My husband Curt died in 1996, which is now more than a dozen years ago. I still cry when my boys and I take out their father's stocking, ornaments...but the tears are more joyful as the years pass. Rather than pushing it away, I want to really feel that pain now. The ache helps to make fresh again the love at its source; it brings back all the wonderful memories that were God's gift to my family through my husband.
This Christmas season, my friend Anne Rinaldi-Nonamaker wrote a beautiful note on her Facebook page that she has given me permission to share here and on my RSS. She speaks so beautiful to these feelings as she moved into her 6th Christmas without her son David in her life. She gives beautiful witness to those who are struggling with grief this season, that there will come a day when they will be joyful again.
This is the 6th Christmas without David & for the first time I participated again.
I listened to Christmas music & I could hear him singing those songs and I was thankful that I could still remember and that the memories of fun and love and joy overshadowed the pain and empiness of not having him here.
I put up a tree and decorated it with many of his homemade & store bought onaments. It was so wonderful to have those flashes of memory back to the first time I ever saw those treasures and how he would ask every year if I was going to hang them again ...and I would say yes. No matter how the tree looked in the end ... David would always stand back and give me all the credit on how beautiful it was this year. He would find just one little thing i did differently and really imbelish on the genius I had in doing this or that ... makes me smile just remembering again now.
I participated in gift exchanges and I could feel his excitement at gift exchange (and purchase time). David was such a thoughtful gift giver and such an appreciative reciever. He made everyone feel like their gift was the most important and perfect.
Yes, I felt pangs envy for families as I watched them creating thier treasured memories, but more often I found myself celebrating quietly for them. I kept reembering how blessed I am to have 23 years of magical moments to call up in my mind and heart.
David loved it when I was happy. He was at his best when the masses were having fun, celebrating, singing, and just "hanging out" together ... remembering is good.....when the time is right ....for me it was 6 years ....
I don't tell this story often, and then usually only to fellow Catholics, but it is Christmas Eve and a rather sad one in some ways for my second son, so I feel the need to share with him just how very special he is.
When I was a tiny girl living in Chicago IL USA, I heard about the Worlds Fair scheduled to be in New York in 1964-1965. They were actually going to let the beautiful Pieta of Michelangelo leave Italy to come! I prayed that I might have the chance to see it... and forgot about it.
...Until the day that I stood in front of the statue in 1965. Somehow, my father had been transferred by his company to New York. Just for that one year. And there I was. And there it was.
I cried, because I remembered my prayer. I remembered speaking with heaven and giving thanks, and promising that I would look very carefully and remember ever single line since I knew how special this was, and knew that I might never have that chance again. But still I did pray, that if it ever might be possible, that I might have the privilege some day to see that beautiful work again. And, having made the prayer, I forgot all about it.
Twenty-seven years later, these memories flooded back as I stood before the Pieta once again in Rome. I was there with my husband, a good man but not a Catholic, and the father of my son. We had wanted to take a trip together and everything was set to go to Jamaica, but we booked instead a package for the same cost for London and Rome. The trip was because our marriage was in a rough spot. The whole week before that moment, while we were not fighting we might as well have been apart since we acted like strangers.
And suddenly, there I was. And there it was. And I was so grateful that I had taken such care to remember every line, because now it was behind the Plexiglas to keep a second vandal from damaging it like the first one had. The tears really came this time, the pride in my own heart was softened. With the memories and the prayerful conversation, I begged that we might be granted a second child...and we were, that very evening.
But the story does not end there either. When the child was only six months old, my husband was diagnosed with a fatal cancer. Out of nowhere, a small Pieta came to my home that I still treasure. Our Mother's love not only sustained us during that time, she also deigned to teach me so that I could help his mother, a girl who had lost her own father young and now was losing her only son. At the same time, both Our Mother and our sister Faustina sent saints both from heaven and earth who helped my husband to accept Our Lord before he died.
Thank you again, sweet Virgin! Love you more than anything, little Spud!
"...This is once again another example of why you should not trust the 'news' stories on EWTN. It is not a good source of Catholic information..." ~Bishop William Murphy of Long Island, from a letter to an EWTN viewer who called in to the Arroyo show (see below audio).
I'm active in supporting the pro-life movement here, but have become increasingly alarmed as I watch more of my fellow Catholics embracing extremist views of those allied with us in that cause. I watch good Catholics buying into 'Rapture' theologies, Bible literalism, and creationism pseudo-science, for example. A great many hold opinions contrary to the letter and spirit of Catholic social teachings. I've become especially concerned because more and more people embrace the authority of GOP politicians and evangelical leaders over their own bishops. What's really appalling is that those who do so are often extremely conservative Catholics who give a lot of lip service to the Magisterium of the Church and authoritative teaching.
Catholics take up a special collection today for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. I love the CCHD, as it's the social justice arm of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Council--I even put in my envelope early. They are very active and effective in fighting poverty in the U.S.
So, I was very surprised when our Bishops' annual meeting earlier this week mentioned allegations that they subsidized groups of questionable character. I was even more shocked and appalled when I heard that EWTN World Over Live show publicized this 'CCHD scandal' and actively encouraged people to boycott the collection:
I stopped watching EWTN about 7 years ago except for chaplet and coverage of special liturgies. This Ray Arroyo isn't very well-informed, is he? Nor is he a journalist. To his credit, he does expose this Bellarmine ministry for what it is: a self-appointed apostolate who put up a couple of websites for $50. Arroyo very obviously doesn't know who and what CCHD is, & he repeats serious charges ("great evils being promoted") on very flimsy evidence.
