Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 242
February 1, 2012
Benedict XVI on Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
From Vatican Information Service:
VATICAN CITY, 1 FEB 2012 (VIS) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall the Holy Father received thousands of pilgrims from around the world in his weekly general audience. As part of a series of catecheses dedicated to the prayers pronounced by Christ, he focused his remarks on Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Mark the Evangelist narrates how, following the Last Supper, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and readied Himself for personal prayer. "But this time", the Pope said, "something new occurred; it seemed that He did not want to remain alone. Many times in the past Jesus had moved away from the crowds, even from His own disciples. ... However, in Gethsemane he invited Peter, James and John to stay close by; the same disciples who had accompanied Him during the Transfiguration.
"The proximity of these three during the prayer at Gethsemane is significant", Benedict XVI added. It represents "a request for solidarity at the moment in which He felt the approach of death. Above all it was a closeness in prayer, an expression of unity with Him at the moment in which He was preparing to accomplish the Father's will to the end, an invitation to all disciples to follow Him on the path of the Cross".
Jesus' words to the three disciples - "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here and keep awake" - show that He was feeling "fear and anguish at that 'Hour', experiencing the ultimate profound solitude as God's plan was being accomplished. Jesus fear and anguish comprehend all the horror that man feels at the prospect of his own death, its inexorable certainty and the perception of the burden of evil which affects our lives".
Having invited His disciples to keep awake, Jesus moved away from them. Referring to the Gospel of St. Mark, the Pope noted that Jesus "threw Himself to the ground: a position for prayer which expresses obedience to the Father's will, an abandonment of self with complete trust in Him". Jesus then asks the Father that, if possible, the hour might pass from Him. "This is not just the fear and anguish of man in the face of death", the Holy Father explained, "but the distress of the Son of God Who sees the terrible accumulation of evil He must take upon Himself, in order to overcome it and deprive it of power".
In this context, Benedict XVI invited the faithful to pray to God, placing before Him "our fatigue, the suffering of certain situations and of certain days, our daily struggle to follow Him and to be Christians, and the burden of evil we see within and around us, that He may give us hope, make us aware of His closeness and give us a little light on life's journey".
Returning then to Jesus' prayer, the Pope focused on "three revealing passages" in Christ's words: "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want but what you want". Firstly, Benedict XVI said, the Aramaic word "Abba" is used by children to address their fathers, "therefore it express Jesus relationship with God the Father, a relationship of tenderness, affection and trust". Secondly, Jesus' words contain an acknowledgment of the Father's omnipotence "introducing a request in which, once again, we see the drama of Jesus' human will in the face of death and evil. ... Yet the third expression ... is the decisive one, in which the human will adheres fully to the divine will. ... Jesus tells us that only by conforming their will to the divine will can human beings achieve their true stature and become 'divine'. ... This is what Jesus does in Gethsemane. By transferring human will to the divine will the true man is born and we are redeemed".
When we pray the Our Father "we ask the Lord that 'your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven'. In other words, we recognise that God has a will for us and with us, that God has a will for our lives and, each day, this must increasingly become the reference point for our desires and our existence. We also recognise that ... 'earth' becomes 'heaven' - the place where love, goodness, truth and divine beauty are present - only if the will of God is done".
In our prayers "we must learn to have greater trust in Divine Providence, to ask God for the strength to abandon our own selves in order to renew our 'yes', to repeat to Him 'your will be done', to conform our will to His. This is a prayer we must repeat every day, because it is not always easy to entrust oneself to the will of God".
The Gospel says that the disciples were unable to remain awake for Christ, and Pope Benedict concluded his catechesis by saying: "Let us ask the Lord for the power to keep awake for Him in prayer, to follow the will of God every day even if He speaks of the Cross, to live in ever increasing intimacy with the Lord and bring a little of God's 'heaven' to this 'earth'".
Following the catechesis the Holy Father delivered greetings in a number of languages to the pilgrims filling the Paul VI Hall. They included a group of British military chaplains, faithful from Hong Kong and South America, bishops friends of the Sant'Egidio Community from Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as young people and the sick.
