Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 244
January 24, 2012
Prayers for Dr. William E. May
I've recieve word that moral theologian Dr. William E. May, author of numerous books (including Marriage: The Rock Upon Which the Family Is Built) and essays and Emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute in D.C., has been hospitalized since last Wednesday with pneumonia and some other health problems. He is due to come home this Sunday but first will spend time in a rehab center. Dr May will be 84 years old this year. Please keep him in your prayers!
"Go, Be My Disciples": Santa Rosa Diocese conference on February 4, 2012
Join Father Spitzer, Mark Brumley, and others at an upcoming
Santa Rosa Diocese conference on Saturday, February 4, 2012
Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer on Happiness
Popular speaker and best-selling author Father Robert Spitzer, S.J., will be a keynote speaker at the Adult Faith Conference for the Diocese of Santa Rosa. The conference, Dia de Luz/Day of Light, has as its theme "Go, Be My Disciples". The conference runs from 9 AM - 4:15 PM. Father Spitzer's presentation, sponsored by Ignatius Press, is titled, "The Four Levels of Happiness", and is based on his best-selling book, Healing the Culture (Ignatius Press). Formerly the President of Gonzaga University, Father Spitzer is also author of Ten Universal Principles, Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life, and New Proofs for the Existence of God.
Bishop Robert Vasa will celebrate Holy Mass at 10 AM.
Other sessions include presentations by Mark Brumley, Father William Nicholas, and others:
Ignatius Press President Mark Brumley on the topic "Why the Eucharist Matters";
Father William Nicholas, "Psalms: Prayer & Poetry, Direct from God";
Nancy Bird, "The Power of Prayer: 10 Ways to Pray with Children and Families";
Sister Teresa Christe of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa, "The Disciple as One Rooted in Christ";
Sister Marie de Lourdes and Gretchen Ladd of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa, "The Disciple and Marian Devotion";
Sister Rose Pacatte, "How the Media Explains Faith, Morals and Grace" and "Vatican II at 50: When the Church Turned on Television, Started Going to the Movies, and Went Digital"
Spanish language sessions feature keynote speaker Ken Johnson-Mondragon, "Llamados a Ser Discipilos Misioneros"; Samuel Vasquez, "La Santa Eucaristia: Luz en las Tinieblas"; Lupital Vital, ¡"Mirar y escuchar el presente con ojos nuevos"!.
The conference will be held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, 4595 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park.
For more information or to register, call 707-566-3366 or email dre@srdiocese.org. Or visit the website here.
Spitzer on "How Science Supports the Case for God"
Father Robert Spitzer speak will on topic, "How Science Supports the Case for God's Existence", Friday, February 3, 7: 30 PM, at Kolbe Academy-Trinity Prep, 2055 Redwood Road, Napa. For more information please call 707-258-9030. Father Spitzer's popular presentation refutes the claims of scientific skeptics such as Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett, who argue that scientific evidence shows God does not exist.
Liberal Catholic stalwart angrily admits, "President Barack Obama lost my vote..."
Reality has finally caught up to Michael Sean Winters of National "Catholic" Reporter (ht: Mary Eberstadt):
President Barack Obama lost my vote yesterday when he declined to expand the exceedingly narrow conscience exemptions proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again.
I do not come at this issue as a Catholic special pleader, who wants only to protect my own, although it was a little bracing to realize that the president's decision yesterday essentially told us, as Catholics, that there is no room in this great country of ours for the institutions our Church has built over the years to be Catholic in ways that are important to us. Nor, frankly, do I come at the issue as an anti-contraception zealot: I understand that many people, and good Catholics too, reach different conclusions on the matter although I must say that Humanae Vitae in its entirety reads better, and more presciently, every year.
That is one potential positive of the Obama presidency I'd not considered: getting folks to appreciate the wisdom and guts of Pope Paul VI. Here is some more from Winters:
No, I come at this issue as a liberal and a Democrat and as someone who, until yesterday, generally supported the President, as someone who saw in his vision of America a greater concern for each other, a less mean-spirited culture, someone who could, and did, remind the nation that we are our brothers' keeper, that liberalism has a long vocation in this country of promoting freedom and protecting the interests of the average person against the combined power of the rich, and that we should learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. I defended the University of Notre Dame for honoring this man, and my heart was warmed when President Obama said at Notre Dame: "we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity -- diversity of thought, diversity of culture, and diversity of belief. In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family."