From a Facebook group of very conservative Catholics (the 'voting for Obama was a mortal sin' crowd) discussing the issue, I was referred to links on a major lay pro-life site, American Life League http://www.all.org/article.php?id=12307 , a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n_YseZ7Cog from another lay group called 'Real Catholic TV', the original accusations by Bellarmine 'ministry' at their site, and a boycott CCHD site they founded.
When I looked into it, every allegation is or has been investigated. Several accusations in the past were examined and dismissed as unfounded. CCHD funds over 250 projects and have investigated & defunded 3 or 1.2%. The vast majority of the issues critics raise are guilt-by-association. They've got a big list with lots of red ink and bold type...BUT. The first one says to damn one IL group we fund because someone we don't like also uses their services. (Shouldn't we be complimented that we're working with such a reputable organization that even our 'enemies' are comfortable referring people there?) Another huge list condemns anyone associated who takes money from 'Center for Community Change', your typical, large left-wing do-gooders coalition who hold a lot of repugnant opinions but also support many good causes.
The allegations are as credible as one of Glen Beck's conspiracy wet dreams.
Each and every program that the CCHD sponsors must be signed off by the bishop of the see in which they operate. I think that a bishop's staff, who are all people who live and worship in the diocese, would be in a better position to evaluate programs in his diocese than 'some guy' noodling on the Internet.
No doubt the continued noise machine will force termination of even more of these friend of my friend of my friend connections, as our bishops' work must be above reproach, but I pray that some sanity and basic justice may reign. ============ Bishop Morin calls claims against CCHD's work 'outrageous' http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0905104.htm The coupon campaign described in the news article above is shameful and scandalous. Interesting that I'm not the only one who has noticed that these criticisms come mostly from those who are "simply are not in favor of the church's social teaching."
People ask me all the time to pray for one cause or another. Most of the time, it's easy to remember. If someone has died, I put their mass card in my prayerbook at the Office for the Dead. When ill, I usually write their name on a paper I keep by Morning Prayer and review before mass. As the years pass and the requests increase, I've run into trouble from time to time.
Over the past few years, I've found myself making little prayer cards and giving them to others who are willing to help. I'd usually find something appropriate, scan it to a .jpg, and print them out as wallets or 3x5 cards using windows picture viewer.
The patron saint of youth, Prince Casimir succumbed to respiratory disease at the age of 25. Throughout his brief life, he was a sterling example of Christian virtue. He refused orders to lead an unjust war against Hungary and accepted imprisonment as his punishment from his father. His life was simple and chaste. Eschewing the trappings of royalty that were his due, he was known for a life of prayer and service to the poor, who were often plagued with consumption (tuberculosis).
St. Casimir is a patron of Poland and Lithuania.
St. Casimir,
Though a youth, you bore the burden of lung disease in purity and faith. Stand by the victims and families of this scourge of influenza, and strengthen their faith and love of Our Lord by your example. We beg you to add your prayers to ours for all of them, especially (N.) who struggles with this illness this day. Strengthen their trust in God, lend them ease in their suffering, and return them speedily to good health.
We implore the intercession of Our Lady of Sorrows at the altars in heaven. May the the graces of the Holy Spirit be sent to (N.) in this time of need.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, healed the sick and suffering and bade all children come to Him. In His Name, O God, have mercy.
Catholics are being encouraged to back universal health care reform (see USCCB website: they've advocated for medical care as a basic human right since the 1990s), continue ban on using tax money for abortions, and working to ensure immigrants can get adequate care as well.
The following is from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops:
How very sad that what the Catholic Bishops Conference of India is doing... giving an equal voice to women on ecclesiastic councils:
' Some of the bodies where women stand to get equal representation are CBCI commissions, which take decisions regarding all aspects of Catholic life; seminaries; parish and diocesan pastoral councils, which take administrative decisions; finance committees that decide diocese budgets; marriage tribunals and social service societies.
Women can “also become pastoral assistants in all parishes and take part in a common decision-making process”, says the policy, which includes a plan to ensure violence-free homes and workplaces.'
In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
Increased use of pre-natal testing leads to increased number of abortions. Not only are children with Downs syndrome and other abnormalities killed before they can be born, increasingly pregnancies are terminated for the crime of a fetus of the wrong sex. Some societies place many costs on parents of girls and privilege on those who raise sons, and in China and India the future of the nation is at risk since so few women of marriageable age are available for large segments of the population.
Patience isn't a virtue that comes to me easily. I correspond by email with a lot of people, and many of my fellow Catholics are very confused about our Catholic Church traditions and policies. The following is a direct quote from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in the U.S.:
In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access to health care should not depend on where a person works, how much a family earns, or where a person lives. Instead, every person, created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality health care. This teaching is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick and to serve "the least of these," our concern for human life and dignity, and the principle of the common good. Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans do not have health insurance. According to the Catholic bishops of the United States, the current health care system is in need of fundamental reform. To learn about Catholic teaching on health care in more detail, read the full statement by the United States Catholic Bishops, A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform, at usccb.org/sdwp/national/comphealth.shtml."
