Celledoor Miscellany

Newt: The Obama administration has declared war on the religious freedom of this Country

2012-02-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

The Church was right.. who knew?

2012-02-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

Today's injunctions against birth control were re-affirmed in a 1968 document by Pope Paul VI called Humanae Vitae. He warned of four results if the widespread use of contraceptives was accepted:
General lowering of moral standards

A rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy

The reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men.

Government coercion in reproductive matters.

Does that sound familiar?
Because it sure sounds like what's been happening for the past 40 years.
As George Akerloff wrote in Slate over a decade ago,
By making the birth of the child the physical choice of the mother, the sexual revolution has made marriage and child support a social choice of the father.

Bishops were prepared for battle

2012-02-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

“I have never seen the bishops mobilize so quickly,” said Stephen S. Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America, in Washington. “I remember Roe v. Wade, and it took years for them to respond to that, in terms of an organized response.”

More at the New York Times.

The Byzantine Ruins of Syria

2012-02-08T01:58:00.000-08:00

There are some pretty amazing looking. Enough to rival the ruins in Rome and Greece. Given what is happening in Syria right now, I hope they survive long enough for me to see them one day.

h/t The Way of the Fathers.

A poem ..

2012-02-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

My Church.

From Jesus Christ to Peter,
To over two hundred and sixty Leaders.

More than two thousand years,
With some smiles and tears.
My Catholic Church is still here.

The enemy tried to divide us,
Creating small packs,
But there is one still standing,
The one with the facts.

There is no coincidence,
That He left us His Rock.
To build on His Church,
And take care of His flock.

May God bless those men,
Dressed in black.
They leave their whole family,
For the rest of the pack.

Without getting paid,
And sometimes accused.
They give all their lives,
To show us the truth.

Thank God for those women,
Who hug all those lepers.
That is how we see,
Who are the real shepherds.

The work is not done,
We still have some more,
No matter how small,
He will adore.

If you’re volunteering,
Don’t take it for granted.
The job that you do,
Our God will count it.

Our prize is in heaven,
Our Savior is there.
Creating a mansion,
That we can’t compare.

We all are One Body,
One Body in Christ.
Make sure that your sacraments,
You wear them with pride.

So Brothers and Sisters,
Do not hesitate.
When somebody asks you,
Be proud don’t be afraid.

That the gift that He left us,
Is a beautiful gesture.
My Catholic Church,
Is a valuable treasure.

Heard this today on The Doctor is In. The author said as he was meditating over Lent last year, the poem came to him. English is not his first language so he asked the host Coleen Kelly Mast to read it for him. His website is here.

Why Newt Gingrich gets my Catholic vote

2012-01-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

CatholicVote.org recently endorsed Rick Santorum. I do not agree.

Many things can be said about Newt Gingrich's past infidelities. I however believe Newt has come to a conversion of heart detailed in various articles about his sincerity being Catholic through and through. Newt is a very astute person, and it seems by all accounts he studied carefully what it is to be an enlightened Catholic and accepted catechesis wholeheartedly.

“You can’t engage in understanding Europe and America without trying to understand the Bible, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, the Reformation and counter-reformation,” said Gingrich. “From that standpoint, you inexorably have to engage the Church and you come to realize that it’s this 2,000-year-old structure.”

-- Family Time, Mar 11, 2011

"Over the course of a decade, the depth of faith and history contained in the life of the Catholic Church were increasingly apparent to me, and the centrality of the Eucharist in the Catholic Mass became more and more clear."

-- Newt Gingrich, National Catholic Register, Mar 4, 2011

Monsignor Walter Rossi, rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, who prepared Gingrich to join the Catholic church, described Gingrich’s conversion process as serious, thorough and preceded by years of discernment. “If anyone thinks it was a fly-by-night instruction, it wasn’t,’’ Rossi said. “We made sure we covered everything, and it wasn’t lightweight stuff.”

Prayer also played a role, and at some point over the course of his instruction, Gingrich began to pray the rosary: “Between his wife and I, we taught him,” Rossi said.

-- Washington Post, Dec 23, 2011

If you can believe, as I have, that Newt Gingrich experienced a conversion of heart, I think his past is not the issue it once was. Newt has repeatedly acknowledged his past, knows he has hurt people, and openly asks for forgiveness. Sure it brings up some reservations. And some will not be willing to trust that, which is why I think CatholicVote.org went with Santorum. Other well respected and notable Catholic bloggers lampoon him. I say, "There but for the grace of God, go I."

Newt has signaled many times that religious freedom versus secularism will be at the forefront of his Presidency. Sure it sounds like a small thing, but I truly believe that the battle against moral relativism and secularism are at the heart of every political issue. Newt is prepared for that battle and wears his Catholic badge on his sleeve as a challenge to those who would continue the status quo. He has a platform to explain and teach the Catholic understanding that has not been there for some time. As an intellectual and able speaker, Newt is clearly quite capable of doing this on a secular level:

Compare that with Santorum:

FPL: Do you agree with the Catholic Church’s position that there should be a preferential option for the poor in public policy?

SANTORUM: I’m not too sure I understand what that term–preferential option for the poor in what respect?

FPL: In all areas of public policy the Church has said, in my understanding, that we should be considering the poor first–that there should be a preferential option.

SANTORUM: Should we be considering the poor with respect to our public policy, the answer is yes.

FPL: Do you think that includes immigrants?

SANTORUM: Including legal immigrants, yes.