A Dangerous Practice: Catholic interest in the Enneagram persists
A Dangerous Practice | Anna Abbott | Catholic World Report
Catholic interest in the Enneagram persists
The Enneagram is a nine-sided figure that looks like a theorem straight from Euclid's Elements. Instead of teaching basic mathematical facts, however, the Enneagram purports to teach a path to enlightenment, a path that Church leaders find worrisome.
In 2000, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops prepared a draft statement, "A Brief Report on the Origins of the Enneagram," cautioning against its use. It was never published, but it can be found on the website of the National Catholic Reporter. In 2003, the Vatican's document "Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life" discussed the dangers of New Age spirituality, and mentioned the Enneagram in its glossary. In 2004, the USCCB Committee on Doctrine released "Report on the Use of the Enneagram: Can It Serve as a True Instrument of Christian Spiritual Growth?" for the conference's internal use. Father Thomas Weinandy of the USCCB's Secretariat of Doctrine provided that report for this article.
Last February, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami explained Catholic teaching on the Enneagram and related subjects in an online column titled, "New Age is Old Gnosticism." He wrote that the Enneagram is a "pseudo-psychological exercise supposedly based on Eastern mysticism, [which] introduces ambiguity into the doctrine and life of the Christian faith and therefore cannot be happily used to promote growth in an authentic Christian spirituality." The archbishop's column is the clearest available teaching for the laity on this topic, and a neat summary of the bishops' reports.
The Enneagram redefines sin, among other fundamental concepts, by simply associating faults with personality types, which is particularly tempting in a cultural climate of irresponsibility and narcissism. It encourages an unhealthy self-absorption about one's own "type," so that the type is at fault rather than the person. This gives rise to a deterministic mindset at odds with Christian freedom.
Does Morality Inhibit Freedom? (Aquinas vs. Ockham)
Does Morality Inhibit Freedom? Kathleen Curran Sweeney | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
St. Thomas Aquinas gave primacy to the natural reason as formative in our free choices—the use of reason ordered to truth, and the will ordered to the good, uniting to make a choice.
"Jesus didn't come to give us a bunch of rules." Perhaps you have heard this kind of complaint. Some people seem to think that expressing a clearly defined morality is locking them up in some kind of invisible prison that is constricting their freedom. They may equate moral standards with self-righteous hypocrisy. They don't want to be "moral machines" following a "hard cold legalism."
Where does this view of Christian morality come from? Is it really true that one has to choose between moral standards and personal freedom? Do we need to choose between either obeying rules imposed on us from the outside or going with the deepest longings of our own heart? Is there actually a dichotomy between moral righteousness and the desires of our heart?
The first Christians were full of joy to learn that the man, Jesus Christ, is not only the Truth but is its Way, as well. They were full of love for the Person, the Lord Jesus, who had died to free them from their sins. They understood that the purpose of life is to seek happiness, but also that this happiness is grounded in knowing the good and avoiding evil. The connection between happiness and knowing the good was very close. Moral standards were guides to keep one on the road to final happiness with God. When did Christians lose sight of the relationship between morality and happiness?
It is important for Christians today to understand that the source of many contemporary attitudes toward the moral life lies in the theology of voluntarism, closely associated with the philosophy of nominalism, which developed in the early 14th century, contributing to a rigid moralism widely practiced since the 1600s. Voluntarism stressed that the only content of morality is obedience to commandments coming from authority outside of oneself. Voluntaristic nominalism was most extensively developed and proposed by William of Ockham (c.1285–1349), who set out to oppose St. Thomas Aquinas' teaching on freedom. Ockham's teaching was controversial from the start, and continues to be. Nevertheless, the influence of voluntaristic and nominalistic thinking has been deep, widespread and perduring.