Sojourners, the Christian non-denominational social justice & peace group, has published a toolkit for those interested in the healthcare debate.
The argument about 'the public option' boils down to an issue of trust: do you trust corporations or our nation's government more to act for the common good?
This is a purely political question, touching on general philosophy.
The connected moral question is whether or not those who trust corporations more can deny a public options to those who don't agree with them philosophically.
Advocates often ignore the fact that the Roe vs Wade has a pro-life side. The ruling limits the government's interference by trimester in an attempt to balance the rights of women to control their own bodies with the rights of the child she carries. No one may force or limit a woman's control over her state in early pregnancy, while the ruling allows for a state interest in the well-being of the fetus in the third trimester.
Most Catholics find the entire issue repugnant; however, our training for the dangers in childbirth was to always side for the life of the innocent child. My husband, who wasn't Catholic, thought that was very weird. I made him swear each time I was pregnant that if something were to go wrong, he would do everything possible to save the child without regard for my safety. Now that fewer mothers die in childbirth, I doubt anyone bothers to teach this to our young girls. Perhaps that accounts for the ease with which they seem to abandon our teachings on contraception and abortion.
Many people missed this Florida case when it happened in March 2009. It got very little coverage in the local press and was ignored on the national level.
The mother of 2 kids who was experiencing a problem pregnancy was held in a hospital against her will for 3 days and & ultimately forced to undergo an emergency C-section under orders from a Leon County judge. She was not permitted to change hospitals or doctors, nor to refuse medical care since 'the state had a compelling interest in her fetus', which had died in utero.
No, I'm not kidding. The Florida Supreme Court declined to hear the case and let the lower court decision stand.
Former religion writer for the L.A. Times, William Lobdell, discusses his journey from evangelical Christian to RCIA candidate for Roman Catholicism to involvement in the Los Angeles priest sex abuse scandal and eventual embrace of atheism.
William Lane Craig, Christopher Hitchens, Douglas Wilson, Lee Strobel discusses if the God of Christianity exists and if it matters March, 2009 at the Christian Book Expo. Christian Book Expo 2009
I've previously posted about the continuing controversy between my dear Bishop Frank Dewane and the group of Catholics comprising the SW Florida chapter of the Voice of the Faithful. I have many good friends in the chapter, and have greatly enjoyed their educational programs over the past six years. Unfortunately, the problems that they are experiencing in living their faith in good conscience is again being sorely tried:
Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church will not be the site for VOTF of SWFL Seventh Annual Mass. The reason given by the pastor is that the presence of the VOTF of SWFL may be a transgression against the sacred nature of the Eucharist.
Fr. Thomas Glackin, former pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, will celebrate the Massfor the seventh time.
The VOTF of SWFL Mass and Eucharist will be celebrated in
The Peace and Justice Office of the Diocese of Venice in Florida asks that the following petition be circulated throughout Florida and delivered to their offices by Tuesday, March 10th:
Dear Governor Crist,
In December of last year, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice wrapped up yet another farm labor slavery case in Florida, a case the Chief Assistant US Attorney called “one of Southwest Florida!s "biggest and ugliest slavery cases ever,!” according to the Ft. Myers News-Press. I am writing today to demand that you use every resource at your command to ensure that it be the last slavery case ever in Florida!s fields.
This latest case – in which, according to court documents, workers were chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay – was the seventh such case in just over a decade. Indeed, so shameful is Florida!s record of farm labor abuse that another federal prosecutor was prompted to call the state “ground zero for modern-day slavery” in the pages of the New Yorker magazine. Yet, when a reporter called your office for a comment on the most recent case, you declined to comment and instead passed the call off to the spokesperson for Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Terrence McElroy, who gave the impression that one slavery case per year is somehow no cause for alarm. Given an opportunity to clarify his statement, Mr. McElroy only underscored his disregard for the victims of this most brutal of human rights violations, terming seven slavery cases in ten years, involving well over 1,000 workers, a “rarity.” His comments rightly set off a groundswell of outraged reactions by human rights, religious, consumer, and labor organizations and leaders across the country.
Governor Crist, even a single case of slavery in the twenty-first century is too many.
As the leader of the state and the single most powerful voice for the protection of every Floridian!s fundamental human rights, you must repudiate the words of your spokesperson, and do so with no further delay. But you must do more than that. The key to ending farm labor slavery is to eliminate the degrading and inhumane working conditions faced by all Florida's farmworkers on a daily basis, as these conditions are what allow slavery to flourish.
The everyday exploitation of Florida!s farmworkers includes:
• Sub-poverty wages - Tomato pickers make, on average, only $10,000/year;
• No raise in nearly 30 years - Pickers are paid virtually the same per bucket piece rate (roughly 45 cents per 32 lb. bucket) today as they were in 1980. At today!s rate, workers have to pick nearly 2.5 TONS of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hr day;
• Denial of fundamental labor rights - Farmworkers in Florida have no right to overtime pay, even when working 60-70 hour weeks, and no right to organize or bargain collectively.
You must do everything in your power to ensure an end to those conditions and help lay the groundwork for a future of dignified wages and humane working conditions for farmworkers.
