ABUSE TRACKER and am constantly amazined by how many people (priests, lay people, minisst3ers, nuns, ravbbis, imams, etc.) are abusing people, stealing money and doing God knoww s what else. As a Bishop you are supposed to keep a clean house,a but it would send me to an early grave even trying this job for ONE DAY. Every loony in the church does their own thing and thinks they are serving God beter by being inclusive, or whatever.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 2:45 PM By whhaiber
Max: Leave Kenneth M. Fisher alone and get spell check. My guess that Kenneth M. Fisher will stand before God on Judgement Day in better shape that Bishop Niederauer!
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 4:16 PM By Dr. K
We must pray for a Holy and Courageous Archbishop to replace Niederauer, someone on the order of Bishop Vasa of Santa Rosa.
Unfortunately, many Bishops have been corrupted by money and have compromised principles to obtain easy Govt. money. In fact this Banquet of “Fishes Loaves” is a fundraiser itself. Need I say more?
PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 4:19 PM By Jimmy Mac
How could you have missed Scoobey Doo? I was sitting behind him in the 3rd row, center. He was wearing the satanic wig with a small tasteful trident in his claws.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:27 PM By Dana
Samuel, with God all things are possible! Bishops are not supposed to make big decisions on their own, but with much prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our beloved Pope Benedict is such an example of one who lives his daily life in prayer. Don’t you think that’s what the saints teach us? But do we listen? (smile) If God calls you to something great, He won’t leave you without the tools to do it.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:43 PM By Dana
Pauline, not one of us, no not ONE when we face final judgment will be able to blame a bishop, a priest or anyone else for our sins. We have only ourselves to thank for them and only we will face the consequences. It is good when we have a strong shepherd, I agree, but when we don’t we still have to use self-discipline, prayer, love and forgiveness in our daily lives. Frankly, I’m shocked at the mean-spirited, judgmental, unloving attitudes towards the priests and bishops by the many of the people who contribute to these posts. We’re even called to love our enemies, let alone those who try to guide and love us. I pray for my bishop everyday and I feel much closer to him and can better understand what sadness and frustration he must feel sometimes. The world is getting so hateful to the Church and it’s getting worse everyday. We must really strive to love one another as Jesus calls us to do. And keep praying for God’s will to be done in San Francisco.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:51 PM By JLS
Pope Benedict XVI gives the one word qualification for bishop: Become holy. Why did he recently request they become holy? Wouldn’t that be a given? Why is such a condition of being holy ever in need of a reminder by a pope to all bishops? The hierarchy needs to begin drawing candidates from some totally nuther pool … because the one they’ve got them from for decades is a poisoned well.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:55 PM By JLS
Vatican II may have been the best God was able to do with the particular bishops running it. At least its documents do not clearly state something opposed to doctrine … maybe the vagueness of the V2 documents reflects God’s intervention in what otherwise could have been way worse. Can you see what I’m driving at? Maybe God made the best that could have been wrought of an abysmal situation.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:59 PM By JLS
Maryanne, another that is “good and kind” is a lump on a log, not to mention a whited wall. Have you ever noticed how pleasant and peaceful is a whited wall, especially one filled with dead men’s bones? Dead souls do not rock boats, nor do they right the ones that are rocking either.
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 6:23 PM By JLS
Good report, Jimmy Mac, but tell us what you were on at the time. Were they serving witches brew?
Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:22 PM By Cody in Tucson
Kenneth – Since Patrick Zieman has passed on there is probably an empty room at the monastery in St David Az. I’m not sure the place is “strict, orthodox” as you require, but we all know that it is in a diocese that is lead by a bishop that proclaimed to you that he is “orthodox”. Don’t we all need a good laugh once in a while on this website?
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 1:12 AM By pjdjmj
JLS – VATII was/is an unholy mess. I’m not going to blame God. Scared. You can if you want.
