Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 297

Chitchat with a roving atheist

Passing through this blog, as it were. My response:

#2: So you acknowledge, tacitly, that your criticism of the Church/Christians not caring about the ill and sick was incorrect, but now try to distract by complaining that hospitals require money? As for charities, the Catholic Church operates "the largest private network of social service organizations in the United States [that] works to support families, reduce poverty, and build communities." Just one of many possible examples.

#3: The Christian god is in heaven. Heaven is a synonym for sky. The Christian god is a sky god. Uh, no. Not even close. Let me introduce you to the first verse in the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). This isn't mere poetics, but a theological assertion by the author about the nature of Elohim over against Babylonian gods, namely, he is not part of creation, but is Creator. This is a continual theme, expressed in various ways, through the Old and New Testaments. For example: "For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other" (Isa. 45:18). And, in the New Testament: "Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created" (Rev. 4:11). It is a basic, fundamental point, and if you wish to be taken seriously at all, you need to accurately present the Judeo-Christian understanding of God. Otherwise, you simply make a fool of yourself.

#6: Suffice it to say that Christians equally as murderous as communists. Say it all you wish, but where is the historical evidence? First you dismiss numbers as unimportant (as if they don't say something significant about actions, beliefs, intentions, etc.), and then you blithely suggest, without a shred of proof, that Christians have killed tens of millions. I suppose you can run to the Inquisitions, but keep in mind that over a 300-year-long period, the Spanish Inquisition was responsible for about 5,000 deaths, the vast majority executed by the civil government. And so forth. My claim is not that Christians are perfect (far from it!), but that the advent and growth of Christianity was the most revolutionary cultural, social, and religious movement of the past 2,000 years--and it has been overwhelmingly for the betterment of mankind.

#7: We have only a short blip of consciousness, then we die, and consciousness is finished. And yet you chafe at my description of your beliefs as expressing a nihilistic, meaningless existence. Wow.

We are bathed in eternity at every moment. Um...which one is it: we have "only a short blip of consciousness, then we die", or we are "bathed in eternity at every moment"? You do recognize an obvious contradiction when you see one, right?

What on earth does a sky god having sex with a virgin giving birth to a sacrificial lamb who monitors your every thought and deed have to do with my love for my family? Are you nuts? Your approach to "argument" over these big questions is both obvious and banal: 1) mischaracterize what Christians believe, 2) flippantly contradict yourself about when expressing what you believe, 3) fling weak and desperate insults at the Christian. Yaaawwwwn!

#8: I said that China is still Communist, which is not necessarily the same thing as Marxist. The fact that China is governed/ruled by the Chinese Communist Party seems ample enough evidence for my non-controversial statement.

#9: Do you have a deep understanding of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Islam, to pick just a few major religions? No? I'll bet your knowledge of them is very superficial. So how can you possibly reject them for Christianity? Well, I do own over 80 books on Buddhism and am currently co-authoring a book on Catholicism and Buddhism with Dr. Anthony Clark, professor of Asian history at Whitworth. I have an entire bookcase of books on other Asian religions, Islam, Judaism, etc. I won't claim to be an expert on any, but I've likely read more books about each than 99% of population. Let's put it this way: I know far more about each of these religions than you do about Christianity.

That was Round #2. Start at the top and read down to catch it all.

The Obvious Statement of the Week...

... comes from a not-so-obvious source:

The Huffington Post has become a de facto trendy blog haven for celebrities, but does that mean these famous folks can say whatever they want to about the site, its readers or the brand itself?

Veteran HuffPo blogger and "30 Rock" star Alec Baldwin seems to think so.

Baldwin expressed dissatisfaction with reactions to his article on Sunday and tweeted, "The reading comprehension level of the HuffPo comments folks is alarmingly low. I mean, downright awful." (emphasis added)

Of course, the literary and logic levels of most Huff-and-Puff Post authors aren't much better, as is readily evident from my posts criticizing the same, here and here and here and here. But, still, kudos to Baldwin for figuring it out after all these years.

Cardinal Burke on the essence of the New Evangelization

From the States Dinner Address given by Cardinal Raymond L. Burke on August 2nd at the Knights of Columbus Conference in Denver:

What is the essence of the new evangelization to which the Church in America and indeed the universal Church is called? An extraordinary synthesis of the teaching of Blessed Pope John Paul II on the new evangelization is found in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, "At the Close of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000." In the face of the grave situation of the world today, we are, Blessed Pope John Paul II reminded us, like the first disciples who, after hearing Saint Peter's Pentecost discourse, asked him: "What must we do?"12  Even as the first disciples faced a pagan world which had not even heard of our Lord Jesus Christ, so, we, too face a culture which is forgetful of God and hostile to His Law written upon every human heart.

