Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 212
June 25, 2012
Should Catholics Acquiesce in Today’s Homosexual “Rights” Agenda?
Kenneth D. Whitehead | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
Christians, including Catholics, are acquiescing, and even favoring, the idea that homosexual behavior must be considered, at least, morally neutral…and must be considered something to which those, so inclined, have a right.
One of the most surprising, and dismaying, developments of recent years has been the degree to which Americans have come to accept the agenda of the radical homosexual “rights” movement—the “gays,” as they style themselves. They have also largely succeeded in getting Americans to accept their alteration of the meaning of what was once a perfectly good word, simply meaning “cheerful” or “happy,” but now meaning what they want it to mean.
Nor is today’s increased acceptance of the gay “rights” agenda confined to secularists, or to the religiously indifferent. Christians, including Catholics, in significant numbers are acquiescing in, and even favoring the idea, that homosexual behavior must no longer be disapproved of, or stigmatized. It must, at the very least, be considered morally neutral, if not actually somehow meritorious. Indeed, it must be considered something to which those, so inclined, have a right.
This viewpoint has, sadly, become widespread, if not dominant, not only in American society generally, but it has also affected—and sometimes divided—Christian communions and denominations, as well. Some of which, as a result of its influence, have deviated, and even departed entirely, from the traditional Christian understanding that always regarded same-sex intimacy as morally wrong, and out of bounds.
The same kind of deviation from the traditional Christian understanding has sometimes manifested itself within the Catholic Church. It has appeared in such phenomena as unauthorized “rainbow” Masses, and special “ministries,” carried out here and there in spite of the Church’s continuing strong moral condemnation of homosexual acts and practices. All in all, the “gays” have clearly succeeded in garnering considerable Christian sympathy for their dubious project.
When we consider the traditional Christian view of homosexual behavior, however—a view that, up until very recently, was largely reflected in society at-large—we must necessarily be surprised, not only at the degree, but at the rapidity, with which this deviant behavior has come to be accepted as both normal and natural.
June 23, 2012
St. John the Baptist: Called by God and filled with the Spirit to proclaim the Son
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, June 24, 2012, The Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
• Is 49:1-6
• Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
• Acts 13:22-26
• Lk 1:57-66, 80
The birth of a child is a momentous occasion, filled with joy, hope, and, yes, some apprehension. It is also a time of transition; it breaks time into “before” and “after,” and brings all sorts of changes into the lives of parents, family, and friends.
The Church, in the course of the liturgical year, celebrates the birth of three people, related by blood, bound together by the work of the Holy Spirit, and united in bringing about the greatest “before” and “after” in the history of the world.
The greatest of these solemnities is, of course, the Nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The second is the Nativity of the Mother of God, the blessed Virgin Mary, who was conceived, born, and lived without sin. The third is John the Baptist, whose role in the mystery of God’s plan of salvation is difficult to exaggerate and yet is often taken for granted.
While Mary was chosen to bear and mother the Son of God, John the Baptist was chosen to prepare the way for the Lamb of God and to announce Him to the world. “John surpasses all the prophets,” remarks the Catechism, “of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being ‘the friend of the bridegroom’, whom he points out as ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (CCC 523).
But, the Catechism also points out, John was more than a prophet (CCC 719). He was the culmination of a long and illustrious line of prophets who spoke and suffered for the Lord. Today’s reading from Isaiah, in which that Old Testament prophet described how God named him while yet in the womb, finds perfect fulfillment in John. His father, the priest Zechariah, had been told by an angel—as he offering incense in the temple—that he would have a son whose name would be John. “He will be great in the sight of the Lord,” the frightened priest was told, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Lk 1:13-17).
The birth, life, and martyrdom of John the Baptist are intimately connected with the work of the Holy Spirit. Even before birth he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and from the womb he leapt in recognition of his Lord’s presence (Lk 1:41). He was the “voice of the Consoler” who was yet to come, bearing witness to the light of Christ, just as the Holy Spirit has done since Pentecost (CCC 719).
