Fr. Pavone and Bishop Zurek

Today came the news of the suspension of Fr. Frank Pavone, of Priests for Life. Bishop Zurek of Amarillo, the diocese in which until recently PFL kept its offices under the aegis of a different bishop who was supportive, suspended him from his pro-life operations, with allusions to unspecified financial concerns, and recalled him to Amarillo. It's too early to tell what's going on here, but Fr. Pavone's response certainly is eloquent, obedient, yet resolute. We'll see.

The wrong side of WHAT history?

Via CNS comes this tidbit that should be of interest to Catholics:

Thirteen U.S. senators who oppose the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) participated in a video for the pro-homosexual “It Gets Better” project, in which they encourage lesbian and gay youth to persevere and be optimistic about the future. In discussing the release of the video on Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, “DOMA, folks, is on the wrong side of history.”

Would that be the history in which every society has defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman? The history in which homosexual behavior has almost never been encouraged, let alone honored with the mantle of marriage? The history of two thousand years of consistent teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexual behavior? In case you were actually wondering about that, the answers to those questions is No. The history they have in mind is the recent history they have themselves concocted, the history in which every shred of sexual restraint with which societies have shielded themselves must go, because it's -- well -- so old-fashioned.

The senators featured in the video are: Al Franken (D-Minn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mark Udall, (D-Colo.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)

Please, all you Catholics who have cozied up to Democratic politicians because of their support for your favorite "social justice" issues, remember all those D's. No R's, only D's. And for fellow Californian Catholics, remember that, please, the next time Dianne Feinstein comes up for re-election.

A note for non-Catholics:

The Catholic Church does NOT teach that people with homosexual inclinations are worthless human beings who ought to kill themselves. It teaches that such people should do the same thing as everyone else who is tempted toward some evil (that is, all of us): just don't do it.

In contrast with this humane recognition of a transcendent worth in all human beings that's independent of their behavior, the suicides that are deplored in the Senators' video are just what's to be expected from a secular culture that ties people's entire identities to their sexuality. To these Senators and the millions who support them, gays aren't really people; they're labelled counters in a political game of power.

Just what you'd expect from the party whose leader doesn't want his daughters to be "punished" with an unexpected child who interferes with their plans.

Too bad the other guys aren't listening

Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Christian groups agree on ethical standards for proselytism

The agreement categorically condemns violence, “including the violation or destruction of places of worship, sacred symbols, or texts.”

That's all well and good, but unfortunately the signatories to this statement do not include those who are most often doing exactly that: Muslims and Hindus.

Not to mention that any statement that the World Council of Churches will agree to can't possibly be good for the spread of Christianity.

So what's the fuss about gay marriage?

Well-put here, from the Heritage Foundation:

Rather than a natural institution designed to bring the two sexes together around the mutual task of forming homes and raising the next generation of children, marriage has become in some locales a list of temporary bargains between adults that is meant to secure interests and benefits. The result is a less child-centered, duty-based, and future-focused institution. Redefining marriage continues a trend away from policies that focus social resources on children and long-term civil society.

The empty Catholic classroom

Whatever the defects of pre-Vatican-II Catholic schools, they were clear about one thing: they were Catholic. They existed because the Church wisely insisted that it was vital for children to be taught the Faith every day, along with reading and arithmetic and the other common subjects. Central to the program was the proposition that there was a distinctively Catholic way of looking at everything, that the Faith informed every part of life.

Math? We heard about the beauty of the order that God had placed in the universe, which math could reveal. Reading? Our textbooks were peppered with little examples of Catholics being Catholic. Geography? We read about the experiences of a family of Catholic missionary teachers in China in the early 1930's. Catholic parents were instructed that it was part of their duty to send their children to Catholic schools unless serious reasons prevented it, because the Catholic viewpoint was different from that of the culture around them.

And Catholic schools couldn't be built fast enough to meet the demand in my little suburban area near Los Angeles. My elementary school classrooms never had fewer than 45 students in them, some years as many as 55. Yet many Catholic kids had to be turned away because no more could be squeezed in.

Fast-forward forty years, and St. Mary's School in Fullerton had to be closed due to low enrollment. In most urban areas, Catholic schools are disappearing fast. Why? Though there have been many intertwined causes, the most important, in my opinion, is that they gradually lost almost everything distinctively Catholic about the education they offered.

If Catholic schools had continued to emphasize the most important thing, the Faith, they would have retained their unique value in parents' eyes. Instead, they gave up on their "brand", accepted the secular model, and touted their better test scores. More and more students in Catholic schools were non-Catholic, so pressure grew to downplay the religious content of each day, relegating the Faith to its own "Religion" class. But now that well-funded charter schools are catching up on that measure, Catholic schools appear to have little left to offer. As indeed they do.