To borrow from Emile Zola: J'Accuse!
I accuse you, Mr. President, of dishonoring your own vision by this shameful decision.
Winters apparently still wants to believe the early rhetoric of President Obama rather than take a long, hard look at the public record of Obama the community organizer, ideologue, and Senator. He needs to consider that the President's "vision", in fact, is what Barack Obama has been quite deliberately pursuing all along, which is that of a leftist, statist ideologue who has little respect for the traditions, virtues, and values held by a majority of Americans.
I accuse you, Mr. President, of failing to live out the respect for diversity that you so properly and beautifully proclaimed as a cardinal virtue at Notre Dame. Or, are we to believe that diversity is only to be lauded when it advances the interests of those with whom we agree? That's not diversity. That's misuse of a noble principle for ignoble ends.
See the point above. Statist "diversity" and tolerance are rooted in a type of scientism which insists that any belief or principle cannot be proven "scientifically" must give way and eventually be suppressed. Thus, Kathleen Sebelius declared, in her January 20th statement, "Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs, and is the most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women." The benefits of "birth control" are quite debatable, to put it mildly; what is of most interest for my point here is that the statements of "scientists" trumps, for all intents and purposes, the beliefs and principles of a huge number of people, many of them Catholic, but many of them of other religious and philosophical traditions.
Modern tolerance "insists that things science does not deal with, such as substantive value," writes James Kalb in The Tyranny of Liberalism (ISI, 2008), "be treated as subjective feelings because they cannot be determined by neutral experts." This means that "opinions regarding value, to the extent that they are not tolerant in the advance liberal sense, be kept private. ... Advanced liberal society therefore discredits, neutralizes, or silences those who speak out about matters of good and evil..." What we are seeing today, to state the obvious (it is obvious, right?), is the increasingly open clash between the beliefs of the minions of "advanced liberal society" and those who adhere to more traditional values and virtues based in religion and the track record of tradition, history, and commonsense. Winters, I think, believes in the former, but also has some toes in the latter. And those toes are getting smashed in the doorway of sometimes painful and seemingly inevitable statist progress:
I accuse you, Mr. President, of betraying philosophic liberalism, which began, lest we forget, as a defense of the rights of conscience. As Catholics, we need to be honest and admit that, three hundred years ago, the defense of conscience was not high on the agenda of Holy Mother Church. But, we Catholics learned to embrace the idea that the coercion of conscience is a violation of human dignity. This is a lesson, Mr. President, that you and too many of your fellow liberals have apparently unlearned.
All this talk about conscience, however, means nothing if there is no recognition and admission that we as humans are not only capable of knowing truth, but have an obligation to pursue and uphold truth. The ideologue, in the end, chooses his system over truth because his system is meant to shape man in a certain way, not to help man conform himself to truth and goodness. In other words, it begins with a certain understanding of the nature, origin, and ends of man. If I had to bet, I'd say that President Obama would say that he and his administration have made a decision in keeping with their collective conscience. But, again, such an understanding of conscience is not oriented toward truth, but through a political agenda aimed at a larger and quite frightening vision of human nature, which is not rooted in reason (although it constantly uses the rhetoric of reason) but in ideological coercion and scientistic aspirations. Blessed John Paul II wrote of this in Veritatis Splendor:
As is immediately evident, the crisis of truth is not unconnected with this development. Once the idea of a universal truth about the good, knowable by human reason, is lost, inevitably the notion of conscience also changes. Conscience is no longer considered in its primordial reality as an act of a person's intelligence, the function of which is to apply the universal knowledge of the good in a specific situation and thus to express a judgment about the right conduct to be chosen here and now. Instead, there is a tendency to grant to the individual conscience the prerogative of independently determining the criteria of good and evil and then acting accordingly. Such an outlook is quite congenial to an individualist ethic, wherein each individual is faced with his own truth, different from the truth of others. Taken to its extreme consequences, this individualism leads to a denial of the very idea of human nature. (par 32)
One final bit from Winters:
I accuse you, Mr. President, of treating shamefully those Catholics who went out on a limb to support you. Do tell, Mr. President, how many bullets have the people at Planned Parenthood taken for you? Sr. Carol Keehan, Father Larry Snyder, Father John Jenkins, these people have scars to show for their willingness to work with you, to support you on your tough political fights. Is this the way you treat people who went to the mat for you?