Dana – Perhaps your diocese is an exception and your Bishop is actually holy. Years ago we had a holy, intelligent and kind Cardinal. Loud, unholy, worldly Bishops, Priests and Nuns drove him to his death. He used to quietly take days off in our Parish – at that time we had a Parish Priest who had the same qualities. God and Mary bless their souls.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 6:03 AM By Sandra
As I pray for the AB everyday…… This is the reason we need an ORTHODOX new Archbishop and one that doesn’t have ANY TIES to San Francisco and will CLEAN HOUSE. Please EVERYONE pray for the archdiocese of San Francisco!!! (Amen Elizabeth)
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 6:12 AM By St. Christopher
“JLS”: That is a brilliant thought — Perhaps Vatican II and its implementation were limited in their adverse effect by the Holy Ghost. After all, Christ had to suffer humiliation and death, something not understandable to human beings, so perhaps out of the ashes, so to speak, something more glorious and certain will be created.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 6:47 AM By Dana
That was a good post Maryanne, and I agree. He was not only a force for good but also was a tremendous influence on getting Prop 8 passed…no small thing! I read his bio today, and he has a Phd in English literature besides all his work in Theology etc. I think he was grossly under appreciated and you’re all going to miss him when he’s gone.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 7:33 AM By max
@ whhaiber…sorry i’m not the best typiest, but what i wrote about Kenneth M. Fisher attending a btreak-away parish is accurate and NOT a good sign of orrthodoxy. how can a person claim to uphold the ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH and chooose a parish that ia not Roamnan Cathlic??? i’ve read up about the adifferent groups that call themselvbses “INDEPENDENT CATHOLICS” AND they all have obne thing in common: they ignore the Magistierum, they set themselves up as knowing better than the pope (whether they are from the right or the left), and they mislead the faithful by CLAIIMING to be Catholic in terms of wedddigs, Sunday Masses, and aso on and so forth. I think the Holy Father in Rome shoul dtry to get a “patent” for the word CATHO0LIC s every Tom, dick and Harry can’t co-opt this word!!!
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 11:08 AM By Pauline
Dana, you are right that we can only blame ourselves if we do not read a CATHOLIC BIBLE and the “CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition” from the Magisterium. CCC: ” 1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin. In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.” Also according to the CCC – the Bishops main job is to teach. They must impart that reading of Bible and CCC is required reading or the ignorance in the USA is our own fault. Also, we and the Bishops can be held accountable for the sins of others under certain circumstances – please see CCC ” 1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them; – by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them; – by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so; – by protecting evil-doers.” Bishops have a bigger obligation that the rest of us.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 3:31 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
A Bishop’s Robes are RED for one reason, they are supposed to be willing to shed their blood for Christ and His Church! Archbishop Khai told me that many times.
By the way, he knew where I was attending Mass even when he presented me to Pope John Paul II as his Personal American Secretary!
To answer another question, it was most probably Cdl. Mahony who was instrumental in putting Neiderauer into Sad Francisco.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 3:38 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
9:22 PM By Cody in Tucson,
I could recommend a wonderful Maronite Retreat House in South Dakota! You can even see Mount Rushmore from there!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 3:43 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
1:12 AM By pjdjmj,
It sounds like you are writing about our beloved late Cardinal Mcyntire!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 3:49 PM By whhaiber
Max: I am sort of a student of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement. I am aware of the whole spectrum of adherants of the Tridentine Latin Mass from parishes in full communion with Rome (e.g. St. Anne’s in San Diego of the Fraternity of St. Peter where I attend Mass) through to Sedevacantism and to Conclavism (groups that have elected there own (Anti)Popes and where I would draw the line and not attend). I personally believe our present Holy Father is a valid Pope (as was his predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and II), however the litugical abuses of the Mass, “gay” parishes, woman “priests”, and the other horrors that Vatican II has wrought, I don’t blame Mr. Fisher for attending an “independent” Catholic parish. I would attend such a parish if my Diocese did not permit the TLM. I don’t know which parish it is but my belief it is more faithful to the Magisterium and definitely more orthodox than Most Holy Redeemer Church if SF!!! You go Ken!!