When the Triune nature of God was revealed at Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan, it was John who, reluctantly, performed the baptism. That revelatory event marked the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and John’s declaration, as a self-described “best man” of the Bridegroom, “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3:30).
This feast celebrating John the Baptist’s birth is also a celebration of the prophet’s role in paving the way for the new birth granted to all those baptized into Christ. “Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of ‘the divine likeness,’ prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's baptism was for repentance; baptism in water and the Spirit will be a new birth” (CCC 720).
Called by God, John knew who he was because he always saw himself in relation to Jesus. Filled with the Holy Spirit, John poured out his life for the Kingdom, his own death foreshadowing the crucifixion of the King of Kings. Born in the midst of the greatest events of human history, John the Baptist continues to declare, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the June 24, 2007, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
June 22, 2012
Myth-Busting the Mandate Debate
Myth-Busting the Mandate Debate | Sister Renée Mirkes | Catholic World Report
From the “War on Women” to a “Catholics-only fight”—coverage of the HHS controversy is rife with distortions and misinformation.
On August 1, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) issued the guidelines and regulations for women’s “protective services,” and finalized them on February 10, 2012. The final rule—popularly dubbed “the contraceptive mandate”—requires all group health plans and health insurance issuers to provide the full range of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved contraceptives/sterilizations (and associated counseling) as part of the “preventive services” for women mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These FDA-approved contraceptives include potential abortion-inducing or “emergency” contraceptive drugs, intrauterine devices, as well as surgical sterilizations, all to be made available without co-pays from employees or their dependents.
The HHS mandate narrowly defines a religious employer as someone who: (1) has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and (4) is a non-profit organization. Thus, most, if not all, religious institutional and individual employers, as well as religious insurers, are not exempt and, under this mandate, will be subject to violations of their religious liberty.
The HHS mandate spawned a tsunami of debate. On one side stands the mandate’s Democratic and feminist proponents; on the other, its detractors, the US Catholic bishops (and like-minded religious and secular leaders). Here, we critique five myths that, like flotsam and jetsam, have washed up on the shores of this national controversy.
Submerged in the Ocean
Submerged in the Ocean | David Paul Deavel | Catholic World Report
The challenges in Catholic conversion don’t end at the Church’s door.
“I think more should be written about conversion within the Church. It is a more difficult subject than conversion without.” — Flannery O’Connor
By the time I was received into the Catholic Church 15 years ago I had already read a number of stories of conversions to the faith—Newman’s Apologia, Avery Dulles’ A Testimonial to Grace, Scott Hahn’s Rome Sweet Home, and many others in essay or book form. I still love reading conversion stories, not just from people whose background is like mine (Evangelical and Calvinist), but from a wide variety of religious, philosophical, and cultural backgrounds. Each one reminds me yet again that, in Chesterton’s words, “The Church is a house with a hundred gates; and no two men enter at exactly the same angle.” Yet entering from a hundred gates they all find a welcome since, as Hilaire Belloc put it, the Church is “the natural home of the Human Spirit.”
But conversion stories, with their dramatic conclusions, may by their very genre leave an incomplete impression. The convert has found the gate and entered and is now at home. The story is now over. There is nothing more to be done. In the case of some lives, that may be true. If you enter the Church on your deathbed, there isn’t much to be done but pray and wait for the end—after that a bit of roasting in purgatory, but that’s passive. For most of us who enter the Church, our conversion is not the end of this life, but more like a new beginning. While it is a home, it is also like the stable in Bethlehem: it is bigger on the inside than the out. This discovery is both exhilarating and frightening in equal measures. It requires that the Catholic convert always be a convert, not just in the sense of having that past action a part of his identity, but also that conversion is a lifelong activity. Flannery O’Connor wrote to a friend, “You don’t join the Catholic Church. You become a Catholic.” That process, I’ve discovered, involves more than just the sacraments of initiation and a good first confession. It has its own joys and challenges.