And let's not forget Douglas Kmiec and Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., who seem(ed) willing to go to the rack for President Obama, and who presented the POTUS as being more fully and truly Catholic than anyone since the founding of the Church. And, yes, Mr. Winters, that is exactly how folks such as President Obama treat useful tools. (And, to be fair, it is how most politicians today treat religious groups; this is not just a tactice of leftists and Democrats.) Frankly, I don't fully understand Winters' remark about Planned Parenthood, as they have applauded the Obama administration's strong arm tactics. Regardless, it is good to see that Winters is waking up to reality a bit and starting to see what many of us saw several years ago. Not that I'm gloating. Matters are far, far too serious for gloating and scoring cheap rhetorical points. This is not a time for gloating, but for soul searching.
Education as Transformation
by Mo Fung Woltering for Homiletic & Pastoral Review
The natural inclination to know rightly, and live nobly, is concept that was articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas, called connaturality.
Education in the Church takes many diverse forms: preaching, marriage preparation, catechizing our RCIA candidates and catechumens, various youth ministries and CCD, as well as any evangelical witness—on the street, at work, and especially within your homes. These are all types of education. In this essay, I shall reflect on the meaning of education in light of the human person. First, I want to discuss the Thomistic concept of connaturality. Second, I would like to present a concept that is very much at the heart of Pope John Paul II's approach to education and knowledge and, finally, a few non-conventional ideas will be presented for you to consider for your work.
Connaturality
The human person longs to know. Unless this inclination is distorted through the cultivation of vicious habits, men and women, by their very nature, desire to know the truth of things. Such a natural inclination to know rightly, and live nobly, is an age-old concept that was most notably articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas, called connaturality. Aquinas argues that human judgment of things occurs, first, by the use of reason and, second, "on account of a certain connaturality with the matter about which one has to judge." By "connatural," St. Thomas means the type of knowledge that unites the knower with the thing known, thus transforming him by the knowledge received. So, writes Aquinas, those who wish to think in agreement with God, to see reality as God does, and to live this human life as Jesus Christ did, must be complete. This occurs "not only by learning, but also by suffering divine things (patiens diuina)." Such "suffering with God and connaturality (compassio et connaturalitas) with God is the result of charity, which unites us to God, according to 1 Cor 6:17: Anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (Summa Theologiae, II-II 45, a.2).
January 23, 2012
"More confused than committed": Abortion and the death of logic
Anne Conlon, editor of The Human Life Review, talks with Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO about the challenge of discussing and defending the pro-life position in today's post-Roe v. Wade world:
LOPEZ: Why are people "more confused than committed"?
CONLON: It's not just pain we've been suppressing for going on four decades, but common sense, and, for those old enough to remember it, logic. Most people tell pollsters they are against most abortions. Yet they still want it to be legal. This includes, in some polls, people who also say abortion is murder. This makes no sense — what other kind of "murder" would people be so blasé about? Then there are those who are against abortion but don't have a problem with physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Or maybe they reject both abortion and euthanasia but support embryonic-stem-cell research and cloning. A lot of people, I think, are feeling their way to a position on these issues rather than thinking them through. And it doesn't help that our culture has substituted entertainment for imagination. It takes imagination — moral imagination — to see that so-called spare embryos created in petri dishes are our brothers and sisters. That they, too, being part of the human community, deserve our respect — and protection. The good news from recent polls is that young people are trending in a pro-life direction. But I don't think logic has as much to do with it as perhaps a growing awareness on their part of the missing — siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles who may have been aborted — and an inchoate sense that "there but for the grace of my mother, go I." They have also been taught that virtually any sort of discrimination is evil, and the unborn are indeed the tiniest and most helpless victims of discrimination.
But even if you think you're keeping your logical head while all around you are losing theirs, you can still feel confused by the affection you feel for people — like my obstetrician — who either think abortion's okay or don't bother to think much about it at all. I'm a committed pro-lifer. But the last thing I want to do is hurt someone during a conversation about abortion. I think the statistic now is that one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. When you add in all the people who may be complicit in that abortion — expectant fathers, parents, siblings, grandparents, friends — I suspect we could be talking about a majority of people in the country. I sometimes feel like Hamlet: "Should I say something or not?"
Read the entire interview on National Review Online.
"This is brilliant, serious work of the kind...
... we've needed for decades, and it's also entirely accessible, even winsome, in its prose."