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 3:56 PM By max
KENNETH M. FISHER, who is this Archbishop Khai you are always talking aboutt? it semes like his name appears every other day when you are posting.kk I’VE met the Holy Father in person, too, but at least dj I attend a REAL Cahtolic parish, not some breakway place that calls itself “independent” Makes youi wonder…INDEPENDENT FROM WHOM? the Holy See? the Pope? the Magistierum?
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 4:04 PM By JLS
So, max, you take it upon yourself to declare the relationship of Kenneth’s parish to God? I thought that was a papal function.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 4:06 PM By JLS
pjdjmj, like some other bloggers, you do not seem to have the skill to read a post for what it says, and instead you substitute your best or wildest guess. Try reading both of my posts on this point, and slowly, use a dictionary if necessary, use a grammar if necessary, ask someone else to explain to you what it says. But how do you justify twisting it?
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 5:52 PM By pjd
JLS – you learn some manners. I was joking but now I’m not…pray that you can someday become a nice person.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 6:41 PM By max
no, JLS, I checked with the dioceswe by phone and they confirmed that Kenneth’s parish is not Cahtolic, and neither is his pastor. Dioesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what this meansa — some guy setting up his own rleigion, like that fellow in the midwest who claims to be the real pope! I just read about him last week and he’s the same kind of INDEPENDENT caqtholic that Kenneth’s parish is.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 8:23 PM By Elizabeth
I was told awhile ago from someone in the Church,
that they never appoint a man to the diocese in which
that man grew up…..and Bishop McElroy grew up
in the Archdiocese of San Francisco…..
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 9:52 PM By JLS
max, you provide your interpretation of what some anonymous person at the diocese told you. Can you even spell the word, “credibility”, correctly, let alone comprehend what it means? Are you aware that there is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”? Anyone baptised and not excommunicated is a Catholic … surprise, surprise, max … because there is only one Church.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 9:59 PM By JLS
pjd, are manners more important to you than truth?
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 10:02 PM By JLS
max, your investigative work is astonishing. And I’m glad to see that you’re now the spokesman for the diocese on the topic of independent churches.
Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2012 10:10 PM By JLS
max, here is a sample of a moment of research on Archbishop Khai: “Along with the other Catholics who refused to renounce their faith, Archbishop Khai was subject to beatings and torture. At one point he was led outside and told that he was to be executed. Still he refused to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ.” This is from a speech he gave after celebrating Mass at the Cathedral in Denver, and meeting with Archbishop Chaput. If you have no knowledge of Abp Chaput or the significance of the Denver Archdiocese, then hit google and find out. Another research project that you’d benefit from is to start on page one of the history of the Catholic Church.
Posted Thursday, May 03, 2012 7:19 AM By MacDonald
Jesus was attacked for sitting down and eating with sinners, but I’ve always thought he chose to do so in the hopes of CHANGING their hearts by his goodness. When Archbishop Niederauer is invited to a dinner in his honor, I doubt he checks the guest list, making sure everyone is in a state of grace — not that he (or we) have that power anyway. When Blessed Pope John Paul II visited Mission Dolores Basilica in 1987 to meet with people with AIDS, he did not have the Swiss Guards interrogate them about their sexual practices before he deigned to shake hands with them. On the contrary, he preached that day, “God loves you unconditionally.” This was not the Holy Father speaking off the cuff after too much Polish vodka, but a prepared text he had chosen SPECIFICALLY for that group and that occasion. Certainly, he wanted people to ‘turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel,’ as we hear on Ash Wednesday, but he never vilified those people by calling them sodomites, perverts, etc. It was beneath him, and should be beneath us.
Posted Thursday, May 03, 2012 9:57 AM By Abeca Christian
MacDonald it is obvious that you do not know your scripture passages well. The scripture passage you just mentioned is used often(in the wrong tone) as a way to make people condone or affirm evil, which Jesus did none of those things. I got news for you, this story has nothing to do with comparing it to Jesus eating with the sinners, nothing at all, no comparison. If you knew your scriptures well, you would know this. Maybe when I re-gain some patience, I can explain it to you and as to why you are in error in what you just posted but you caught me at one of my down times.
Posted Thursday, May 03, 2012 10:46 AM By pjd
JLS – sorry/juvenile try. My remarks re your post ARE the truth.