Before the great challenge of our time, Blessed Pope John Paul cautioned us that we will not save ourselves and our world by discovering "some magic formula" or by "inventing a new programme."13  In unmistakable terms, he declared:

No, we shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person, and the assurance which he gives us: I am with you. 14 

He reminded us that the programme by which we are to address effectively the great spiritual challenges of our time is, in the end, Jesus Christ alive for us in the Church.15  In short, the program leading to freedom and happiness is, for each of us, the holiness of life in Christ, in accord with our state in life and with careful attention to our "time and culture."

Blessed Pope John Paul II, in fact, cast the entire pastoral plan for the Church in terms of holiness of life. He explained himself thus:

In fact, to place pastoral planning under the heading of holiness is a choice filled with consequences. It implies the conviction that, since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethics and a shallow religiosity. To ask catechumens: "Do you wish to be receive Baptism?" means at the same time to ask them: "Do you wish to become holy?" It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48).16 

Blessed Pope John Paul II, making reference to the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, reminded us that "this ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few 'uncommon heroes' of holiness."17 

The saintly Pontiff taught us the extraordinary nature of our ordinary life, because it is lived in Christ and, therefore, produces in us the incomparable beauty of holiness of life. He declared:

The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual. I thank the Lord that in these years he has enabled me to beatify and canonize a large number of Christians, and among them many lay people who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life. The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.18 

Seeing in us the daily conversion of life by which we strive to meet the high standard of holiness, the "high standard of ordinary Christian living," our brothers and sisters will discover the great mystery of their own ordinary life in which God, in a truly extraordinary manner, daily showers upon them his immeasurable and ceaseless love, calling them to holiness of life in Christ, His only-begotten Son. They will find new hope.

Read the entire address, "The Work of the New Evangelization: 'So That the World May Know New Hope'", on the Knights of Columbus site.

"There's no right to happiness and liberty without a right to life."

A number of recent quotes from Archbishop Charles J. Chaput have been making the rounds, and here are a couple of snippets that caught my attention, posted here for folks who haven't seen them yet. First, from the August 7th edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper:

OSV: One of your new hometown papers recently tried to fit you into conservative/liberal paradigm, and said you were "downright progressive" on some issues and also "a vocal, politically engaged proponent of hard-line Catholic orthodoxy." You don't like those labels. How would you define yourself?

Archbishop Chaput: I just define myself as a Catholic bishop, and I don't know why anyone would expect Catholic bishops not to be faithful to the teachings of the Church.

It seems like so much of the media doesn't have the categories that are necessary to describe us because they define us as political creatures rather than teachers of the Gospel.

OSV: Surveying the public square, what do you see as the most critical issue for the Catholic Church?

Archbishop Chaput: The underlying issue here for so many of these situations is religious freedom and what it means to be a community of faith and to live that faith in the public square. If the government limits our ability to be who we are as a Church, that's a limitation of religious freedom and I think we ought to deal with that upfront and directly in our political discussions in our country.

In terms of the practical issues, I think the issue of marriage is foundational because it influences the whole of society.

Our broader society is built on the staple of family life and anything we do that makes the family life unstable is to destabilize our broader social communities.

There's no right to happiness and liberty without a right to life, so that's a foundational issue, too. ... They equally have huge impacts on the self-understanding of our community.

Read the entire interview on the OSV site. The second is from the Archbishop's homily at the 129th Knights of Columbus Convention in Denver:

Something similar can be said about conflicts in the modern church. Bishops, priests, and deacons are too often weak and sinful. They need to be held to high standards. Some deserve to be chastised. The clergy's leadership in the Church should always be marked by humility and service, and never by a sense of entitlement. But men and women didn't found the Church, they don't own her; and they have no license to reinvent her. The Church belongs to Jesus Christ, and the different roles with the Christian community – clergy, laity, and religious life – have equal dignity but different purposes. Sin and failure, including by the clergy, need to be named. But when people deride their bishops and priests out of pride and resentment or some perverse desire for they perceive as "power," they undermine the Church herself, and they set themselves against the God whose vessel she is. And that, as Scripture suggests, leads in a painful direction.