That is Joseph Bottum, praising Mary Eberstadt's new book, due out in March from Ignatius Press: Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution.
More from Bottum here. More about the book:
Secular and religious thinkers agree: the sexual revolution is one of the most important milestones in human history. Perhaps nothing has changed life for so many, so fast, as the severing of sex and procreation. But what has been the result?
This ground-breaking book by noted essayist and author Mary Eberstadt contends that sexual freedom has paradoxically produced widespread discontent. Drawing on sociologists Pitirim Sorokin, Carle Zimmerman, and others; philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe and novelist Tom Wolfe; and a host of feminists, food writers, musicians, and other voices from across today's popular culture, Eberstadt makes her contrarian case with an impressive array of evidence. Her chapters range across academic disciplines and include supporting evidence from contemporary literature and music, women's studies, college memoirs, dietary guides, advertisements, television shows, and films.
Adam and Eve after the Pill examines as no book has before the seismic social changes caused by the sexual revolution. In examining human behavior in the post-liberation world, Eberstadt provocatively asks: Is food the new sex? Is pornography the new tobacco?
Adam and Eve after the Pill will change the way readers view the paradoxical impact of the sexual revolution on ideas, morals, and humanity itself.
"With the skill of a literary surgeon, Eberstadt slices through the chimera of political correctness to lay bare the facts, statistics, and cultural realities of life after the sexual revolution. A compelling and provocative look at why an about-face is needed now to save Western Civilization from a cultural Doomsday, and is the solution to re-establish a healthy and moral cultural ethos."
- Johnnette S. Benkovic, Founder of Women of Grace®, Television & Radio Show Host, EWTN
"Mary Eberstadt is intimidatingly intelligent."
- George Will, The Washington Post
"Mary Eberstadt is our premier analyst of American cultural foibles and follies, with a keen eye for oddities that illuminate just how strange the country's moral culture has become."
- George Weigel, Ethics and Public Policy Center
"If you want to learn what the Pill and the ensuing sexual revolution really accomplished, you must read Adam and Eve After the Pill. Of course, neo-Malthusians talk up the Pill's benefits: the freedom from having children made it possible for women to pursue serious careers and in the process offered men a new kind of freedom, too. But as Eberstadt writes, how about the increasing unhappiness of women despite their liberation from the chores of raising children? Or husbands' loss of interest in their wives and the corresponding increase in male pornography addiction? Not to be ignored, either, is the effect of the sexual revolution on college campuses by date rapes, hookups, and binge drinking, all of which directly flow from the sexual revolution mandate that women must be sexually available."
- Dr. Raymond Dennehy, University of San Francisco
Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, consulting editor to Policy Review, and contributing writer to First Things. Her articles have appeared in the Weekly Standard, the American Spectator, Commentary, the Los Angeles Times, the London Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Her previous books include The Loser Letters and Home-Alone America.
Scripture Is a Unique Word
Scripture Is a Unique Word | by Francis Etheredge
This Word of God continues the creativity of our Creator.
There is a tendency to reflect on Scripture as if it is "just" another word in the marketplace: one word among many, competing, like each one does, for our limited attention; but I want to make a plea for reflecting on Scripture as a unique word: a word which comes from God: a word which is different from its very origin, and not because of a pronouncement that has been made. In other words, this word of God, "clothed in the flesh of human experience," is a word which expresses the creativity of the Creator; indeed, it is a word which is an instrument of the creativity of the Creator. The word, then, of Naaman the leper (2 Kgs 5: 1-19), is capable of illuminating my life and, in so doing, bringing me closer to the mysterious action of God within it. Thus, just as Naaman had to come to the river Jordan for a "type" of baptism, so I had to come from trying to understand myself in the categories of reason, and plunge into the mysteries of faith. And, in plunging into the waters of baptism, I had to uncover the pride and sin symbolised in the "wealth" of human garments, and the leprosy which these things concealed. So, what is this word of God which is capable of revealing man in the mystery of Christ and His Church? In this article, I want to reflect on the "ingredients" which make the word of God a truly unique word: a word "wrought" out of the creativity of our Creator: a word which, therefore, continues the creativity of our Creator.