Posted Thursday, May 03, 2012 5:57 PM By Abeca Christian
JLS you are a nice person, I appreciate your kindness and even when sometimes hearing the truth can crush a bit of our pride, I still appreciate your honesty. The truth is JLS you are passionate about the faith, it is refreshing and I also get most of your sense of humor, some here don’t! To bad, they are missing out! God bless you always JLS!
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 12:18 AM By Kenneth M. Fisher
I knew it would be just so long before “catholics” on this site would attack me for taking the same path as did St. Athanasius the Great who was actually excommunicated by Pope Liberius, who himself was declared a heretic by his predecessor, I think that was Pope Innocent!
BTW, I attend both the Novus Ordo (but with trepidation) and Tridentine Masses.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 12:32 AM By Kenneth M. Fisher
JLS,
Archbishop Khai actually once had a shotgun placed in his mouth and the Chief of Police, who the Archbishop later converted, said he was going to count to three and then if the Archbishop did not disown his Christ, he would pull the trigger. Once while he was giving this talk to a large group, he stopped and asked me if I had any idea why the Chief of Police only counted to two. When I said I had no idea, he explained that in Thailand it was a matter of personal honor that if you counted to three and did not follow through your were dishonored. To that I replied “Your Excellency, thank God and His Mother that he stopped at two”. The Archbishop was also at one time lowered head first into a wel to be drownedl, but God dried up the well. I have visited that well with the Archbishop.
I could tell many more things the good Archbishop taught me, but it would take up too much space.
I have been truly blessed by God with the presence and friendship of many Church Giants, and I know I will have to answer for those gifts at the end of my life.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 9:29 AM By MacDonald
@ Abeca 9:57 a.m. — thank you so much for offering a lesson on Holy Scripture, but no thanks. I made it clear in my post that Jesus sat down with sinners to CHANGE THEIR HEARTS, not to condone their behavior. The same is true of us, hopefully. When we interact with fellow sinners (you and I are not immaculate), our words, actions, and attitudes will hopefully bring some light to them, rather than make them run away screaming. As Mother Teresa once said: “Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” My hope is that Archbishop Niederauer’s warm smile, which is a nice change from the PREVIOUS Ordinary of our Archdiocese, will indeed be “the beginning of love” even for enemies of the Church.
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 12:40 PM By Abeca Christian
MacDonald you state that Jesus sat down with sinners to change their hearts. Well don’t you know that Jesus knew who they were? The ones who were willing, he sat and ate with them but the ones who didn’t, he never visited. Our Lord didn’t waste time on the ones who would waste His message of love and salvation. Even the ones who walked away he knew he wasn’t wasting his time. There were times the our Lord didn’t visit a town where he was not welcomed at. Today in this case, eating with sinners and not admonishing their sins, is the same as condoning. They eat fancy foods, wine and dine each other but never a mention in what needs to be done to save their souls. Mother Teresa when she was invited to eat with the wealthy sinners, she was caught many a great times telling them that abortion was a sin, she was caught teaching love and Christ, just her very presence, she brought Jesus through the way she lived her life but sometimes we have Archbishops that just attend but leave Jesus back at home. Jesus ate with the sinners, he just had to bring himself, he was the real message of love and salvation! So no, this situation is no comparison with how you view Jesus eating with the sinners! NOPE not at all! Jesus did not sin!
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 2:26 PM By k
Mr. Fisher, did St. Athanasius start his own church when he was excommunicated?
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 4:10 PM By JLS
k, Athanasius was the Catholic Church and his excommunicators actually excommunicated themselves, leaving him as almost the only Catholic bishop.
Posted Friday, May 04, 2012 4:13 PM By JLS
pjd, if your posts “are the truth” as you claim, then wouldn’t you think you could defend them well?
Posted Saturday, May 05, 2012 7:53 AM By MacDonald
ABECA CHRISTIAN at 12:40 p.m. — you invent the notion that Jesus “never visited” with unwilling sinners. How many times do we read in the Bible that, at such dinners, the very people Jesus broke bread with were closed to his message, criticized his actions, and were stubborn as mules? Of course Jesus did not sin, but he MIXES with sinners like you and me constantly, hoping to bring us all to greater holiness.