-- Faith in Public Life, Oct 7, 2011

Although I think Santorum was given a loaded question, one that does not accurately reflect Catholic understanding, Santorum flounders badly here. Although I do not believe Santorum is by no means a cafateria Catholic, he sounds as if he does not understand Catholic teaching, and he sounds as if he is picking and choosing what he wants to believe.

If given the nomination, Santorum will be hounded as a Catholic by the most inane and inaccurate and pointed questions. Catholicism is not like other religions. There are Catholic laws and dogmas on paper that are going to get the spotlight and need explaining. I am not convinced Santorum is ready to tackle them in a secularly convincing way. It is no big secret that some of the better Catholic apologists are converts because they've been on the other side and asked those questions of Catholics many times. Although I believe Santorum is absolutely a Catholic, I don't think he has the ability to defend Catholicism that typically comes with discernment prior to ascent. Unfortunately, we live in a world, particularly now, where bad or half-hearted answers can do more harm than good on the Catholic image and this is one area that I fear Santorum can fail badly.

In the realm of immigration, Gingrich distinguishes himself by being more compassionate in his approach. He even applies the principle of subsidiarity: have particular immigrants judged by a panel within that immigrant's community. Santorum has an across the board heavy handed approach of deportation. Although he says he is for the dignity of every human life, he does not seem to be so if you are an "illegal" immigrant. (This view unfortunately seems to be the majority opinion in the Catholic blogosphere.)

Newt is on the offensive regarding the secular and media elite. A good defense is a strong offense. It has been characteristic of him and has gained some notoriety doing so. He's sharp as a tack. In various debates and interviews he has shown some pretty good recollection to detail. He explains himself well. He also thinks on his feet and barely skips a beat. And Newt is no stranger to out of the box thinking.

Take for example his stand against activist judges, in particular U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery on banning the word "prayer" in schools.

A lot of press came out against Newt after this Face the Nation interview. They claimed what a nut he was until they had time to wipe the froth from their face and realize that the Constitution does allow for impeachment and subpoena of judges.

RedState begrudgingly acknowledges:

that Newt is showing a better understanding of the implications of Congressional power contained within Article 3 than most if not all his detractors

Whether this is a good idea or not, or how much power Congress has to do this, it does show progressive thinking on Newt's part without skirting the law on a longstanding issue that so far has failed to be addressed in a meaningful way. I do not see any other candidate offering their innovative opinions on any topic. Newt has a bag full of them.

Santorum on his feet is a disaster. He whines and gets emotional which is really bad form. He lacks composure in a high pressure situation which can be dangerous if you are President of the United States. In the last Florida debate, Mitt Romney even called him out on this and told him squarely, "first of all it's not worth getting angry about." Romney was right. Getting emotionally caught up in the issues leaves an open door to mistakes. This is only a debate among peers. What happens when this is a debate among enemies?

Also worth noting, Santorum has been working this argument as if he were beating a dead horse for three debates and finally gets some (but not much) traction here. I cannot tell if Santorum has run out of topics or imagination. Either way, this kind of rhetoric during a Presidential debate (of which there are far fewer than the primaries) will not win him any points. This would work against him if he's not on top of it the first time.

Newt has been a leader among leaders all his life. He has credentials that few in our time have and I believe he has the capability to lead the United States and the conservative party back in the right direction.

Manny Pacquiao at Mass

2011-05-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

My mom sent me a text message and a photo for the first time. This is Mass being held at Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Manny Pacquiao is in attendance. His equipment is being blessed before the altar.

Manny Pacquiao launched a fragrance recently, that my mom has something to do with, hence why she's there. I'm so jealous.

Holy Grail Ale

2011-04-10T19:52:00.001-07:00

Holy Grail Ale.. Tempered over burning witches..

Some rules kids won't learn in school

2011-04-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, there are some things that children should be learning in
school, but don't. Not all of them have to do with academics. As a modest
back-to-school offering, here are some basic rules that may not have found
their way into the standard curriculum.

Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the
phrase, "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who
said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation
ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule
No. 1.

Rule No. 2: The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much
as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you
feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated
self-esteem meets reality, kids complain it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule No. 3: Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school.
And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even
have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.

Rule No. 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. He
doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's
not going to ask you how you feel about it.

Rule No. 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grand-parents
had a different word of burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They
weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been
embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.

Rule No. 6: It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you are
responsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the
boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you
turn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like a
baby boomer.

Rule No. 7: Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are
now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and
listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before
you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents'
generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

Rule No. 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life
hasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get
the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class
valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is as
important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance
to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4)

Rule No. 9: Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers
off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight
hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on.
While we're at it, very few jobs are interesting in fostering your
self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to
self-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)

Rule No. 10: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your
problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials.
In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs.
Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.

Rule No. 11: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all
could.

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic.
Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his
mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing
yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the
impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is
romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature
lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a
bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it
was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.

You're welcome.

This was originally printed in September 19, 1996 by Charles J. Sykes in the San Diego Union Tribute. However, I think this still applies.

Relic of Mary Magalene

2011-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

I was able to photograph some pictures before Mass along with the parish photographer.

The relic arrived at Saint Thomas Aquinas in Palo Alto today at noon, so I took my lunch break there being able to pray before the holy relic.

I have been experimenting with HDR (high-dynamic range) imaging lately so it has a grungy detail to it which I really like. This one I did by hand in Photoshop CS5. I think the image shows the details so much better and brings out the color more.