January 31, 2012
The Ratzinger brothers
Robert Rauhut reviews My Brother, The Pope, by Georg Ratzinger, available in March from Ignatius Press:
In the recently published German interview book My Brother, the Pope, with the writer Michael Hesemann, Msgr. Georg 
Ratzinger shares many deep and detailed memories of the family life of the Ratzingers. The nine chapters of the book supply a tour d'horizon of their lives, beginning with remembrances of their ancestors and ending with details about how the Pope and his only brother spend their time together nowadays, mostly in Rome.
Published last September in Germany, the book will be published in English this March by Ignatius Press.
Msgr. Ratzinger draws the picture of a typically Catholic Bavarian family of their time, underlining how important their environment and relatives were for their future as priests. He describes the various rites of popular piety for every feast, for example, providing, perhaps, inspiration for modern Catholics on how to celebrate the liturgical year.
Msgr. Ratzinger also addresses a claim of German Nobel Prize winner Günther Grass that he had met the future Pope in a POW camp. The young Josef Ratzinger, Grass said, in the 2006 interview, was "extremely Catholic" and "occasionally used Latin citations."
"That's perhaps a nice story, but it is not true," Msgr. Ratzinger writes. Grass seems "to have probably fantasized something." They may have been in the same camp, but "either at a different location or at a different time." Josef Ratzinger, his brother writes, has an excellent memory and would remember such an encounter with Günther Grass.
Read the entire review on the National Catholic Register website.
New: "Shadows and Images: A Novel"
Now available from Ignatius Press:
Shadows and Images: A Novelby Meriol Trevor
This is the story of a Protestant young woman and her journey to the Roman Catholic Church. The fascinating novel is set in nineteenth-century England-a time when Catholicism was regarded with suspicion and prejudice against Catholics was commonplace. Leaving her sheltered life in the countryside, young Clem becomes acquainted with the fascinating ideas and people of Oxford-including a brilliant young clergyman, John Henry Newman. But when her relationship to a Roman Catholic man with a colorful reputation leads to an Italian elopement that is more innocent than it appears, the scandal drives a wedge between Clem and the upright Anglican circle of friends and family she left behind. Woven into the story of Clem and Augustine, their courtship and marriage, and Clem's conversion, is the vital, influential, and holy Newman, as seen through the eyes of friends.
Meriol Trevor's engaging plot charts the ongoing friendship between Newman and the couple as it spans many years during which pivotal historical influences, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Oxford Movement, are shaping Victorian England.
Many important events, personages, and ideas in the life of Newman appear in the story-his reasons for becoming a Roman Catholic, his differences with Cardinal Manning, his work in the Birmingham Oratory, and his being made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. The author, a renowned biographer of Newman, used Newman's actual correspondence as the basis for his parts in the dialogue.
"The love between Clem and Augustine Firle provides a nuptial counterpart to the love-affair between Newman and his God, which like their love came into focus and bore fruit over a great many years. It is the portrait of changing views and perspectives which form a slow organic development, marked out, to use a Newmanian term, by true 'chronic vigour'."
-Leonie Caldecott, from the Foreword
Meriol Trevor (1919-2000) was educated at St. Hugh's College, Oxford. One of the most prolific Catholic writers of the twentieth century, she wrote more than thirty novels, for both adults and children, and several major biographies. She is best known for her comprehensive biography of Cardinal John Henry Newman published in the early sixties. In 1967, she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society for Literature in England.
January 30, 2012
Thriving Catholic Schools
Thriving Catholic Schools | Jim Graves | Catholic World Report
Catholic schools have been in decline for fifty years, but there are signs of hope.
Many were shocked and saddened in January when Archbishop Charles Chaput and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced the closing of 48 of its schools, about a quarter of its total. The Archdiocese has lost more than a third of its students in the last decade, leaving it today with about the same number of students as it had a century ago.
Based on numbers, Catholic schools in America have been in a state of decline over the past half-century. In the early 1960s, more than five million children attended Catholic schools compared to a little over two million today. This decline occurred at a time when the overall Catholic population in the U.S. increased by more than 20 million.