Posted Saturday, May 05, 2012 6:34 PM By markrite
Mein Gott, what a snake-pit of moral corruption and nauseating hypocrisy the city of San Francisco has become!! I’ve heard the term “diabolical disorientation” used quite a lot recently in regard to various milieus where the radical liberal cognoscenti have ascended to positions of great power, but very few places compare to San Fran in this regard, which is why it has earned, in the gay context especially, the appelation of “sodom by the bay”, but probably it’s earned in relation to the abortion horror as well. It must be, due to the baneful influences of Pelosi and Fienstein, not to mention Gavin Newsom. So where is Abp. Niederauer in all this? Why does he not exercise his episcopal authority and PUBLICLY CONDEMN AND OFFICIALLY TOSS FROM THE HOLY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH all the so-called Catholics who continue to play the “cafeteria-Catholic” games, from Gov.”moonbeam” Brown to “princess” Pelosi; EXCOMMUNICATE them and do it NOW for the spiritual edification of the faithful, for the WITNESS that is so sorely needed at this critical hour of our nation’s history, and once again, GOD BLESS ALL in Jesus’ name, MARKRITE
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 12:57 AM By Kenneth M. Fisher
k,
No he did not and neither have the priests at Our Lady Help of Christians. In fact we probably hear more about obedience to the Magisterium from the pulpit there than you do in most other Churches in the Diocese of Orange, and yes they have a picture of Pope Benedict prominently dispalyed in the vestibule of the Church. Notto long ago our Pastor gave an excellent homily against “sedevecantism”.
BTW, the homilies are posted on the Parish Website.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 6:19 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
BTW, Our Lady Help of Christian probably has more young men and women studying to become priests and religious than does any of Bp. Tod Brown’s approved churches!
I wish you all could of heard the wonderful sermon given today by our Fr. Stephen, OFM Conv. on the “Father” and the need for us to address him more. Actually you can read that homily soon on the OLHC Website. He also gives wonderful talks every other Saturday on Brother St. Francis.
I think he may have been a Professor somewhere before he obtained permission from his Superior to come to OLHC.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 7:35 PM By Mark
Kenneth, I attended St. Joseph College Seminary in Los Altos with Fr. Pat Perez of your parish (Our Lady Help of Christians), and even in those days (the 80s) he was fond of going his own way. As students in the minor seminary we were not yet permitted to wear the Roman collar, but Pat had a custom-made cassock, green sash, sholder cape, and pectoral cross, in which he would stroll through the seminary grounds in the evening. At the time I thought it was rather cool, because I was impressionable. Now, I am saddened to read on your website that he leads a parish that is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, but rather “independent.” This word does not mean he’s had a tiff with the local bishop, but that he has joined an organization that has chosen to break with Rome. I’m sorry this has happened to my old friend Pat, for whom I had such high hopes…
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 8:15 PM By Abeca Christian
MacDonald you are too busy trying to prove me wrong that you miss the point plus I don’t invent any notion, I can’t help it if you miss the real point to my post.
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 8:36 PM By JLS
Kenneth, your accounts of Archbishop Khai are good to hear. At least there are some clerics who do not allow themselves to be blinded by the comforts and intellectual intrigues of modern times. This is likely why they encounter such difficulties, because they refuse to be led by the soothsayers of modernity, whose guile is the doom of so many bishops today.
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 8:45 PM By k
Mr. Fisher, this is very confusing! Who will be ordaining the men who are becoming priests?
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 10:47 PM By JLS
k, bishops ordain men to the priesthood.
Posted Sunday, May 06, 2012 11:58 PM By k
Mr. Fisher, from Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary: “In the midst of the Arian crisis, Pope Liberius was banished by the Arian Emperor Constatius II in AD 355 for refusing to condemn St. Athanasius. Two years later he is alledged to have signed an Arian formula of faith to regain his freedom. Certain documents discrediting him are forgeries. In any event, it is certain that he signed no document freely, and so papal infallibility is not involved.” He is also referred to as Pope St. Liberius in the entry under the Liberian Basilica (St. Mary Major) but is not listed as St. in the list of Popes at the back of the dictionary.