This next image of the interior of the church, I made using the Photomatix Pro trial version. I think it is pretty amazing the way it details dark areas and the contrasting lighting that I could not imitate with Photoshop.

This next picture was taken before the relic was brought inside. As the Dominican who brought it over from France went to go figure out where to place the relic inside the church, I was left alone with it in the vehicle for about 10 minutes. It was strange being solely left in charge for a bit of time of what is claimed to be the 2,000 year old holy relic of Saint Mary Magdalene. I had to fight off strange thoughts of auctioning it off on eBay.

Saint Mary Magdalene ora pro nobis.

Entire California Itinerary of Mary Magdelene Relic

2011-02-12T22:10:00.000-08:00

Posted at the Diocese of San Jose website. Schedule up to date as of February 9th here.

See my previous post on the tradition on how the relic has been passed down through the ages.

A Spirit of Change Shakes the Church, The Pope's Unruly Flock

2011-02-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

Kinda makes you wonder what kind of Church we would have now, if the faithful back then had kept the faith. I think there is a correlation between the lack of understanding the Church now and the turbulence within the Church back then. This is a collection of three articles. The last piece is a great article on the challenges and struggle Pope Paul had dealing with the reformers from within the Church and the Vatican.

LIFE Magazine circa March 20, 1970

He studied the Pope, she followed a friend

A generation gap can be a handy thing. At least that's the way it worked out with this week's lead story on the turmoil within the Catholic Church. Martha Fay is 23 and a brand-new reporter on LIFE. John Cogley is 53 and a noted writer and editor on matters ecclesiastical. Despite the differences between them -- or perhaps because of those differences -- each could bring to the story a special view that complemented what the other had to say.

Cogley, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, started gathering his special knowledge of the Church in the 1950 when he joined the staff of Commonweal, the weekly journal edited by Catholic laymen. When he left in 1955 he was executive editor. His acquaintance with men surrounding the papal throne really dates from the marathon meeting of Vatican II, which he covered for the New York Times. Deciphering the intricacies of those sessions was good training for his perspective assessment of Pope Paul VI. Cogley was in Rome the day that Paul was crowned. He traveled with him on the prelate's 1965 visit to the U.N. in New York. He has two semiprivate audiences. But he still wonders if Paul "Isn't the last of the really unapproachable world leaders." He says: "There simply is no way to judge the man except by his reflection -- the effect that he has on the people around him."

Martha Fay could hardly have been closer to Diane Knapp, the ex-nun in the story and on our cover. The two had been classmates in Catholic high school and found themselves together again at Immaculate Heart College in Hollywood where Diane was sent after taking her vows. Two of Martha's sisters belong to the order that Diane has left -- the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary -- and both are part of the majority of that order which has decided to break formal connection with the Church and to work as a communal group.

"Going to California to do this story was a great reunion," according to Martha. "So many of the people I know have broken out of the formal Church -- myself included. I can't imagine any of us returning to what is there now."

Ralph Graves
Managing Editor

A Church Torn between Dogman and Dissent

Some radical priests are attempting to change the Church from within. With approval of his bishop, Father William Nerin runs a "floating parish" in Oklahoma City. He has renounced all property and real estate, and here celebrates Mass in a cafeteria.

So many priests and nuns have renounced their vows that organizations are springing up to help them adjust to secular life. Last week Bearings for Reestablishment Inc., which assists 250 men and women a month, gave a party for a group in New York.

Priests from all over the U.S. met in Washington in November 1968 to protest the Pope's ban on contraception.

Pope Paul seems destined for memory as a leader kept in constant torment by the restlessness of his people. The demand and divisions that torment him forever shadow enormous changes in his Church, and he is widely cast as a nay-sayer against progress. In 1962 the Vatican Council, loosing a spirit of joyful hope and great expectations. This spirit has now been transformed into a far more urgent drive for change. Paul appears shaken and deeply frustrated as he seeks to parry the demand (see text page 30). His flock in Holland, which openly opposed his firm views against contraception two years ago, is making more trouble by urging that priests be given the option of marriage. As if this assault on celibacy, which Paul considers "a crowning jewel" of the Church, weren't enough, Jesuit scholars right in Rome are saying that the atican is meddling in civic affairs by opposing legislation on Italian divorce. Within the Church everywhere the number grows of priests and nuns who are leaving their vows for reasons which vary from total disaffection with clerical authority to the need for a life of free choices (page 24). Here in the U.S. great numbers of clergy and lay people bristle with impatience at the slow progress and demand an end of talk not accompanied by real reform. And there are signs of further, bold development. Instead of submitting their innovative ideas in advance, reformers within the Church are simply going ahead with their experiments without hierarchal approval. Thus the great dilemma grows, with Paul insisting on the sanctity of historic dogma and tradition, his challengers clamoring for change, all wanting only that the Church be saved.

Deeply troubled by strife within the Church, Pope Paul prepares for his annual Lenten fast.

Turmoil among the Dutch

"Today the devil quotes the Bible," warns a lay speaker at a meeting of St. Michael's Legion, a society of Dutch Catholics who oppose reform.

Popular in Holland for his radio-TV sermons, Dolf Coppes left the priesthood to marry a dancer and now has two daughters (left). He still does pastoral work as head of a social agency.

In gathering after Mass, University of Amsterdam students discuss the celibacy issue with Rev. Jan van Kilsdonk, a Jesuit reform theologian.