Specifically, I join my voice to that of thousands of other concerned consumers of Florida produce to call upon you to: 1. Publicly condemn the existence of modern-day slavery in Florida; 2. Commit the full power of your office to immediately and comprehensively address the plague of abuse and modern-day slavery in Florida!s fields by: a) meeting with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and federal officials who prosecute slavery, and b) demanding that the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange renounce its opposition to implementing the agreements that socially responsible fast food and supermarket companies have signed to insure better pay and working conditions for tomato pickers, so as to eliminate the conditions that give rise to slavery.
Thank you, Name City, State, Zip
NEVER FORGET: Your ancestors also were immigrants who organized to better their lives and the lot of their children and grandchildren:
I tried to give it to Peggy, but she was adamant that she was done with trinkets. My son Stephen and I had been delivering odds and ends to various charities, and the medal must have fallen out of one of the bags. I continued out the door to my car. Ben Simpson was re-arranging his music and stands in his car. He didn't know, but I'd left him a music 'cheat book' for the Big Band era songs for the nursing homes with one of the priests, for him to receive as a surprise. I was curious if he'd gotten it yet, & surreptitiously looked for it in the very cluttered vehicle. This was pretty normal for me, as I flit about many places and have many interests. I joke that I'm "one of St. Anthony's kids", i.e. that I'm always finding things or remembering treasures discarded.
Ben wandered in much the same way, so we were related in many ways. For example, I always sought advice from men I respected when I was unsure of decisions involving my fatherless sons, and Ben often was kind enough to help me think things through. I always hit the pancake breakfasts for clubs and charities, including the one at the airport for the Civil Air Patrol. When I mentioned going there one year, of course it was one of Ben's passions. (On his advice, I even took the boys and their friend to see if anyone might be interested in joining their youth corps.) When I was a teenager, I'd been a member of a guitar mass group, so sometimes we talked about music or discussed which hymns might appeal to which congregations. I was always honored that he asked my opinion, since he was a professional and I just a tinkerer whose memory bridged the 'old' and the 'new' Church music years.
Ben and I were also family in a couple of ways. For several years, my son had a best friend who shared his entire name... Stephen Joseph Bartholomew was the son of my body and Stephen Joseph Nathaniel, now a Marine, was the son of my heart. I used to call them "Stephen Joseph squared." Well, the Marine's aunt and the Simpsons were best friends; in fact, one couple were godparents to the son of the other. So, sometimes we talked about them.
I have six younger brothers and sisters, and through the marriages we have a very wide range of nationalities and religions. I have two Jewish nieces in a progressive community in New Jersey, Irish, Mexican, Greek, two families of Polish, English Presbyterian...So when Ben's son was "breaking his mother's heart" by marrying outside of the Roman Catholic Church, I could share how the Lord worked his will in my own family life. There's nothing to soothe a troubled soul like a factual witness!
Earlier this Wednesday morning, I'd been teasing him about playing 'follow the leader', since we'd visited just yesterday after mass at St. Agnes and here we were together again at St. John's. Now, here we were as fellow travelers again moving from the church to the parish hall. In a way I was glad to speak with him again, since Bob & Peggy were as concerned as I about how sad he was this Advent season. That is a time when everyone needs to be particularly solicitous of the widowed. Advent is harder than Christmas for so many. Ben was always so faith-filled that the change in him this year was apparent. The joy was missing, and replaced with something else that he was not yet comfortable sharing. Just before mass, Peggy had noticed that something was not quite right, but she didn't know what it was either.
"Ben, I have this little angel for the car," I said. "You see so many more people than I do. Do you think you could find someone who needs it?"
Ben took the angel from me and looked at it thoughtfully.
"It's for me...it's mine," he said. "I'm always in a hurry these days. I don't worry about it, though, since I have a very fast guardian angel."
"Benjamin," he said. "You remember who Benjamin is, don't you?"
I don't know why Ben wanted to talk about his name. By now, he should have learned not to play Bible trivia with me since I'm a history and Old Testament buff. I remember being impatient, since I was in a rush to finish many things before taking my sons to Chicago for Christmas, and all I wanted to do was to find a home for something beautiful.
"Of course I remember, Ben," I said. "He was the youngest and dearest child of Jacob, called Israel. His beloved wife, Rachel, died giving birth to him and Jacob was never happy ever after unless that boy was by his side. His full-blooded brother, Joseph, nearly killed Israel when he insisted his father allow Benjamin to be brought to him in Egypt during the famine."
Peggy now was making her way to the parish hall. I caught her satisfied smile as she watched us talking by Ben's car under the tree. She was probably relieved she escaped being saddled with another piece of paper or medal or something I'd picked up from the floor. I can be quite annoying, and no doubt she was very relieved that I was bothering someone else today!
"Benjamin", my friend Ben said as he loaded his car, "was much loved. Did I tell you that I'm going flying today?"
We talked some more, about nothing and everything as was our way together. He spoke several times about how very much he was looking forward to finishing the many things he must do--always quite a list!--before he finally would be free to fly.
Ben loved to fly. There, in his eyes each time he mentioned his plan to fly this evening, was the joy that I had missed in his manner. That was all that he really wanted to talk about. I teased him about having way too much to do and that he should have a kid chauffeur him around so that he could finish his notes and make his plans instead of having to keep his eyes on the road. Ben agreed that he was probably doing too much again, but it was obvious that being of service, being busy, and having just a few minutes in the Lord's beautiful sky was all that he wanted in life right now.