Posted Monday, May 07, 2012 6:11 AM By JLS
k, it is not a matter of papal infallibility, but of character. The one shining thing is that the whole episode of Church history shows the glory of God in that Liberius repented later. He certainly did not live up to the martyrdom of countless other Catholics who refused to confess heresy.
Posted Monday, May 07, 2012 11:09 AM By k
JLS, I have seen other information in Catholic encyclopedia which doubts that Liberius did excommunicate Athanasius. It is a popular story with the Protestants. I guess several historians have claimed that the letter found that says that he did was forged. Other historians accept that he did but only under duress. It is used by SSPX to prove that they do not have to obey the Pope. I have read that Athanasius submitted to the excommunication. I have read that he ignored it. One would have a find a truly scholorly work on it to be able to assess the truth.
© California Catholic Daily 2012. All Rights Reserved.
Jefferson Bass takes Body Farm overseas in ‘The Inquisitor’s Key’
“The Inquisitor’s Key” by Jefferson Bass (William Morrow, 368 pages, $25.99)
Book signings
Who: Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson
When and where: 1 p.m. May 13 at Kroger in Farragut; 6:30 p.m. May 13 at Books-A-Million, 8507 Kingston Pike; 6 p.m. May 14 at Hastings Books, 501 N. Foothills Plaza Drive in Maryville
Bill Brockton, the fictional incarnation of Bill Bass, world-famous founder of University of Tennessee’s Body Farm, travels to France for his latest adventure in the science of forensic anthropology. In “The Inquisitor’s Key,” the seventh mystery in the Body Farm series, Jon Jefferson and Bill Bass, the writing team known as Jefferson Bass, put Brockton in the uncomfortable position of having to identify centuries-old bones that may be not only historically significant but religiously important as well. And if any combination of pursuits can prove deadly, it’s surely science and religion.
Bill Bass and the UT Body Farm are now as much a part of Tennessee as Rocky Top. The fact that a small patch of ground in Knoxville is used to study the decomposition of the human body is a morbid source of pride for any crime aficionado between the Mississippi River and the Great Smoky Mountains, and the research that goes on behind the locked gates is internationally renowned. Bass’s post-mortem detective work has helped solve dozens of real-life disappearances and murders, both a tribute to the power of science and an inspiration for artists ranging from Patricia Cornwell to writers for “CSI” and “Bones.” Through six earlier Body Farm novels, Bass’s alter-ego, the fictional Brockton, has applied his science to a variety of mysteries set predominantly in Tennessee.
Now, Brockton takes his bone-reading ability to Avignon, France, where the popes of the Middle Ages built a great cathedral and an even greater palace from which to rule over Christendom. The fourteenth century was a time for the popes to expand their wealth and crush religious opposition. But it was also a time of art patronage, when painters and sculptors from around Europe ventured into southern France in search of papal largesse. As Brockton observes, “The modern theater festival [of Avignon] surely paled in comparison to the real-life pageants and power plays enacted here centuries earlier by popes and peasants, kings and cardinals, painters and poets.” And, of course, there was at least one mysterious death.
Brockton is called to Avignon by his assistant, Miranda, who has been working an archaeological site in the former Palace of the Popes. Ancient human remains have been uncovered, and Brockton is needed to investigate. Soon, amid discussions of radiocarbon dating, CT scans, and facial reconstruction, sinister deeds are done. Unknown people lurk in the shadows of cobbled streets. The police, in the form of Inspector Descartes, are called in when an archaeologist is murdered in spectacular fashion. Driven by these events, Brockton and Miranda, sexual tension running high, must race to investigate Jesus of Nazareth, the Shroud of Turin, religious art, and the figurative and literal skeletons buried in the history of the Catholic Church. “You would make a good detective, Docteur,” Descartes notes of Brockton. But what will Brockton detect? And will it cause a religious calamity?