"We are a church on the move," says Dutch Cardinal Bernard Alfrink, and ever since atican II the Church's most vigorous propelling force. Impatient to turn the liberal words of the Council into reality, the Dutch have experimented broadly with ecumenism, emancipation of the clergy, the modernization of religious education (a new catechisms abolished the old Q&A rote system and stresses instead the "personal verdict of conscience") and with reformation of the Mass itself. All of this has been done in a spirit of continued unity with Rome. "Wir willen geen breeck," the Dutch insist -- "We don't want a break." But when the Dutch church resolved early this year that priests should be allowed to marry, and remain priests, it took a stance that could lead to schism. Pope Paul firmly rejected the Dutch move and has "suggested" that all priests take a public annual vow of celibacy and obedience on Holy Thursday. Many Dutch priests may refuse. But, even within Holland, a conservative minority (above) is highly upset and has begun to campaign for a return to orthodoxy.

A nun's search for freedom drives her from the convent
by Martha Fay

Diane Knapp was Sister Ann Rafael, a nun, for almost four years of her life. She is no longer and her decision to leave the convent is a single, small part of a general spirit of independence threatening the established order of a Church which cherishes its orderly tradition.

Diane signed up for the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles when she was 18, right out of high school. Now 23 and a graduate student at Berkeley, she recalls quite easily the reasons that led her to become a nun. "It seemed that it was the most natural thing to do, in terms of my background -- Catholic grade school, Catholic high school. I had thought about it, on and off, since I was 10. I think the kind of person I am would want to give herself in some way."

Her first two years in Santa Barbara, in the noitiate, were intensely difficult. "I took the whole thing very seriously. The trappings of religious life I took to be road signs for achieving it. I can remember things like saying the prayers you were supposed to say as you put on the habit, and doing it because that's what good religious did."

She went on to study at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, a school run by the then 600-member order, where she lived in a huge old convent with 150 other women. "That was really hard. I felt like I was losing my identity. And there was so much going on. Everyone was questioning her role and wondering about the viability of the religious way of life." The summer of 1967 brought a series of meetings where all the members tried to work out a new concept of themselves as religious women: abandoning the habit for more modern dress, revamping the schedules and rules that had begun to hamper rather than assist them in their goals, branching out into fields other than teaching. Diane and other young sisters were encouraged to take part to an extent still unusual in religious ordres.

But the contrast she felt between atmosphere of inquiry and change within the order and still rigid constructs of the Church made living as a nun even more difficult. Her knowledge of Catholic theology and her confidence in it helped support her, yet this too was challenged. In 1965, for example the Pope issued an encyclical attacking the Dutch for their views on the exact character of the Eucharist, the sacrament involving the consecration of bread and wine. Diane was shocked, because she agreed with the Dutch. "Suddenly it was my own conscience against the Church's. That's very hard if you are supposed to be a supportive representative member of that Church." And as her own sense of self and conscience grew stronger, the meaning of freedom became more important to her. "You have to be free to be Christian in the true sense. And it's very painful not to have that freedom recognized in the Church."

Personal problems were pressing upon her at the same time. "Even though I dated through high school, I don't think I ever came to understand what it all meant until after I entered the community," she remembers. "It became very hard for me to realize that I would never be able to have a deeply personal relationship with a man and to bear children. In agonizing over it all -- the authority and the meaning of the Churh, my wanting to be a full person -- I began to have really strong guilt feelings. Was I copping out on God? It was a traumatic time. But I had to make some stab at a life that had more meaning for me. The hard thoughts jelled over the months, and in April of 1968, Diane left the order.

During the first summer out of the convent, Diane still went to daily Mass. But "there wasn't anything there. I really have hope though. Perhaps the Church will take on a new meaning in the future and maybe there will be a place in it for me. Right now I need to be out, in a new context, on a new road."

At a party in her apartment (left), Diane giggles at a friend's story. As a nun she wore contacts but now, observing Berkeley fashion, she wears granny glasses (above).

"You think when you do something like entering the convent that your whole life is settled," says Diane. "Now, all of a sudden you find yourself having to choose something new and you have no idea how you'll do it." After she left her order she first worked as a bank teller. Last summer she took a well-paying job with the Los Angeles County Welfare Department. "That was my plunge into materialism. I bought a car, tons of clothes, spent money like mad. I think I'm over that now." Today working toward her doctorate in English at Berkeley, she is living austerely on a fellowship. She keeps track of ex-nun friends on the phone (above left), stretches her brain in a class on John Milton (above) and her muscles in a ballet class (left). She also enjoys a social life as a full as that of any other pretty coed. At right she dances with Tom Stehling, another graduate student.

'Paul, poor fellow, has no friends'
by John Cogley

Pope Paul succeeded John XXIII (above) in 1963.

The present Catholic crisis, comparable only to the turbulence of the Reformation period, closes in on Pope Paul as on no other man. And he has made no effort to conceal the pain it causes. Not long ago the Pope told Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen that he begins his day by reading mail from all over the world. "There is a thorn in almost every letter," Paul said. "When I put my head against the pillow at night, it rests upon a crown of thorns."

Anyone who had to take over after John XXIII, one of the best-loved men in history, would have had a problem. Inevitably he would be compared to the charismatic peasant-Pope, and inevitably he would suffer by comparison. But it would be hard to find a churchman less suited than Paul to follow John. John's pleasantly plain face could light up the most somber ecclesiastical function. Paul conveys no personal magic, even when aided by the baroque theatricality that surrounds his every public move. He is aware of this but is now resigned to the fact that there is not much he can do about it. Crossing the Atlantic in 1965 on his way to the crowds that awaited him in New York, Pope Paul, on the advice of his intimate counselors, privately practiced smiling. He did fairly well on that trip, but smiles just don't come easily to him. As soon as his attention is engaged, he slips back into the preoccupied slightly worried, turned-in-upon-himself expression that curtains his feelings even when his actual words ring with emotion. Those who know Paul personally say he is even more liberal than John, but this is not the image the public sees.