No longer worried about him for today, I left the pretty little trinket with him. Knowing Ben, it was in his pocket when whatever overtook him that night robbed us of his melodious voice.
Ben, our dear friend, please know how very much we all miss you.
This Benjamin was one man much loved, and I have no doubt that he knows now, as he rests in the arms of the Savior he so loved, just how very much.
Our teachings against procuring abortion, a practice condemned in the first century of the Church, make no unscientific claims and are morally clear. No one may interfere with the development process from embryo to fetus to human child. The encyclical Evangelium vitae is accessible to all: ...we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception......It is true that the decision to have an abortion is often tragic and painful for the mother, insofar as the decision to rid herself of the fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish reasons or out of convenience, but out of a desire to protect certain important values such as her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family. Sometimes it is feared that the child to be born would live in such conditions that it would be better if the birth did not take place. Nevertheless, these reasons and others like them, however serious and tragic, can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.
I don't know any pro-choice Catholics who reject this teaching. Despite the opinion of those who have appointed themselves my judge and jury, I certainly don't. When I was pregnant, I avoided all tests whose purpose was 'to help me make an informed decision' about continuing the pregnancy, I instructed my non-Catholic husband about the importance of saving the child instead of me in case of health emergency, and I fought my doctors' unwarranted interference whenever I deemed it morally appropriate. I have been active in the Gabriel Ministry, donate cash and goods to Providence House and Sunlight Home, and give regularly to CRS and to the American Friends relief service who goes freely where we cannot.
Where the Curia insults the sensus fidelium and undermines their own moral authority on this and other issues throughout the world is in the hypocrisy of their political position. As Joseph Cardinal Bernadin said so well "...the Church's understanding of the gospel defies conventional political and ideological lines," but a few of our U.S. Catholic Bishops have led a very vocal minority to believe otherwise. Should any Catholics not embrace their stringent insistence that overturning Roe vs Wade claims our highest allegiance, our orthodoxy is suspect. Exactly which mortal sin we Democrats are guilty of is unclear; I can only guess they mean scandal. What I consider far more scandalous is that the Bishops are repeating the same mistake that they made in Germany in the 1930s of believing the lip service of criminals.
These nasty accusations by the ultramontane, including the position paper of the USCCB for Catholics in Political Life that anyone who doesn't work to correct the abortion laws is "guilty of cooperating in evil and sinning against the common good" are pretty hard to justify on any rational ground. While a particle physicist is the one to ask about atomic structure, one consults an engineer to apply that knowledge; similarly, the Church has always recognized that the laity have an important role in the application of our Christian ethic in the secular sphere. Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Katharine Townsend Kennedy, et al., have said little that anyone but the most rigidly dogmatic crazies can claim contradicts the Magisterium's teachings. In some cases, public apologies have been given them, but they have not gone far to repair the damage to reputations nor cover the stink raised by veiled accusations. Most recently Cherie Blair, a human rights attorney married to the former British PM, was libeled this way; to his credit, one of our Catholic moral theologians called the claims of her critics "rash and outright calumnious" in Catholic News Service. I doubt any of her critics were denied communion for their mortal sin.
My sympathy for our vocal pro-life vicars of Jesus Christ is tainted by despair that their actions are mostly public pillories of desperate women that contradict Our Lord's words and actions towards sinners. The question is not whether abortion is an evil, it certainly is; however, it is also a fact that some pregnant women will even risk their lives to avoid bearing a child they do not want. Where abortion is illegal, the main result is not a low abortion rate but a very high maternal death rate accompanied by dead fetuses in dumpsters. How should Catholic Christians respond to the fear and moral confusion of these mostly poor women?
The political question is whether or not the state should throw people in prison. The only thing that passing laws does is make criminals of more sinners and interject the government into these decision. In the United States, our penal system is already the disgrace of the free world in its emphasis on revenge, nearly total lack of rehabilitation, outrageously long sentences for relatively minor infractions, and unequal punishment of wealthy over poor and white over people of color. Is prison the appropriate place to send these women, who often have other children at home? When the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is ignored, governments often overstep their bounds; Americans in general and American Catholics specifically believe that issues at the very beginning and at the very end of life should be made without government interference. The bishops and priests may intervene if they are so called; however, we prefer you not call the police.
In our relations with our governments and within the secular world, the laity who have the expertise needed to form appropriate public policy. Listening to the opinions of the faithful isn't a matter of putting fingers in the wind, but of heeding the voice of well-formed consciences of the Church itself active in the world. The Catholic faithful in the U.S.A. mostly agree with Roe vs Wade's ruling that the state "has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman's health and the potentiality of human life" and very few Americans favor re-criminalizing medical procedures in general. From Europe to Melbourne, Australia to even very Catholic areas like Uruguay, Mexico City, and the Philippines, the laity disagrees with a legalistic approach to these sins. My own opinion is that insistence on this particular political approach is a grievous sin against women, indefensible in an age where we imprison neither adulterers nor sodomists. That those women murdering their children are often drawn from the poorest and least educated compounds my pain at the grave consequences of their lack of charity.