Presupposing the gift and task of faith, theology arises when "faith seeks understanding" (St Anselm); and within that gift and task of faith lies Scripture: "God speaks to [us] … in human words" (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] §101). A key text for the person who wants to know how theology and scripture work together, is the Second Vatican Council's document on the word of God, the "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum" (DV). On the one hand, the Council says that the "study of the sacred page" should be the very soul of sacred theology (DV §24). On the other hand, Sacred Scripture is compared to the Incarnation (DV §13). Thus the Fathers of the Council have planted us firmly amidst the works of God and, furthermore, in the midst of the great analogy at work in the Second Vatican Council: the mystery of the Incarnation (cf. Lumen Gentium §8, Gaudium et Spes §22 and Ad Gentes Divinitus §10 and 22). It is as if we are being taught to understand salvation in terms of the mystery of our Saviour, Jesus Christ; indeed, the beginning and end of all our activity is to put people in intimate communion with Jesus Christ (cf. Pope John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae §5). Clearly, then, if the mystery of Christ is central to the history of salvation, it is certainly central to our understanding of the mystery of Scripture.
The following discussion has been divided into five parts. Dei Verbum on "The nature of Scripture (I)" is followed by a consideration of the relationship between "Divine Inspiration and Revelation (II)." This leads to "Time and the Sense of Scripture (III)," and then on to "Exegesis (IV)." Finally, the last section is on "The intention of the author (V)."
January 22, 2012
Downsizing Planned Parenthood
Downsizing Planned Parenthood | Michael J. Miller | Catholic World Report
The numbers indicate both setbacks in the abortion industry and unprecedented advances by the pro-life movement
Any big business with affiliates throughout the United States will experience financial strains in a faltering economy. Yet the most recent financial report of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), released on December 27, shows a net profit of 18.5 million dollars for the fiscal year 2009-2010. What changed the fortunes of that officially non-profit organization so drastically that Peter J. Durkin, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast, called 2011 "one of the most discouraging years ever"? The answer involves not only setbacks in the abortion industry but also unprecedented advances by the pro-life movement on the educational and legislative fronts.
According to an analysis by Stop Planned Parenthood International, a project of American Life League, the latest Annual Report of the PPFA already marks a significant decline in several respects from the report for 2008-2009: income decreased 4.7% (from $1,100.8 million to $1,048.2 million); profits were down 70.8% (from $63.4 million to $18.5 million), and, most tellingly, private contributions decreased 27% (from $308.2 million to $223.8 million). Attempts to economize by closings and consolidations reduced the number of affiliates to 88 (from 95, a 7.4% decrease) and the number of clinics to 840 (from 865, a 2.9% decrease). The only real "positive news" is a reported increase in government funding (from $363.2 million to $487.4 million), so that taxpayer monies provided 46.5% of Planned Parenthood income in 2009-2010.
It is difficult to assess the exact increase in total government grants and contracts in fiscal year 2009-2010. Reported government income now includes Medicaid payments, which formerly were reported as clinic income. There is no doubt about the trend, though: Planned Parenthood announced that during the current year it will receive $22 million in new government grants for more "Teen Pregnancy Prevention" programs.
January 20, 2012
Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan criticizes Obama administration's decision in...
... a statement/video just posted on the USCCB website:
WASHINGTON—Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), sharply criticized the decision by the Obama administration in which it "ordered almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans." He made the statement in a web video posted at: http://bcove.me/ob5itz9v. . .
"Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights," Cardinal-designate Dolan said.
On January 20, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Health and Human Services, announced that non-profit employers will have one year to comply with the new rule.
Cardinal-designate Dolan urged Catholics and the public at large to speak out in protest.
"Let your elected leaders know that you want religious liberty and rights of conscience restored and that you want the administration's contraceptive mandate rescinded," he said.
Direct link. And:
The Catholic bishops of the United States called "literally unconscionable" a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today's announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers.
"In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences," said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The cardinal-designate continued, "To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable.It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty."
The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception – including controversial abortifacients – be included among "preventive services" coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans. "The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs," added Cardinal-designate Dolan.
At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans.
And:
Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, voiced disappointment with the decision. Catholic hospitals serve one out of six people who seek hospital care annually.
"This was a missed opportunity to be clear on appropriate conscience protection," Sister Keehan said.
Uh, no. This was not a "missed opportunity", but a taken opportunity; there was no mistake made in making such a power-driven and brazen decision. I'm sure that Sister Keehan is being politic in her rhetoric, but I do hope she sees what is really going on now.
Read the entire piece on the USCCB site.
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