“It felt like being submerged into the ocean.” Former Episcopalian R. R. Reno used this image to explain to a friend what his experience of conversion was. He meant that, like the ocean and unlike his Protestant denomination, he found ultimately that the Catholic Church was beyond any theological theory and needed no theological theory to prop it up. It is, as Reno puts it, “the mother of theologies.” The Church partakes in the infinite mystery of Christ and is thus beyond our comprehension. While many converts can say this, the actual experience of it is something different.
June 21, 2012
Essential reading for the Fortnight for Freedom kick-off
From Catherine Harmon, managing editor of Catholic World Report:
Today marks the beginning of the “Fortnight for Freedom,” the 14 days before Independence Day designated by the US bishops as a “special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action [that] will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty.”
As might be expected, a good deal of virtual ink has already been spilled as commentators across the web grapple with the issues at the heart of the Fortnight for Freedom observance, including religious liberty, conscience protection, and the role of the Church in the public square. Here are some the best pieces on these subjects, as the bishops’ campaign kicks off today.
Revisiting the Anointing of the Sick: Some Problems Today
Revisiting the Anointing of the Sick: Some Problems Today | Father Mark A. Pilon, STL, STD | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
The Church needs to clarify the administration of the sacrament of the anointing of the sick for a number of reasons.
In 1974, when I was a deacon in Texas, a priest from Fort Worth came to Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas to speak to the deacon class about ministry to the sick and dying. I remember only one thing he told us that day, because it indicated to me that the administration of the sacrament of the anointing of the sick was in some quarters going amuck. This was only a few years after Pope Paul VI’s promulgation of the apostolic constitution revising the Pastoral Care of the Sick and how this sacrament was to be administered. Because we had read this document prior to this talk, it struck me as quite an abuse when the priest stated that he had established the practice of administering this sacrament to all who reached the age of fifty-five.
At first I thought it was a joke, but it turned out that he was quite serious. When someone asked him how this practice was justified by the norms of the Holy See, he simply shrugged it off and told us that the theology of the sacrament had evolved, and was no longer restricted to any particular degree of sickness. Additionally, he said that he thought fifty-five was the proper time for its administration due to “old age.”
“But why fifty-five?” I asked. He simply replied that because a lot of people retire by that age, administration of the sacrament is appropriate. I guessed that if the speaker could propose this bit of illogic, and gross misreading of the norms, at this fairly conservative seminary, abuses of the sacrament were likely much broader in the rest of the country. Over the years, my suspicion has proven to be an unfortunate fact.
While I personally have not encountered this particular abuse again, I have witnessed a number of other quite common practices that are also difficult to square with the norms in Pope Paul VI’s Sacram Unctionem Infirmorum (On the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick) and the subsequent Ordo regarding Pastoral Care of the Sick (PCS).
A Poet Reflects on Our Times
A Poet Reflects on Our Times | Ann Applegarth | Catholic World Report
Dana Gioia’s new collection of poetry is a finely crafted consideration of the true and the beautiful.
When Dana Gioia (pronounced JOY-uh) was appointed Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California, the position he now holds, David St. John of USC described his new colleague as “partly an old-fashioned storyteller and partly a metaphysical poet of reflection and devotion.”
In Pity the Beautiful, Gioia’s long-awaited fourth volume of poems, the poet wears both hats with grace. The 32 poems manage to soar toward the tip of heaven while remaining firmly grounded in the daily lives and loves of real and imaginary people who populate his poetic earth.
During the years in which he became a widely published poet, essayist, translator, critic, and editor, Gioia also achieved success as a businessman. After earning BA and MBA degrees from Stanford University and an additional MA in comparative literature from Harvard University, he worked for General Foods, becoming vice-president in charge of marketing for the Jell-O and Kool-Aid accounts. He resigned his corporate position in 1992 to write full-time.
In 1991, Gioia gained international prominence with publication in the Atlantic of his seminal essay “Can Poetry Matter?”, a persuasive argument that poetry is essential to an educated society. A year later, his book by the same title continued to fuel a return to poetry as the property of all the people and not exclusively that of academic specialists.