“The Inquisitor’s Key” is a departure for Jefferson Bass. In addition to being the first book set in another country — and the first not to include the word “bone” anywhere in the title — the story incorporates historical flashbacks to the 1300s, that distant time when artists served at the whim of their patrons, and religion dictated life’s every turn. These passages provide a counterpoint to the technology-filled world inhabited by Brockton and demonstrate that as much as things have changed in the last 700 years, human passions remain a constant source of good and evil. The book is also as much a travelogue as a mystery novel. Bass is clearly smitten with Avignon, the old city on the Rhone River, “ringed by an ancient wall and crowned by tiled rooftops and massive stone towers, all glowing in the golden light of Provence.” In this story, location has been elevated to a character in a way quite unlike the treatment of Brockton’s native East Tennessee in earlier installments.
The success of the Body Farm novels is due mostly to fans who appreciate scientific accuracy in their mysteries, who enjoy the company of the affable Brockton, and who aren’t squeamish when it comes to discussions of the ways nature has of separating dead flesh from bone. In these regards, “The Inquisitor’s Key” will not disappoint. Whether Brockton, having now seen France, can return to his old Appalachian haunts is another mystery altogether.
For more local book coverage, please visit http://chapter16.org/, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
Time for Some Good News: The Catholic Academy
I think we can call use some good news about the Church, after a rough couple of weeks from the assessment of the LCWR to Bishop Jenky’s histrionic comparisons to the dark canonical warnings coming from Madison. Well, it is not really “news” but it is very good. I want to take a moment to look at the state of Catholic higher education at this moment in our history.
In 1955, my mentor Monsignor John Tracy Ellis delivered what would become his most famous lecture: “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life.” The lecture was subsequently adapted into a book the following year. Ellis did not mince words in asserting that catholic intellectual institutions failed to meet the commonly achieved standards of their secular peers, and that few Catholic intellectuals could match the contributions being made by non-Catholics to the nation’s intellectual life. Obviously, this book never made it on to the reading list of Mr. Douthat whose recent book holds up the 1950s as a kind of Golden Age of Christian orthodoxy and cultural influence. Ellis was, of course, aware of the impoverished immigrant backgrounds of many Catholics, and of the extant anti-Catholic prejudices of the nation. But, the principal reason for the intellectual shortcomings, Ellis asserted, was that Catholics themselves suffered from a “frequently self-imposed ghetto mentality which prevents them from mingling as they should with their non-Catholic colleagues, and in their lack of industry and habits of work.” Ouch.
There is an echo of Ellis’ sentiment in the book I reviewed yesterday, Brad Gregory’s “The Unintended Reformation,” which also notes the ways that Catholic intellectual isolation proved to be a disservice to the Church. He distinguishes between the undeniable achievements of certain twentieth century philosophers and theologians who, in different ways, were inspired by the works of Aquinas and what he calls “the ways in which neo-Thomism was institutionalized in Catholic higher education following Leo XIII’s call for the revival of Aquinas in Aeterni Patris (1879). The institutionalization…down-played knowledge-making in other disciplines and kept research in them at a distance from the Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophical categories that underpinned that theology. This distancing was reinforced by papal encyclicals such as Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) and Humani Generis (1950), which, as a symptomatic reflection of Catholic theology’s long-standing insulation from the wider world of knowledge-making, blithely lumped together many-stranded and complex intellectual issues under conflationary labels such as ‘Modernism.’”
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So, you might say that Catholic intellectuals have come late to the table. You might also say, if you were feeling churlish and looking at the intellectual detritus of the last couple of centuries, maybe missing the first course of modernity was not such a bad thing and that it appears every one else is still suffering from intellectual food poisoning! But, churlishness is not an intellectual stance of much profit and it is not to be commended to Christians who are called, quite explicitly to always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within us.