For John no problem -- whether world peace, Communism, or the divisions of Christianity -- was too complex not to be discussed in human terms. For Paul, an incurable intellectual, almost the opposite is true: no problem is too simple not to be subject to complex analysis. His remarks on everything are sown with qualifications, debilitating distinctions and cautious caveats. The style is all wrong for a church still tipsy from its first taste of freedom in centuries.

Not all the dissidents who give Paul headaches are reformers. The most recent changes in the Mass, which he highly commended, were the object of angry conservative demonstrations in Rom itself last fall. Some of the more bitter opponents of the updated liturgy have gone so far as to call Paul a heretical antipope.

The English Bishop Christopher Butler has observed: "What won the day for constitutional principles in England was that the people were prepared to go on fighting and struggling generation after generation. That is what I hope will happen in the Church." The struggle goes on even in the hierarchy, where Paul's first real confrontation, presaged by an attack on the Roman curial system by cardinal Suenens of Belgium, took place during the Bishops' Synod in Rome last fall. Paul broke tradition by attending the meetings and sitting on a level with his fellow bishops at almost every session. "Here I am," he said quietly when one bishop, reading a prepared speech, complained that the Pope should work more closely with the other bishops. After that, even the bishops who came to Rome ready for a showdown left convinced that the Pope favored their demand for greater collegiality or a larger say in the running of the universal Church.

Paul has said that he is open to any change in the Church -- except where fundamental dogma is concerned. But on birth control and clerical celibacy, two of the major issues now threatening the unity of Catholicism -- neither a matter of formal dogma and one (clerical celibacy) only disciplinary -- he still seems unbudgeable, and the more he extols tradition, the greater the demand for change. Paul is bedeviled not only by the erosion of the traditional theology, but by the breakdown of convent discipline, the creeping aceptance of divorce, the rebellious demonstrations by priests and seminarians and the growth of "underground church" defying eccelsiastical laws. He has made steady pleas for moderation among Church reformers, but the old dictum, Roma locuta, causa finita est (Rome has spoken, the case is closed), no longer applies. As a result, the Pope looks more and more like defeated man, and it is generally believed in Rome that Paul, with a sigh of relief, will step down when he reaches his 75th birthday in September 1972.

A sympathetic priest in Rome who has known Paul for 40 years said recently: "The Pope knows better than anyone else that he is a failure. He has a strong sense of history. After the turmoil following upon the Vatican Council, it will take two or three generations to reconstruct Catholicism. It is Paul's fate to sit on the papal throne at the worst possible time, beset both by those who want to change nothing. The Vatican Council released demons. Paul, poor fellow, has no friends -- at least he has no solid constituency. Right now he may be the loneliest man in the world."

In Rome these days one hears again and again Winston Churchill's famous remark that he did not become the king's first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. That also seems to sum up the Pope's position. But one critical Vatican monsignor thinks that Paul has missed the message here. "The Empire was going to be liquidated, no matter what Churchill said," the monsignore says. "The curial empire will be liquidated too. If the Pope were wiser he would preside over its liquidation."

Yet there is no doubt about the Pope's undivided loyalty to the age-old Vatican system. Almost from childhood he seemed to have prepared himself for a role in it. The son of zealous, comrtably middle-class parents from Brescia, he was born Gioanni Battista Montini in 1897 at the family's country home in nearby Concesio. Paul grew up in an atmosphere of good books, good talk, gentle manners, a doting mother, and a midlly liberal social concern. He began formal studies for the priesthood at 19, and it was clear from the beginning that he was not destined for a simple parish assignment. Priests from the Montinis' social milieu just didn't end up country pastors in those days.

With the special permission of the Bishop of Brescia, young Montini attended the diocesan seminary as day student, returning to the genteel comfort of his home every afternoon. Ill health was offered as the reason for this exemption from the Council of Trent's ruling that all candidates for priesthood should live under grueling discipline of seminary rules. Today, some of Paul's critics attribute his personal aloofness and seeming lack of warmth to this bypassing of the rough-and-ready camaraderie that seminarians, like soldiers, share in their all-male world.

Appointed when still in his 20s to a minor post in the Vatican Secretariat of State, a coveted assignment for a cleric on the way up, Montini was early set on the path that could lead to the papacy. But as a very young priest he became associated with some of the most progressive thinkers of pre-Vatican II Catholicism and though he served in increasingly important Vatican posts for three decades, his progressive ideas seemed on obstacle to his own advancement in the hierarchy. His vigorous defense of postwar French priests who doffed their soutanes and took their place in factories, strikes and picket lines -- the forerunners of today's clerical social activists -- made hm suspect in the eyes of the conservatives in the Holy Office, the official watchdogs of Catholic orthodoxy. He supported the worker-priests despite strong disapproval of them by both Pope Pius and the Papal Nuncio to France (Cardinal Roncalli, later John XXIII). Paul was named Archbishop of Milan, Italy's largest see, in 1954. But the touchy Pius XII broke with custom and never gave him the red hat of a cardinal. This meant that Paul was not considered for the papacy during the conclave that settled on Pope John, who then looked like an amiable conformist. Montini was the first cardinal named by John.