A better approach than the recent postcard campaign against legislation that doesn't really exist yet would be to help to write a strong, pro-life half of FOCA. Our bishops should lobby to provide the support that poor women need to bear their children: paid maternity leave rather than unpaid, prison sentences for those who fire pregnant women, free universal health care for childbirth and childhood innoculations, etc. Put your money where your mouths are, Excellencies, and put the resources you now waste on making noise to work caring for people. Give pro-life budgets to our Catholic hospitals instead of insisting that people lift burdens they cannot financially bear.
A similar problem haunts Catholic teachings against forms of contraception. Some positions don't make much sense at all, particularly if you happen to be female rather than male. We respect 'natural law' when it suits the purposes of the husband, and ignore the way that women's libidos and biology work. Desperate to continue to defend the 1968 Humanae vitae that is rarely accepted in practice by the faithful, Cardinal Ratzinger himself tried a 1987 follow-up Donum vitae that was barely coherent, and bishops tout the "Theology of the Body" by our dear philosopher-mystic Pope John Paul II, a man so steeped in Marian devotion that he doesn't seem to know any real women. The Curia is neurotic with worry that people will confuse abortifacients with contraceptives, and then compound the error by confusing the two themselves in public pronouncements.
The recent Dignitas Personae continues this trend of shooting Catholicism's credibility in the foot. The document exhibits little moral clarity and some of its claims are false. Anglican bishop Dr. Lee Rayfield, spokesman for the Church of England on ethics, put it very diplomatically: “... It worries me that there are assertions in it, for example about IVF and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection, which simply do not bear the weight of theological or ethical scrutiny, even from within the absolutist standpoint taken by the Roman Catholic Church.” The Episcopalians in the U.S. were less charitable, with one headline reading "Pseudo-science from the Vatican". A deputy chair of the Italian Society of Contraception was widely quoted as calling Dignitas Personaea work of science fiction, and even those who wrote it seem to have problems with it. On top of this, we have the Vatican making claims about the Pill and the water supply (see hereherehereherehere ...well, you get the idea) that really make them look--well, stupid.
Where's a leader like our dear 'brother Joe' when we need him? I pray for his intercession from heaven: perhaps it's time for a new Common Ground.
I t has never been easy being African-American and Catholic in the United States. Though many of us, along with our Latino brothers and sisters, trace our Catholic roots to traditions that have been present in the Americas for centuries, we have often been made to understand that we are invisible to many of our fellow U.S. Catholics. How else would one explain the relative insignificance of the political and cultural concerns of African-Americans and Latinos in the rhetoric of some American bishops and other Catholics who heaped vitriol on those of us who supported Barack Obama in the recent presidential election?
Although this hostility was typically directed in that election toward any Catholic who failed to share the view that abortion was the only issue that mattered in selecting a candidate, the message to Catholics of color was particularly stark: Not only were we not “real” Americans in the coded language of Sarah Palin and the Republican Party base; we were not “real” Catholics either.
Being invisible to the Republican Party is something African-Americans have learned to live with. It is one important reason why many of us rarely vote for Republican candidates. Hispanics were perhaps a bit more relevant to the Republicans in past election cycles, but the “real” American response to immigration reform that was championed by Republicans in the House of Representatives has put an end to any meaningful outreach to Hispanics by the Republican Party for the foreseeable future. Yet despite explicit appeals to nativism by some Republicans throughout the campaign, several Catholic bishops—apparently blind to the irony of an immigrant church supporting nativist politics—alluded to Barack Obama’s candidacy in ways that made it clear that the only issue in the presidential race worth discussing, as far as they were concerned, was the criminalization of abortion. This made the invisibility of people of color to certain Catholic bishops even more apparent, and that invisibility was much harder to deal with. (article continues...)
While my Bishop has no use for the Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group formed in response to the sex abuse scandal and the sins of power that enabled them, it appears that the Holy Spirit might.
As Pope Benedict gathers in schismatics and kooks, he risks losing the rest of us. Right-wingnut Catholics hurl epithets at anyone protesting the Iraq war, those who are uninterested in a pet devotional practice or other, those against re-criminalizing abortion, those who reject free market idolatry, and even against those who stand rather than kneel when they worship--and let's not get started on Democrats! At least the progressives have the decency not to question the religious sensibilities of their well-meaning but terribly uncharitable opponents. Just who is placing these wounds in the Body of Christ?
Last year, our local VOTF chapter went from critical to rude to quite insulting; the Bishop moved from stern disapproval to banning their educational forum's speakers from Church property. Those in the Voice of the Faithful in Naples include some of our most educated area Catholics: they run book clubs, teach classes, subscribe to The Tablet/Commonweal/America/NCR etc., and many hold advanced degrees in theology. They enjoy discussing Church controversies. The speakers they invited last year mostly had problems with church hierarchy for holding 'heretical' (i.e. minority) views on contraception. As is usual in cases of persecution, when the bishop banned their event from meeting on church property, the organization became more militant. A prudent Bishop would have found something useful for them to do that would fulfill their calling; a wise Bishop would invite them to a meeting to air their concerns and suggest a better course of action. I love our Bishop, but he's such a 'cheesehead' sometimes... From the Naples Daily News, letters to the editor, 29 January 2009:
Censorship and the churchEditor, Daily News:
A recent Pew Research Center study found the Roman Catholic Church, as usual, ranked as one of the two leading religious denominations in the United States.