June 20, 2012
Ignatius Press announces forthcoming release of the film, "Restless Heart"
Ignatius Press brings exclusive theatrical film on beloved saint to America
Contact: Tim Lilley, 678-990-9032,TLilley@MaximusMG.com; Kevin Wandra, 678-990-9032,KWandra@MaximusMG.com
SAN FRANCISCO, June 20, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- St. Augustine of Hippo is one of the Christian world's most beloved and well-known saints. However, his amazing conversion and heroic life have not been told on the big screen ... until now.
Ignatius Press announces the forthcoming release of RESTLESS HEART: The Confessions of Augustine. This major motion picture is available now for sponsored theatrical screenings across the country. Individuals, parishes, church groups or other organizations can bring this epic film to their towns beginning immediately.
"We are thrilled to bring RESTLESS HEART to the big screen," said Ignatius Press President Mark Brumley. "St. Augustine is one of the first Doctors of the Church, along with St. Ambrose, St. Jerome and St. Gregory the Great -- named in 1268 by Pope Boniface VIII. His story is inspiring and compelling, and his writings are among the most respected in the world even today.
"RESTLESS HEART is amazing," he added. "It is the most moving story of conversion and reconciliation ever brought to the big screen, and Ignatius Press is honored to offer this film to America."
"RESTLESS HEART offers a soul-stirring portrait of a great sinner who became one of the Church's greatest saints," said National Catholic Register writer Tim Drake. "It's a timeless conversion story for our age -- a testament to the power of Truth."
Unlike many faith-based films that open in limited release around the country and often don't make it to cities and towns with significant interest, RESTLESS HEART is available for showing anywhere. Interested groups and individuals work with local theaters and other venues to rent a screen, and Ignatius provides a copy of the film with a complete promotional kit for an affordable fee.
"RESTLESS HEART tells St. Augustine's story with superb production values, and it features an outstanding cast," Brumley added. "We look forward to working with parishes, other organizations, and individuals across the country to bring St. Augustine’s life to as many people as possible. This is a tremendous opportunity to launch the Year of Faith and engage in the New Evangelization."
An exclusive, extended trailer of the film is available online now at www.RestlessHeartFilm.com. For more information or interviews, please contact Tim Lilley (678-990-9032 or emailTLilley@MaximusMG.com) or Kevin Wandra (678-990-9032 or email KWandra@Maximusmg.com) of The Maximus Group.
To bring RESTLESS HEART to a theater in your area, please contact Victor Pap (678-990-9032 or emailVPap@MaximusMG.com) or Brandon Duncan (678-990-9032 or email BDuncan@MaximusMG.com) of The Maximus Group.
About the Film
RESTLESS HEART provides a historic backdrop and one of the Church's most beloved and well-known saints -- Augustine of Hippo -- as its central character to tell a familiar story -- as timely today as it was only a few generations after Jesus walked on Earth. It is the story of one who pursues fame and fortune without a moral compass -- and the changes that occur when events lead him to see the light. It also chronicles the collapse of the Roman world and how Augustine laid the intellectual foundations of what became Europe.
Filmed in Europe, this major new epic film on the life of St. Augustine is the first full-length feature movie on the story of this incredible man.
RESTLESS HEART is directed by Christian Duguay ("Joan of Arc," "Pius XII"). The $20-million project runs 127 minutes. The cast includes Allesandro Presiosi, Monica Guerritore, Johannes Brandrup, Serena Rossi and Franco Nero.
June 19, 2012
Human Rights and Natural Law
By Archbishop Rino Fisichella, recently posted on the Homiletic & Pastoral Review site:
(This lecture was delivered earlier at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.)
Human Rights
When, therefore, I see the right and capacity to enact everything given to any authority whatsoever—whether it be called people or king, democracy or aristocracy, whether exercised in a monarchy or a republic—I say: the seed of tyranny lies there, and I seek to live under different laws. 1
Alexis de Tocqueville’s statement, although made many years ago, is, without a doubt, especially relevant today. The historical period we are living in today seems to recognize a sort of unbounded extension of individual rights, which can only alarm those who have the good of all society at heart. It would appear that the contents of the 1948 United Nations’ “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” now forms part of the cultural patrimony of the world. As Pope Benedict XVI has stated, in his discourse to the United Nations on April 18th, 2008, that this document highlights: “The result of a convergence of religious and cultural traditions, all motivated by the desire to place the human person in the heart of institutions, laws and actions in society, and to consider the human person essential for the world of culture, religion and science”.