If Paul had followed immediately after Pius XII, he might be hailed as a great success today. He was shaped by 30 years of Vatican experience to play the papal role according to the Pius XII script. In all probability he would have done it well, adding a strong dash of modernity, and would now be compared favorably to Pius XII rather than contrasted unfavorably to John.

To Pope John himself, Monitini seemed a logical choice to take over when his "interim" regime was completed. Compared to most who had grown up in that establishment, Montini was open to new ideas and fresh theological speculation. A voracious reader, then as now, he had for years devoured the works of secular writers like Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Montini was fascinated above all by Kafka in those days. One priest who has seen a great deal of him through his years in the Vatican says, "I think he still feels that life elsewhere is Kafka-esque and that the Church speaking through him does wlel to resist it."

But the main intellectual influence on his life has been Catholic and French. Paul identified particularly with the Christian humanism of Jacques Maritain, even when Maritain was regarded by powerful conservative churchmen as a near-heretic. Maritain, a vigorous critic clerical privilege as well as political authoritarianism, urged the Church to identify conspicuously with the poor. As Archibishop of Milan, Montini practiced what Maritain preached by frequently visiting mines and factories and became known as the "archbishop of the workers."

"Pope Paul is still a Francophile," according to the superior of a religious order who now sees him regularly. "He thiks more like a French intellectual than an Italian pastor. A typical Italian would roll with the punches better than he has been able to do. But he has been living on this bookish French diet all his life."

Paul has appointed a number of Frenchmen to high Vatican posts, including Cardinal Villot, his secretary of state. Even his Italian appointees tend to a French point of view. "What we need now," one hears more and more among the Pope's in-house critics, "is a genuine Italian pope, like John XXIII." A real Italian they argue, would know how to handle the present crisis of Catholicism, because of the Italian ability to make adjustments when a battle appears to be lost. On the contrary, the Frenchmen around Paul -- a group sometimes called the Pope's French Mafia -- reinforce his abstract, overly analytic, intellectualist assessment of the Church's problem and his disdain of compromise.

Yet even today, Paul is not as conservative in his thinking as he frequently appears to be in practice. Unlike Pope John, he writes his own encyclicals and they sometimes begin as comparatively liberal documents. But the Pope consistently falls back on the most conservative theologians in Rome to judge their orthodoxy, in order to avoid any charge that he is opening the door to heresy. Moreover, he has done little to alter the traditional cast of the Curia on which he relies. Not long ago, in fact, he made cardinals of several churchmen known for doing a bad job on their way up the ladder -- not because he approved of their record, but because above all else, he still believes in automatic seating for those who play the hierarchical game.

The Pope is reluctant to hurt people he knows personally. Consequently, the old guard in the Vatican, some of whom have long passed retirement age, are still running things pretty much the way they always did, or at least they are still trying to do so. Cardinal Ottaviani, now 79 years old and officially retired as head of the Holy Office, still carries on as if his successor's role is merely to sign official documents. To a new generation of Catholic, Paul, the onetime progressive, comes across as a weak pope who timidity is holding back the sweeping changes that John seemed to promise.

Most of the men close to him, however, do not agree that either weakness or vacillation accounts for Paul's major difficulties. "His main problem," a member of an important curial congregation says, "is that he lacks a sense of public relations. He doesn't know how to project an appealing image of himself." The Pope is probably the only major figure in the world who still does not employ a public relations adviser, and the Vatican press office is still so primitive it reinforces more than it counteracts the damaging public image of Paul as a weepy churchman, given to incessant warnings and mournfull assessments of the world.

"The Paul I know is vitally interested in everything. He may be better informed than any other leader in the world," an American cleric in the Vatican says. "He is not really a handwringer. He just seems to be -- and of course it's his own fault." The publicity-minded rector of Roman university agrees. "He's a compassionate man, but his compassion comes across as indecisiveness. He loves the world and worries about it, but even that comes across as querulousness. Basically it's a matter of image."

Then it begins once more. "You take Pope John . . ." the rector says.

Every analysis of Paul seems to end up in the comparison with John. John insisted that Monsignor Pietro Pavan, who drafted his memorable encyclical Pacem in Terris, had to write and rewrite until he, the Pope himself, could understand it. "If I can grasp it, then anyone can," he told Pavan. He once agreed with the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras that the biggest obstacle to Christian unity was not theology but the theologians. The elderly leaders of the two churches, who were very similar in their simplicity, agreed that the theologians made too much of doctrinal punctilio and not enough of fraternal charity. But to the degree that John gave any though to theology, he was a firm traditionalist. That was made clear in his posthumously published diary -- to the dismay of some admirers who had him marked for a cryptomodernist.

However, John unwittingly created expectations of profound theological changes which his studious, introspective, congenitally cautious successor simply cannot in conscience meet. John, who said, shrugging his shoulders, "I'm only the Pope, what can I do?" has now been transformed by his legend into a pontiff who could do anything. And the stronger the legend becomes, the weaker Paul looks.

John Cogley, a senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Santa Barbara, is a noted scholar and writer of Catholicism.

Film: Of Gods and Men

2011-02-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

In theater February 25th, 2011.

Psalm 82:6-7 "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."