No, what is striking about Ellis’ and Gregory’s is not simply the veracity they announce. It is that their subsequent work helps to undermine the danger they have highlighted. Msgr. Ellis has gone to God, but his contributions to Catholic intellectual life continue in the lives of the students he taught. Gregory has produced a work of very serious scholarship. A few weeks ago, I reviewed another work by a Notre Dame scholar, Timothy Matovina’s splendid analysis Latino Catholicism in the U.S. for The New Republic. On my list of other books to be read this summer by Notre Dame scholars are Nicole Garnett’s “Ordering the City” and Dan Philpott’s “God’s Century.” NCR recently reviewed Nick Cafardi’s book “Voting and Holiness” which includes a noteworthy chapter by Notre Dame’s M. Cathleen Kaveny. Notre Dame was the object of much criticism, its Catholic identity challenged even, when it invited President Barack Obama to give the commencement address in 2009. But, what is obvious from these scholarly books is that the Catholic identity of Notre Dame is not in doubt and, furthermore, it is enormously, encouragingly fecund. Those at the Cardinal Newman Society who fret about who is invited to speak on Catholic campuses could better use their time celebrating the achievements of Catholic scholarship and engaging their work. They might discover that an openness to the world is part of the secret.
As regular readers know, I am a visiting fellow at Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research Catholic Studies. This has given me the great opportunity to interact with scholars who, like their colleagues at Notre Dame, are doing important work, work that would have been inconceivable if the intellectual life of the Church was still living under the cloud of accusations of Modernism. In “Voting and Holiness,” Stephen Schneck has a chapter on President Kennedy’s speech before the Houston Ministerial Association which, if Mr. Santorum had read it, he might not have felt the urge to throw up. Professor William Dinges’ analysis of social science data regarding the different reasons given for leaving the Church before and after Vatican II is research that not only adds to our knowledge of the sociology of religion, but which has obvious pastoral implications of great significance. So, too, William D’Antonio’s surveys of Catholic attitudes over the years and Father Anthony Pogorelc’s efforts to gauge the attitudes of Catholic Millennials today.
Catholic intellectual life is showing signs of great robustness. Precisely because our intellectual traditions pre-date modernity, they can more easily find solid ground from which to critique modernity, and not just critique, but get to the root of the matter, the ways that modernity’s basic philosophic anthropology has proven to been an unsure foundation upon which to build, leaving the undeniable achievements of modernity in a very precarious position, unable to defend themselves from the internal contradictions of their premises.
I have not been shy about indicating my distaste for much recent Catholic theology. It seems to me that in the post-Vatican II era, too many theologians took the conciliar mandate to “discern the signs of the times” as a warrant to embrace the signs of the times, often quite uncritically. The academic life of the United States has been beset by a certain faddishness in recent decades, and too many Catholic thinkers have been all too willing to drink as deeply as one can at such shallow wells. Sticking with watery metaphors, it is also the case that too many conservative thinkers decry the post-Vatican II flood of foolishness, without thinking that perhaps those who built the pre-Vatican II dam separating Catholics from the culture should be a bit shy about condemning those who opened the floodgates without also acknowledging that perhaps the dam should never have been built in the first place. Again, Douthat is Exhibit A in this regard if only because he is the most recent advocate of this particular nostalgia for a celebrated 50’s Catholicism about which there was less to celebrate than he might imagine.
Many students will take their last finals today. Those students at Catholic universities and colleges will, I hope, come to recognize what a blessing they have been given. They are heirs to a tradition that has always insisted on the reasonableness of faith and the need for faithful reason. Bad as so many late medieval and early modern Popes were, it was none of them who said “Beware the whore Reason for she will go with any man.” Today, there is much evidence that we can move past the faddishness of recent years without going back to a Catholic intellectual ghetto. The stale debate between innovators/accommodators and rejectionists is being transcended by scholars who are illustrious by any and all standards, secular or otherwise, but whose commitment to the Catholic faith shows through in their scholarship, scholars who understand what our culture has often forgotten, that faith without reason quickly descends into pietism and then rationalism, and that reason without faith is as dangerous as an atomic bomb. No one can predict the future, but it is hard not to conclude that we are witnessing the birth of something unique in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, the emergence of a new generation of first-rate Catholic intellectuals quite capable of taking their place alongside their non-Catholic colleagues. Monsignor Ellis would be so proud.
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