Carrying the Faith forward to the next generation will always be a winning proposition for Catholic schools. But live by the test score, die by the test score.

Obedience

Obedience can be based on fear or upon love; fear of penalties for disobedience, or such great love that we can hardly conceive of being disloyal by disobeying. Most human obedience is a mix. Clearly though, God wants the latter.

East of Eden

"Why do bad things happen to good people?"

That question has gotten asked a lot in the past couple of decades. James Dobson wrote a book by that name, and when I was attending a Presbyterian church, before my return to Rome, it was often the topic of sermons. But I have to say I'm puzzled that Christians would even seriously pose the question. Here's why.

When God created the human race, He gave Adam and Eve a really terrific place to live: Eden. In fact, it wasn't just terrific; it was perfect for us.

But note that after Adam and Eve have their confrontation with God, they're banished from Eden. There was apparently a lot of Earth that wasn't Edenic at all. Good, of course, since God had created it; but not the perfect garden that our first parents had been given. I suspect that if things had turned out differently, God was going to invite Adam and Eve and their children (us) to spread the perfect order of Eden throughout the entire planet, in an immense act of what J.R.R. Tolkien referred to as "sub-creation." 

But the Fall short-circuited that plan. Adam and Eve betrayed God's trust in them, expressed in His single request, and instead grabbed for the Knowledge of Good and Evil that the forbidden fruit would bring them. Once they made their decision, I believe, they changed immediately and radically. They no longer "fit" in Eden.

At that point, God's choices included (1) just wipe out the human race and try again, (2) pat A&E on the head and say, "now, now, Daddy's going to give you another turn", and (3) send A&E out into the world whose management they had coveted more than their love for Him. The first would have been just but unmerciful. The second would have violated their dignity as human beings, able to choose and be held to the consequences of their choices. Only the third held out hope for a redemption of the human race; free will would be honored, and a long job of bringing the human will back into line with God's could begin.

So A&E would have to go into the outer world, still unshaped to the Edenic model, and live the best way they could devise with their new fancy Knowledge. And every day of our lives, we all experience just how great that turned out.

Murder, cruelty, war. Deception, slavery, death. And all the thousand ills that flesh is heir to.

So why do bad things happen to good people? Because this is the world we have crafted. It's not The Garden, that exquisitely ordered Creation that God, in His infinite wisdom, fashioned in one corner of the good but still raw Earth. It's the world that we children of Adam and Eve have fashioned after our own lights, using that nifty Knowledge of Good and Evil that we, their kids, still just can't pass up.

 

 

 

 

Become a bishop. Know everything immediately!

It seems that the bishop of Osaka, Japan, has weighed in about nuclear power. All nuclear power.

"The issue about the direction we are taking, to build other nuclear power plants, is an important question,” said Auxiliary Bishop Michael Goro Matsuura of Osaka. “Together with the Justice and Peace Commission of the Japanese Bishops, which I headed up until last year, we have raised awareness to fight the construction of new nuclear power plants in Japan and globally. I believe that this serious incident should be a lesson for Japan and for the entire planet, and will be an incentive to abandon these projects. We call on the solidarity of Christians worldwide to support this campaign.

This is a classic example of the tendency of today's bishops to spend time delivering opinions on subjects in which they have good intentions but no competence whatsoever.

Nuclear powerplants depend upon very sophisticated technology, which it takes years of study to master (much like theology -- hmmmm). Only a person with such training is truly qualified to judge how safe really-up-to-date nuclear plants are. And only once we're confident of the risks can we judge whether the benefits outweigh them.

I'm sure Bishop Matsuura is a good man. But in this, he has no more competence to judge for himself -- let alone "call on the solidarity of Christians worldwide" -- than the average informed lay person.

And I would have to ask the bishop to explain what his flock are supposed to do if he gets his way? What source of electrical power, available now and as cheaply as nuclear-generated power, are his flock supposed to use instead?

Or are they supposed to sit obediently in the cold and dark, meditating on the Peace and Justice which they will then enjoy?

Maryknoll madness

Only two years after it became impossible to ignore his defiance of Church doctrine, the Maryknolls have finally gotten around to dismissing Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a strident and persistent advocate of women's ordination to the Catholic priesthood.

Oh, wait. Apparently two years isn't enough time to be fully pastoral. They're only warning him of possible dismissal and laicization.

Faithful Catholics know this for what it is: justice delayed and delayed and delayed, open defiance going unpunished. And justice delayed, they say, is justice denied.

Non-Catholics, I suppose, are surprised at the fuss, since women are ordained all the time in Protestant denominations. The fuss, my friends, is that Catholic teaching, for good and sufficient reasons, states that only men may be ordained. It's part of the "brand", if you will.

And we view employees who bash our brand the same way that a Ford dealership would view salesmen who openly sell Chevys out the back door.