From Wikipedia:

Of Gods and Men is a 2010 French drama film directed by Xavier Beauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. Its original French title is Des hommes et des dieux, which means "Men and gods" and refers to a motto from the Bible shown at the beginning of the film. It centers on the monastery of Tibhirine, where Trappist monks lived in harmony with the largely Muslim population of Algeria, until seven of them were beheaded in a still unclear incident in 1996. The screenplay focuses on the time leading up to their death. Principal photography took place at an abandoned monastery in Morocco, with careful attention to authenticity.

The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix, the festival's second most prestigeous award. It became a big critical and commercial success in its domestic market. It won the Lumière Award for Best Film and has been nominated for eleven César Awards.

Looks interesting.

YOUCAT: Youth Catechism with Forward by the Pope

2011-02-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

Ignatius Press has announced the English edition will be released in March 2011. Other volumes in world languages, including Chinese and Arabic, are being prepared.

More info here.

Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno SJ speaking in Palo Alto

2011-02-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

Author of "The Heavens Proclaim"

From St. Thomas Aquinas' Parish Bulletin:

Vatican astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., will speak Friday, February 4, at 7:00 p.m., at the Lucie Stern Community Center Ballroom, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. Sponsored by the Adult Education Committee of the Thomas Merton Center, Brother Guy’s topic is “Astronomy, God, and the Search for Elegance.”

Scientific theories must do more than merely satisfy the data; they must do so in a way that is (to use a term much favored by mathematicians) "elegant." Kepler, Maxwell, and Einstein are examples of scientists who found that a sense of esthetic "rightness" helped them to direct their scientific intuition toward theories that could then be expressed rationally, mathematically; theories that could then be tested against nature. By looking closely at a handful of astronomical images, Bro. Guy will explore the way that one proceeds from an emotional appreciation of the beauty of the stars and planets, to a deeper understanding that satisfies both reason and emotion. Ultimately, this link between "elegance" and rational truth has profound theological implications.

Consolmagno, born in 1952 in Detroit, Michigan, obtained his B.S. in 1974 and M.S. in 1975 in Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT, and his Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona in 1978. From 1978-80 he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Harvard College Observatory, and from 1980-1983 continued as postdoc and lecturer at MIT.

In 1983 he left MIT to join the US Peace Corps, where he served for two years in Kenya teaching physics and astronomy. He entered into the Jesuit order in 1989 and took vows as a Jesuit brother in 1991, and studied philosophy and theology at Loyola University, Chicago, and physics at the University of Chicago, before his assignment to the Vatican Observatory in 1993. He has coauthored five astronomy books and is curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo, one of the largest in the world. His research explores the connections between meteorites and asteroids, and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system.

Book Review: Mary Mother of the Son, by Mark Shea

2011-02-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

So I've been able to read a lot more now that I take the train to work. For the past couple months (it takes a while to get used to reading sitting backwards at times in a moving vehicle) I've been reading my autographed copy of Mark Shea's latest series.

If you don't know who Mark Shea is, he's a former evangelical and Catholic convert. He's made a profession talking about his experience and like many converts, has a unique perspective on the Catholic faith, before and after which he shares.

The entire series covers all the standard set of Catholic apologetics regarding Mary and then some. Actually there's a lot of the and-then-some. He goes into different dogmas, heresies, historical truth, biblical contradictions, interpretation of Scripture and more. However, he meticulously covers every issue I've encountered that non-Catholics bring up challenging the veneration of Mary.

I've read Mark Shea's blog for some time and I've seen his sense of humor in action. I was expecting a lot of that in these books, but his style of writing changes a bit and becomes more formal. The humor is less apparent, and he's more personal and full of stories. Reading these books you see another side of Mark Shea than you normally would from reading his blog.

I grew up in a traditional Catholic Filipino home filled with religious pictures and statues and rosaries and plaques and crucifixes and tapestries and icons littered throughout the house. I always wondered what that looked like from the outside. Mark Shea provides that perspective in subtle comical fashion.

Something that deeply interested me is this description of the Church that Mark Shea picks up from George Weigel, (who quotes someone else, who is quoting someone else):

The great Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar had suggested the four biblical images of the church, based on four great New Testament figures, shape and reshape the church in every age:
- The church of evangilization is formed in the image of Paul, apostle to the gentiles
- The church of contemplative prayer is formed in the image of the apostle John, who rested his head on the Lord's breast at the Last Supper.
- The church of office and jurisdiction is formed in the image of Peter to whom the Lord consigned the keys of the Kingdom.
- And then there is the church of discipleship, formed in the image of Mary, whose "be it done unto me according to your word" was, in a sense, the very beginning of Christian discipleship.

I've always thought of the Church broken up in different personalities more or less as described here, but not so well personified. George Weigel speaking about Pope John Paul II continues:

The incarnation was "extended" in history through the church, into heaven prefigures the glorification of all those who will be saved. Thus, John Paul taught, Mary provides a "profile" of what the church is, of how the people of the church should live, and of what that redeemed people's destiny is.

The pope then gave the screw another gentle twist. The "Marian profile" in the church, the pope said, is even "more . . . fundamental" than the "Petrine profile." The two cannot be divided. But the church formed in the image of Mary - the church of disciples - preceded and made possible the church formed in the image of Peter - the church embodied by the distinguished churchmen present at the pope's address.

The end of the quote is this:

The pope concluded by quoting Hans Urs von Baltahasar approvingly: "A contemporary theologian has well commented: "Mary is "Queen of the Apostles" without any pretensions to apostolic power; she has other great powers."

Very deep, and so true and evident in the living devotion of the Catholic faithful.

The book is full of tidbits that I've only partially thought about, and it's good to see them all fleshed out here.