New Catholic schools open every year, but are far outnumbered by the number that are closed or consolidated. The National Catholic Education Association reported that 32 new Catholic schools opened in the country in 2010-11, but 172 were consolidated or closed.
While there is much to lament about Catholic education in America, some Catholic elementary and high schools have managed to thrive. This has occurred despite a troubled economy, smaller family sizes and a secular culture increasing hostile to traditional religion. CWR recently talked with representatives of five such schools (all opened since 1974) who offered an overview of their schools and shared their insights as to how their schools have been successful.
Culture and Evangelization
Culture and Evangelization | Russell Shaw
The hope borne by a new Catholic subculture comes with challenges
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Good news. Alongside the statistics of continuing Catholic decline in the United States, a new Catholic subculture is visibly emerging that raises hopes for the future of the Church in America. But there is a problem. Unless it is shaped by commitment to the new evangelization, this emerging subculture could be a caricature of Catholicism—a rigid throwback to the days of the immigrant Church.
All that obviously needs explaining, so let me explain.
Like Pope John Paul before him, Pope Benedict XVI has made "new evangelization" a high priority of his pontificate. Last year he created an office in the Roman Curia to promote the effort; next year "The New Evangelization for the Transmissin of the Christian Faith" will be the theme of a general assembly of the world Synod of Bishops. Recently, too, he proclaimed a Year of Faith, beginning during the Synod assembly and extending to November of 2013.
The new evangelization, Pope Benedict explains, is needed to deal with the situation existing where "nations once rich in faith and in vocations are losing their identity under the influence of a secularized culture" (Verbum Domini, 96). Plainly that applies to European countries like France, Germany, Spain, and Ireland where the light of faith has grown dim. But does anyone seriously imagine the Pope isn't thinking also of places like Canada, Australia—and the United States? You can be certain he is.
January 28, 2012
Prophets and Demons: On Jesus and Exorcisms
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for January 28th, the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
Dt 18:15-20
Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
1 Cor 7:32-35
Mk 1:21-28
We Americans have a rather complicated, even fascinating, relationship with prophets and demons.
Many people, of course, scoff at the idea that someone might have the ability to foresee the future; if asked, they will most likely reject the possibility of prophetic powers as superstitious and unscientific. And yet certain types of prophets make regular appearances in our culture. For example, a tremendous amount of trust is often placed in the forecastings of experts the fields of economics, demographics, and the climate.
We are told of impending economic recessions and recoveries and warned of impending doom due to either population explosion or global warning. It was only a few decades ago that some experts—secular prophets, I would call them—claimed that the rapid growth of population would decimate the earth by the year 2000.
Beliefs about the existence of Satan and demons is especially revealing. A 1991 study by Evangelical pollster George Barna found that 60% of those polled, regardless of their religious beliefs, thought Satan was just a "symbol of evil", while just 35% believed he is "a living being." Amazingly, seven out of ten Catholics polled said they thought Satan was only symbolic in nature.
These numbers were repeated in a 2002 poll, which found that 75% of Catholics rejected the Church's clearly stated belief that Satan and demons are real, not just symbolic. Meanwhile, a 1993 poll by Time magazine found that while less than 50% of respondents believed in the existence of "angels or devils," almost 70% believed in the existence of angels.
Today's readings show us, by way of an Old Testament prophecy and an exorcism performed by Jesus, that there are actual prophets and real demons. There are important, implicit connections to be made between the two. Moses gave a prophecy about a coming prophet—really, The Prophet—who would speak with the authority of God. This true prophet is contrasted to false prophets, those who speak "in the name of other gods." As G. K. Chesterton noted in The Everlasting Man, his study of the Incarnation, "In the ancient world the demons often wandered abroad like dragons. They could be positively and publicly enthroned as gods." In other words, the Israelites understood that false prophets were under the power or influence of living, evil forces who were in opposition to the one, true God.