Whatever judgment one would arrive at, that document remains as an event that has altered the history of nations and, therefore, represents a point of no return. Such a document, after all, by its very nature, requires that it be injected with the spirit proper to every generation that reads it, interpreting it always in a new way, and in light of the changes that history brings. The passing of the decades, therefore, does not occur in vain, but allows us to analyze the path taken thus far, realizing how much still needs to be accomplished in order to fulfill the wishes of those who inspired the document. It is important to ask ourselves how much of the Declaration has been fulfilled in these last decades. What should we say about recent incidences of genocide and religious conflicts; or about the defense of life, from conception until natural death; or about the dignity of the family? Should we not consider the growing gap between the planet’s few wealthy people—holding immense financial resources—and the millions of men, women, and children, living in absolute poverty? Are we still capable of concern for those nations that are in a permanent state of underdevelopment? Are we still sensitive to, and worried about, the use of torture, the arbitrariness of capital punishment, and the unfolding drama of millions of refugees seeking assistance? What is left to say of the tremendous international silence concerning massacres, inflicted without any reason, upon Christians in different parts of the world?
If we move the analysis onto a cultural plane, we cannot deny that something extraordinary is happening in various societies. Revolutionary technologies, especially in the area of health care, are provoking new ethical questions, which often do not find adequate answers. Discoveries relating to the human genome, cloning, genetically modified organisms, the donating and trafficking of human organs, the questionable experiments with human cells, as well as pushing the very limits of behaviour in one’s personal life—to name just a few examples—highlight, on the one hand, the recourse to novel individual rights; and, on the other hand, a real emptiness of values and ethics, raising the ante tremendously. These kinds of problems cannot be addressed politically if, at first, they are not confronted with due care and intelligence culturally: to be able examine the anthropological concept at the root of this situation with a culture so affected by such a simplistic, fashionable relativism.
The Orthodoxy of Catholic Ecology
The Orthodoxy of Catholic Ecology | William L. Patenaude | Catholic World Report
Christianity challenges the world with the unique dignity of not just the human person, but all of creation.
When Pope Benedict XVI addressed Germany’s parliament last September, he brought up a topic that would have delighted its Green Party members had they not been boycotting the talk: the Pontiff acknowledged and even praised the ecological motivations for the party’s inception in the 1970s. He did so, of course, not to endorse the entirety of their platform, but because he and members of the Green Party share a similar concern for the natural world. By speaking of this shared concern, the Holy Father linked the laws of nature to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, turning his podium into a pulpit.
Magisterial references to ecology are noteworthy because the subject appears to be a new species within Catholic social thought. This “newness”—and the unfortunate politicization of such issues as climate change and the use of fossil fuels—have led to confusion and more than a few heated debates about whether a good Catholic should be discussing ecology at all—and if so, how.
But given that Benedict XVI is a good Catholic, one can assume that his flock can also speak of ecological concerns from a foundation of revelation and magisterial teachings as well as scientific discoveries. Catholics throughout the Church’s ideological continuum can and should engage in ecological discourse because, in part, it is a topic that evangelizes, unites, and teaches what it means to be human.
While environmental issues may be a recent addition to formal magisterial documents, the Catholic appreciation of ecology is not a new phenomenon, as some would claim. Just as Christ would retreat to the wilderness to fast and pray, so monks and hermits would do likewise, from the first centuries of the Church until today. Moreover, Catholicism’s sacraments proclaim how the physicality of creation partners with grace—not because grace needs a partner, but because its Source chooses that this be so. After all, are not the bread and wine offered in the Mass the stuff of agriculture—of vegetation, water, air, soil, sun, and the work of human hands?
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