If I had to pick a favorite, I'd have to say it's the first book, Modern Myths and Ancient Truths. It's more concise and to the point. The other two are a tad more broad and have a lot more background in it. But all in all, this was a great read, easy to follow, and endlessly informative on several levels. Thanks Mark Shea!

Netflix: The Case for Christ

2011-01-31T23:19:00.000-08:00

I'm watching Lee Strobel's the Case for Christ on Netflix. You can watch it instantly via Internet streaming if you have an account.

It's actually not a bad film that asks all the hard questions and answers them from history and evidence. It beins with the Testament of the Gospels and ends with the Resurrection. The video even quotes the Patristic Fathers and ancient Jewish and pagan witnesses. For those that follow Christian apologetics, it also features several well known modern day Biblical scholars like NT Wright and William Lane Craig.

The film is a short 71 minutes long and they pack a lot of information in there. I don't think the film is something you can take to an atheist and expect anything, but a believing person who has doubts about his faith may take to it kindly.

The Case for Christ approaches the subject from the perspective of following the evidence. There isn't a denominational slant one way or another with it, other than being very Pro-Christian in the ecumenical sense of CS Lewis.

My only dislike about the video is the lack of Catholic scholars (or any that I recognized as being Catholic). But this film seems like something that all Christians (including Catholics) can all watch faithfully.

Lee Strobel isn't Catholic and he has other materials that he may err on, but at least for this video, he seems to get it right. Perhaps Lee Strobel will continue to follow the evidence and find that he can make a Case for Catholicism. We can only pray.

Muslim Demographics

2011-01-31T20:37:00.000-08:00

This video is actually kinda scary.

LIFE Letters to the Editors c1970: Abortion

2011-01-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Went antiquing with my mom and Celle. I found a couple of LIFE issues that I may be posting stuff from. Here is a part of the Letters to the Editors section from LIFE March 20, 1970.

ABORTION

Sirs: So "abortion has come out of the shadows? (Feb 27), has it? If I were old or chronically ill, I might begin to sweat a little.
When murder becomes respecable, none of us is safe.
Julia Glocker
Jacksonville, Fla.

Sirs: It is difficult for me to convey my disgust. As the mother of five children, I am appalled that humanity has so little integrity left. Destroying an embryo is in essence destroying the mother's own body and the product therof. In a world that is so informed on sexual reproduction and birth control, why abortion? Sex brings, moral responsibility - not gratification at any price.
Norma Beer Mollison
Minneapolis, Minn.

Sirs: It is curious that in all the publicity about the Pill - including your excellent essay ("Where the Birth Control Pill Stands Today") - we always hear about the possibility of bad side effects, but never about the side benefits. Surely the side benefit of freedom from anxiety has created a tremendous reservoir of mental health with far-ranging implications for the well-being of the nation. And there is no-doubt that the population control which the Pill affords over and above the next best method will advance the total health of the nation.
F. DeWolfe Miller
Planned Parenthood Association
Knoxville, Tenn.

Sirs: I appreciated being part of your story on abortion. As you probably know, I have just begun a three-month prison term at Chrales Street Jail in Boston. I was convicted under a 100-year-old "Crimes against Chastity" law for showing contraceptive devices at a Boston University lecture, and giving one package of nonprescriptive foam to a 22-year-old student to test (do single women have the same rights and responsibilities to protection against unwanted pregnancy as married women? I hold that they must have!!). We will never solve the problems of abortion, overpopulation, environmental pollution, etc. - tied in with "people pollution" - unless we change our birth control laws.
Bill Baird
Boston, Mass.

Sirs: The sight of the young American wife awaiting her abortion in London really broke my heart. The poor thing could afford a trip to London, but not another child.
This "deny yourself nothing" attitude will destroy us. Take another human being's life - one you created - to keep yourself in knit dresses and cigarettes - disgusting!
Marybeth Beechen
Tinley Park, Ill.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Dirty Laundry

2011-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean", she said. “She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better detergent." Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and she said to her husband: "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this." The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

h/t Love Undefiled h/t Tina Mahar

What Christians Mean By God

2011-01-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

Father Barron explaining the St. Thomas Aquinas' proof of existence of God from contingency.

Grace and Merit

2011-01-30T01:23:00.000-08:00

There is no way for grace to enter, if merit has taken residence in the soul. A full acknowledgment of grace is a sign of the fullness of grace. Indeed, if the soul possesses anything of its own, to that extent grace must give place to it: whatever you impute to merit you steal from grace. I want nothing to do with the sort of merit which excludes grace.
...
It is enough for merit to know that merit is not enough. But as merit must not presume on merit, so lack of merit must bring judgment. Furthermore, chidren re-born in baptism are not without merit, but possess the merits of Christ; but they make themselves unworthy of these if they do not add their own——not because of inability, but because of neglect; this is the danger of maturity. Henceforward, take care that you possess merit; when you possess it, you will know it as a gift. Hope for its fruit, the mercy of God, and you will escape all danger of poverty, ingratitude, and presumption.

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux

h/t The Sacred Page here and here.

Beloved: The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

2011-01-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

Great quality video on this religious vocation.

Bono Performs "Make Me a Channel Of Your Peace" at Sargent Shriver's Funeral

2011-01-23T23:29:00.000-08:00

Sargent Shriver was the first Peace Corps leader.

h/t Creative Minority Report.

Kids having fun during Walk for Life

2011-01-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

My favorite part of the video is watching the Sister running, and keeping up with the kids.