Hubbard to Cuomo: Heading for Hell? Need a lift?

Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, New York, has announced that a provision of Canon Law won't be enforced by the bishops of his state. That would be Canon 915, of course, which states that those "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

The person who will benefit from this episode of clerical nullification is the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who is both a supporter of abortion like his father, Mario, and also living with his girlfriend.

Bishop Hubbard says:

there are norms for all Catholics about receiving Communion and we have to be sensitive pastorally to every person in their own particular situation.

He goes on to say:

and when it comes to judging worthiness for Communion, we do not comment on either public figures or private figures. That’s something between the communicant and his pastor personally. It’s not something we comment on.

All right, step by step.

First, both conditions of the severity of the act are met. Both the fornication and the complicity in the vast murder operation represented by legalized abortion are "manifest" (since both are widely reported in the popular press), and both are publicly defended by Mr. Cuomo, contrary to the teachings of the Church.

Second, they're certainly "grave." I hope there wouldn't be too much disagreement here among Catholics.

Third, though I suppose opinions might differ on how to interpret "obstinately persevering" (e.g., how many times do you have to ignore warnings before you become obstinate? And how long can you draw out your defiance before you can be said to be persevering?), Mr. Cuomo's track record amply shows that he's been at these things for years.

Before anyone tries to avoid conflict by leaving it all up to Mr. Cuomo's conscience, we should take careful note the language of Canon 915. It doesn't say that those who do what Mr. Cuomo's doing shouldn't come up for Communion, but if they really really want to, and they feel that it's right, it's up to them. It says that they are "not to be admitted" to Communion.

And by whom can they be admitted or not admitted? The bishop, represented by the priest.

Bishop Hubbard says we must be "sensitive pastorally" to each person's situation. Fine. Could the laity then please have an explanation of the pastoral conditions to which he is being sensitive? Does Mr. Cuomo get his feelings hurt easily? Would it harm his self-esteem? Would some elderly relative be shocked into apoplexy if little Andy were publicly disciplined by a Bishop? What? Why does he get a pass?

I can hear some people already dragging out the tattered (and wrong) "judge not lest ye be judged" excuse. I'm not condemning him to Hell. That's up to God. But I am judging his public actions and his bishop's public pronouncements against the established moral and legal standards of our Church.

I would like to see Mr. Cuomo repudiate his previous pro-abortion stance, and at least get his live-in girlfriend to live out until the Church allows him (a divorced man) to marry again.

Because until Bishop Hubbard, and all the other bishops, begin denying him Holy Communion, the terrible words of 1 Corinthians 11:27 will hang over him:

Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.

So who is being careful and "pastoral" of the soul of such a man as Mr. Cuomo? Not the one who willingly gives him the Holy Eucharist and abets the destruction of his soul, that's for sure.

The Philippines: their present, our future

It seems that Planned Parenthood and its death-culture companion organizations are trying to push legislation through in the Philippines that would not only legalize contraception, but make it illegal to speak or write against the law, protest it, or otherwise oppose it, once it has passed. There's a week-long series going on at RealCatholicTV, and as usual, Michael Voris is direct and to the point:



As Planned Parenthood's own representatives have noted, once contraception and its mindset gets established in a culture, the number of abortions starts to rise, too. Abortions which PP is in the business of providing, and getting rich on. Great marketing, that!

If this works in the Philippines, look for efforts in the U.S. in the not-too-distant future to legislate penalties for opposing any "right" established directly by the Constitution, or found there by the Supreme Court.

Including abortion.

Hate speech, you know, to speak against anyone's established "rights"!

From the dramatic to the bland

Through Catholic Culture's very handy e-mail newsletter on the Liturgical Year, I learned that February 16th used to be the feast of St. Juliana, "a Christian virgin of Cumae, Italy, martyred for the faith when she refused to marry a Roman prefect." That's the kind of commemoration that a Catholic could find inspiring.

However, in the new calendar adopted after Vatican II, February 16th is now merely the Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time. Dull, bland, and boring. And what duller term could one have found for the daily struggle of Good and Evil than "Ordinary Time"?

With 2,000 years of Catholic heroes and heroines to choose from, why would any day not be used to call to mind a saint to encourage the faithful?

Nine months

Since it's the firmly established doctrine of the Catholic faith that human life begins at conception, why shouldn't the Church begin officially reckoning the age of Catholics as being the number of years since birth, plus nine months?

I know, it would make us look weird. But we aren't called to conform ourselves to this world's customs. We're called to be conformed to Christ, and if, in certain times and places, that makes us look weird, so be it.

The Philadelphia Horror

Perhaps you've seen the anemic local news coverage of the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his Women's Medical Society clinic in west Philadelphia, and thought, oh well, just another badly-run abortion mill.

But this one's different.