The very first false prophet was the serpent in the Garden, who spoke—that is, prophecied—against God. "Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents," remarks the Catechism, "lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called 'Satan' or the 'devil" (par 391). The devil, the false prophet, is intent on the destruction of man and rebellion against God. The two, in fact, go hand in hand, for every rebellion against God leads to the destruction of man. Jesus came to break the power of this diabolical and destructive kingdom. "Indeed," the Apostle John wrote, "the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn. 3:8).
St. Mark's account emphasizes both the authority of Jesus and the urgency of his work. The unclean spirit, face to face with the Prophet of God, could only acknowledge the truth: "I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" In their torment, the demons recognized who Jesus is. Yet they refused to believe; their choice had been made long before, outside of time, when they "radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign" (CCC 392).
It is sometimes argued that the demons cast out by Jesus were not really living, evil beings, but symptoms of illness. Yet St. Mark clearly distinguishes between those who "were sick with various diseases" and those possessed by demons (Mk 1:34). Demonic oppression is just as real as physical illness. Thankfully, the Prophet, the Holy One of God, came to save us from both real evil and false gods.
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the February 1, 2009, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
Five pieces to read on the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and Doctor
First, a good introduction to the historical context of the 13th century, by one of the great Thomists of the past century:
A selection of quotes and book excepts about the Angelic Doctor:
G. K. Chesterton on Saint Thomas and Saint Francis:
Fr. Schall on Benedict XVI's 2007 remarks about Saint Thomas:
Finally, an essay by Mark Brumley about Aquinas and atheists:
January 27, 2012
Hildegard of Bingen: Voice of the Living Light
Hildegard of Bingen: Voice of the Living Light | Sandra Miesel | Catholic World Report
The next Doctor of the Church is a most mysterious, talented, colorful, and enigmatic woman, saint, and mystic
Next October, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) will join a most select company of saints when she is proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. To date, there are only 33 of these saints, whose exceptional holiness and wisdom have made significant contributions to our Faith. Hildegard will be only the fourth woman so honored, joining Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Therese of Lisieux.
Among those luminaries, Hildegard blazes in colors all her own. Medievalist Peter Dronke describes her as "an overpowering, electrifying presence—and in many ways an enigmatic one." The breadth and variety of Hildegard's accomplishments are unique. Her voluminous writings encompass theology, prophecy, poetry, hagiography, medicine, and natural science as well as extensive correspondence with major figures of the twelfth century including Bernard of Clairvaux, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Hildegard is also the first known female composer in the Western world and wrote Europe's first morality play—with accompanying music. She invented her own artificial language as well as an alphabet in which to write it. An ardent supporter of Church reform, she made four long preaching tours along the river valleys of southwestern Germany. There she addressed admiring audiences of clerics, monks and laity, an unprecedented privilege for a medieval woman. She achieved all this despite chronic ill-health and while serving as a Benedictine abbess for more than forty years
Hildegard was born near Mainz in 1098, tenth child of an ancient noble family. Her parents offered her as a living "tithe" to God by placing her in the care of a holy recluse named Jutta attached to the male Benedictine abbey of Disibodenberg. Hildegard learned to read from the Psalter and immersed herself in the Bible, her lifelong font of knowledge. At fifteen, she made her profession as a nun in the community that coalesced around Jutta. In 1136, after Jutta died, Hildegard was chosen superior.
By 1150, the convent had become overcrowded. Despite grumbling from the local monks—as well as her own nuns--Hildegard built a new home for her community beside the Rhine at Rupertsberg near Bingen. A second foundation across the river at Eibingen followed fifteen years later. The later cloister still functions as the Abbey of St. Hildegard and enshrines her relics.
Nothing would have seemed extraordinary about Hildegard for the first half of her long life. She did not wish to publicize the visionary experiences she had been having since the age of three when a blaze of dazzling brightness burst into her sight. A diffuse radiance which she called her visio filled her field of vision for the rest of her life without interfering with ordinary sight. Hildegard came to understand this phenomenon as "the reflection of the living Light" which conferred the gift of prophecy and gave her an intuitive knowledge of the Divine.
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