The surprise was the third-leading denomination. Shockingly, this denomination was comprised of Roman Catholics who left their church. The number of Catholics who have been alienated by the church was sufficient to exceed the next largest religious denomination.
One issue raised among local Catholics is why the “spiritual servant” of the diocese denies, without any consultation, guest speakers access to church property. In one instance, the reason for denial by the “servant leader” was, “I do not approve.” In this instance, it was not the speaker who was disapproved, but rather, it was the sponsoring organization’s honorary advisory board.
An astounding censorship incident occurred last year at St. William’s parish when a ladies group planned to meet and discuss the life and work of the nationally respected Sister Joan Chittister. They were informed that there would be no discussion of Sister Chittister on Catholic property. Censorship is a very dark symptom; it is a fear of losing control.
It is possible that, naive as it seems, imposing censorship is considered an action that might dam up the flow of alienated Catholics pouring out of the church doors? Or, more probable, is it a continuation of imposing clerical dictates at the expense of the lay parishioners?
Whatever the impetus, censorship can only exacerbate the exodus of Catholics and possibly elevate “the third denomination” to the second-highest denomination in numbers.
Peg Clark, Naples President, Voice of the Faithful of Southwest Florida
Which, naturally, prompted more screams of 'heretics' at VOTF, less attention by VOTF to their mission statement, and more arguments about peripheral issues:
(2/2/09) Letter: Choices and the church
Editor, Daily News:
Peg Clark’s letter on censorship in the Catholic Church again raises her group’s — the Voice of the Faithful — chronic beef with the teaching and governing authority of the Catholic Church. It’s sadly typical of those who persist in calling themselves Catholics while fundamentally disagreeing with church doctrine, taking a very American approach to church membership.
Because we’re so accustomed to voting for what we think best for the country while clamoring for our ever-expanding rights, we’re tempted to think the Catholic Church functions the same way.
But the church is not a democratic republic. The job of its successors to Christ’s apostles is to teach as he taught, not to take opinion polls on his teaching. They guide the church faithful in universal truth, led by the Holy Spirit, regardless of how unpopular.
The church has thrived for two millennia because, among other good reasons, it has not stuck a moist finger in the wind every time a voice of the faithful disagrees. And yes, that sometimes results in those voices going elsewhere.
St. Jerome said, “Heresy comes from a Greek word which means ‘choice,’ because every heretic chooses what seems to him preferable.”
Sister Joan Chittister, whose work Clark would have liked discussed at St. William’s parish, has spoken and written heretically for years in support of abortion and women priests — her choice, of course.
But no “spiritual servant” worth his salt has any choice when a dissenting voice would be presented as if it were speaking for the very church it dissents from.
Patricia Bucalo, Naples
Pity that her false impressions and poor understanding of church history went unanswered...
The group will be showing the documentary "Deliver us from Evil" on Feb 22nd, will host noted author Dr. Paul Lakeland on Thursday, Feb 26th, and Dr. Leon Podles will discuss his book Sacrilege on Thursday, March 19th. The film will be at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Naples; the speakers will be heard through the kindness of Vanderbilt Presbyterian, who stepped in when the priest at St. Katharine's Greek Orthodox Church was forbidden to host them.
In the meantime, a friend and former member of the VOTF board recently put together a Catholic Lay Assembly that drew representatives from all over the state, and is working with Corpus, FutureChurch, Take Back our Church, ARCC, groups formed to support the (now excommunicated) female priests, and others to call an all-American Catholic Assembly in Detroit in 2011:
Who is behind this gathering? Catholics, committed to the principles of Vatican II. As lay, religious, and ordained Catholics we ground ourselves in our common baptism giving us rights and responsibilities to continue the mission of Christ on earth. We are a partnership of individuals and representatives of organizations committed to the fullness of the Catholic Church. As Vatican II Catholics we are united under a new banner, the American Catholic Council, a not for profit corporation, with pending IRS 501(c)(3) status.
All of this is terribly interesting. I can hardly wait forLent!
I remember when this Tom Lehrer song first made the rounds in the mid-60s:
Every Catholic that I knew absolutely loved it, despite its irreverence. Perhaps the timing was what made it so popular, in that Lehrer's album coincided with the Vatican II Council.
Now that my diocese is engaged in spirited fights based upon garbage viral emails and arguing about whether or not to compel people to kneel rather than stand at eucharist, perhaps the best use I can make of this space today is to encourage a bit of humility by looking at how silly we often seem to those not of our communion.
First you get down on your knees Fiddle with your rosaries Bow your head with great respect And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect
Do whatever steps you want if You have cleared them with the Pontiff Everybody say his own kyrie eleison Doin' the Vatican Rag
Get in line in that processional Step into that small confessional There, the guy who's got religion'll Tell you if your sin's original
If it is, try playin' it safer Drink the wine and chew the wafer Two, four, six, eight Time to transubstantiate
So get down upon your knees Fiddle with your rosaries Bow your head with great respect And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect
Make a cross on your abdomen When in Rome do like a Roman Ave Maria, gee it's good to see ya Gettin' ecstatic an' sorta dramatic an' Doin' the Vatican Rag
This art film, which draws a parallel between fetal development and human history as a whole, is from Russian site illuzia.net. It's also posted as 7,000,000,000 on YouTube, where it is tied to a New Age site and art film director Michael Laitman.