For an intelligent and detailed summary, go to MercatorNet. There you'll also find a link to a PDF of the full Grand Jury report, which I highly recommend reading, if you have a strong stomach. A very strong stomach. And lots of your favorite means of mood-improvement ready to hand, because you are going to need it.

Especially if you're Catholic, because part of the story involves the suspension of abortion clinic inspections by "Catholic" pro-choice former governor Tom Ridge. I wonder how many "pastoral" contacts Gov. Ridge had from his various bishops on the subject of his support for abortion?

The President on abortion

Here's President Obama's statement marking the 38th anniversary of Roe (my comments in bold):

Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. [Never mind that the government employees at your local public school will be happy to help your teen daughter find a way to get an abortion without your knowledge, let alone consent. But of course, that's not really intruding on "private family matters"].

I am committed to protecting this constitutional right. [Yep, it's in there among the "penumbras" and "emanations." Really. You just gotta look hard.] I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption. organization [Note that he didn't mention efforts that would actually try to dissuade women from choosing to abort. That might help make abortion rare, which wouldn't be good for a certain big campaign-contributor organization that makes millions by providing abortions.]

And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams. [In other words, the freedom to have sex just as irresponsibly as the crudest and most degenerate men. What a triumph for women that is! And you can fulfill your dreams just like men, too! You too can get right back on track to the Big Education that leads to the Big Career that leads to the Big Lifestyle -- and to the shattering Big Emptiness that comes at the end.]

Oh, but I forgot. The President's SO good on the social justice stuff! That trumps everything.

Walk for Life West Coast

Participated in the Walk for Life West Coast today. One darned big crowd! It took an hour for the tail of the parade to leave Justin Herman Plaza.

I saw only a handful of counter-demonstrators. The Sisters of Perpetual Whatever-It-Is had a couple of representatives, and there was a guy with a big sign reading "Pope John Paul II / Patron Saint of Pedophiles". Pretty pitiful.

I think they're getting discouraged. It's tough to have another team come into your house and bring in bigger crowds than you do!

Missing the point

According to a local print-only newspaper, the Daily Post, Planned Parenthood is looking at leasing a new location in on El Camino Real in nearby Redwood City. Nothing too unusual in that, although PP seems to be closing more facilities than it's opening these days.

The thing that caught my attention was this reported reaction of a neighbor:

John Thomas, a resident who lives on nearby Selby Lane, said it's an inappropriate location for a clinic. Thomas said he fears the clinic will draw protesters with signs depicting aborted fetuses in an area where children walk to school.

... I'm not comfortable seeing that," Thomas told the Post. "I don't see how how anybody could be comfortable."

In other words, it's OK with Mr. Thomas that abortions might be done in his neighborhood. He just doesn't want to see any pictures of abortion around, to shock the kids (that is, the ones who didn't get aborted themselves), or make him uncomfortable.

I live in one very weird place.

Bishop Finn: ‘Abortion too monumental a disgrace to neglect’

The Catholic Key Blog: Bishop Finn: ‘Abortion too monumental a disgrace to neglect’

Would that every diocese -- including my own of San Jose, California -- had as forthright a defender of life as Bishop Finn.

War and Remembrance: one thing right

A few posts ago, I complained bitterly about the casual anti-Catholic attitude which Herman Wouk seemed to support through some of his characters in his novel War and Remembrance. However, these words he gives to one of his protagonists, Aaron Jastrow, are right on the money:

The lesson was writ plain by Thucydides centuries before Christ was born. Democracy satisfies best the human thirst for freedom; yet, being undisciplined, turbulent, and luxury-seeking, it falls time and again to austere single-minded despotism.

In the World War II setting of War and Remembrance, obviously the "single minded despotism" was Nazism, and secondarily Soviet Communism and Japanese militarism.

Now, it's radical Islam. We were very very lucky to escape those other single-minded despotisms. We're sixty years further down the decline of our culture; I wonder if we'll be lucky -- or blessed -- again.

A witty riposte to Apple from the Manhattan Declaration

UPDATE:

When I later viewed this video at YouTube, I was appalled at the nasty comments from the LGBTQ etc. side -- and the number of them -- and so I did what I swore I'd never do: I posted a YouTube comment myself. Don't know if it will be "accepted" by the powers that be, so here it is:

The LGBTQ etc. "community" wants only one thing: to suppress ANY form of objection, no matter how measured, to their lifestyle choices. Their agitation against the MD app demonstrates that very well. And since when is it "hateful" to call someone else's behavior immoral? Gandhi did it; MLK did it; the antiwar movement did it; and so did the gay movement. Did these all therefore "hate" their opponents? Should their "hateful" opinions have been silenced, too?

Gay activists know that if they can effectively intimidate and control the iPhone App Store, they can censor what iPhone users can see -- and that population is a pretty large and influential one.

We ignore this fight at our peril.