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - 9/1/2009 12.06 “There is a lot of confusion and we are horrified and grieved at the outpour of reports and footage. A carnage that appears endless”, writes from Jerusalem the Comboni missionary Daniele Moschetti, reflecting on the war in the Gaza Strip. As follows is a long letter-document, a rare testimony, a grieved reflection that imposes a bitter reflection on the news of these past two weeks: “I watch the Al Jazeera TV at a friend’s house nearby and they report certain “truths-numbers-stories”. I watch the Italian TV or local Israeli news broadcasts and the “truths-numbers-stories” appear different! But where is the truth? And we Europeans and westerners take sides without really knowing…! European politicians that take sides with Israel because however “it is legitimate defence. Israel has the right to defend itself from Hamas rockets!” How many times have we heard this phrase from European and American politicians! So much hypocrisy from our own and the international politicians, and also the mass media that uses such biased and ambiguous wording. And I ask myself: “But have these people ever spent more than a week in this country without body guards or accompanied by Israeli or Palestinian diplomats? Have they ever heard the cries of pain of so many innocent people suffering in this Land called Holy?” Father Moschetti continues: “For me it was like reliving Christmas of 2007. December 27th of 2007 was the long-awaited day of general elections in Kenya. I lived in Korogocho in Kenya, among the largest slums of the capital Nairobi. The same exact day that the Israeli government decided to attack the Gaza Strip and Hamas in 2008. If you remember, in Kenya it was a war that touched me and us and for two months the tension, divisions, death and bloodshed were a daily occurrence for the Kenyan population. Korogocho was among the epicentres of this battle and cruel story. In the end the toll was of over 1,500 dead and more than 350,000 displaced in the country”. These memories of a year ago are tied to the present: “But all the Palestinians living in Israel (more than a million people with Israeli passports) and in the Occupied Territories by the Autonomy saw that Israel took advantage and continues in the years to take advantage to occupy Palestinian land careless of the Geneva convention and applies double standards in the occupied territories. The new settlements and arbitrations are undoubtedly a grave obstacle to peace. There will never be peace without mutual respect and understanding. The occupation has lasted for over 40 years and in these past years the situation has worsened, since Israel from fear of suicide-attacks in its territory built a 734km wall (7 meters high) in East Jerusalem, delimiting the entire territory of the Palestinian autonomy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with thousands of checkpoints everywhere, small and large, where abuse, humiliation, disrespect (toward Palestinians and at times foreigners) and the show of power of very young inexperienced Israeli soldiers rule. They already lived in a nation at war and occupied for a long time! However, with all these checkpoints, thousands of soldiers throughout the country, visible weapons everywhere in Jerusalem and the entire Israeli territory. There will never be peace while building walls, using force, humiliating, killing. Opening to dialogue and especially guiding their populations toward a peaceful coexistence is the only path for a lasting peace process”.
Fr. Moschetti also helps us to understand some aspects that are unclear from far: “But also Israel is not just Olmert, Netanyau, Sharon, Tzipi Livni, Peres, Barak. Also here I refuse to believe that the voice of the Jewish population is their politicians or Jewish religious extremists that exist like in Palestine and the Islamic world. The voice of an Israeli population that is not all for the war. Other of Olmert’s nationals working in Israeli peace organisations who without hesitation say: ‘We are responsible for the desperation of a population under siege. For weeks Hamas had declared that the truce could be renewed under the condition that Israel reopened the borders to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. The government of Israel chose in full awareness to ignore Hamas and cynically chose, for electoral aims, the path of war’. Even a minority of Jewish Rabbis condemn the attack in Gaza and recognise that it is contrary to any religion. In the past days in New York there was even a protest of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews, staged to demand an end to the massacre in Gaza. The famous Rabbi Michael Lerner, in a long letter, slammed the Israeli government for using the rockets fired by Hamas as a pretext to justify a new war after that conducted against Hezbollah two years ago. As there are other Israelis and Jews that want real peace and not only around the world. It must be noted that those who declare themselves pacifists and seek dialogue and peace with the Palestinians in this Jewish world are considered traitors. Michael Lerner also condemns the Hamas attacks, but insists in saying that war is however not an appropriate reaction, more so if unleashed by the government for political and electoral aims. An opinion that the world public opinion knows very little about”. He adds: “To date, the Israeli army claims to have successfully and totally eliminated more than 750 Hamas military targets. Though these targets are not only sites of the Hamas movement, but mosques, hospitals, clinics, schools, civilian homes, refugees camps and many others. Are they all armed? Are they all Hamas militants? Are Palestinians all terrorists? And the children? Are the children also terrorists, like the doctors, women and sick people? No... don’t tell me that this is what war is and that these things happen!” Among the many considerations in Fr. Moschetti’s letter, MISNA chose a passage that goes well beyond Gaza: “This reflection doesn’t intend to take sides, though it is difficult not to. I am and always will be on the side of the innocent, the children, women and poor who around the world, and not only in Gaza, have always been massacred by short-sighted policies, poverty or wars of interest”.