All real reform in the Church requires two things. Today's Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 51 – gives us the first thing. We find it in the lines "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow;" and "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." Renewal begins not in vilifying others, but in examining ourselves honestly, repenting of our sins and changing ourselves. This applies to every baptized person, from the Pope to the average man or woman earning a wage. We are all sinners. We are all in need of repentance and God's mercy. When we really understand that, we can speak to each other with both honesty and love, and restoring the mission of the Church can begin.

Today's Gospel gives us the second thing needed for any lasting reform: faith. Not faith as theology, or faith as a collection of doctrines and practices; but faith as a single-minded confidence in God; faith as the humility – and in a sense, the imprudence, the passion, the recklessness – to give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ. That kind of faith changes people. That kind of faith shifts the world on its axis, because nothing can stand against it. As long as Peter keeps his eyes and his heart fixed on Jesus Christ, he can do the impossible – he can walk on the water. The moment he gives in to doubt and fear, he begins to sink. So it is with our personal faith, and so it is with life and the health of the Church.

Read the entire homily on the Knights of Columbus site. For more bracing reading, see Archbishop Chaput's book, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.

St. John Vianney: Saint, Priest, Ascetic, and Man of Chastity, Penance, and Prayer

From "Satan and the Saint", an article I wrote for Our Sunday Visitor newspaper a few years ago:

Imagine a saint – a priest – so dedicated to God that he often went days without eating, and when he did eat, it was a boiled potato or a piece of hard bread.

Although many considered him unfit for the priesthood, he revived the crushed faith of an impoverished village and often spent eighteen hours a day hearing confessions, often sleeping only an hour or two each night.

As the reputation of this holy man of God spread, pilgrims began to seek him out, sometimes waiting days for him to hear their confession, heal their illnesses, and speak directly to their deepest needs. But not everyone was so pleased. This priest began to be attacked, sometimes physically and, at other times, emotionally and psychologically. He was verbally mocked, scorned, and abused. At night he was subjected to loud and violent noises for hours on end. He was pulled from bed in the middle of the night and, on one occasion, his bed was set on fire.

Despite this constant abuse, the priest never called the police or requested security. It wouldn't have mattered, for the abuse and taunts did not come from another human, but from Satan. The priest, of course, was St. John Vianney (1786-1859), the Curé of Ars, whose feast is celebrated August 4.

Although rightly renowned for his holiness, asceticism, and spiritual insight, the Curé of Ars was also remarkable for his courage and steadiness in the face of the Devil. For some thirty-five years (1824-1858) Satan assaulted the Saint in a nearly endless number of ways, seeking to break the will and resolve of the great man of God: making harrowing noises, singing in a wicked voice, meowing like a cat, or shouting, "Vianney! Vianney! Potato eater!"

And from "Saint John Vianney: A Celibate Man with Scores of Children" from the book, The Grace of Ars , by Fr. Frederick L. Miller:

Saint John Vianney's life of celibacy was built on the firm foundation of fidelity to prayer and a relentless drive to build the Church of Christ, especially through the ministry of the Word and sacraments. In his priestly ministry, Vianney understood that the energy to practice celibacy has a supernatural source: deep prayer and zeal for the salvation of souls.

Interestingly, Pope Benedict, in his Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests (June 16, 2009), notes that the Eucharist is the foundation of the priest's chastity: "Saint John Vianney's chastity, too, was that chastity demanded of a priest for his ministry. It could be said that it was a chastity suited to one who must daily touch the Eucharist, who contemplates it blissfully and with that same bliss offers it to his flock. It was said of him that 'he radiated chastity'; the faithful would see this when he turned and gazed at the tabernacle with loving eyes."

Second, celibacy is a means of sharing in Christ's life-giving passion and death for the salvation of his Church. Celibacy, lived well, is never easy. We can be certain that it was not easy for the Cure of Ars. It will not be easy for any priest precisely because celibacy is a participation in the passion of Christ for the salvation of souls.

And from the article, "St. John Vianney's Pastoral Plan", by Monsignor John Cihak, S.T.D.:

Despite the many similarities to our own time, four primary differences exist between St. John Vianney's time and our own. One obvious difference is that Jansenism, with its harshness, scrupulosity and anxiety, was still felt within the faithful. The heresy had been put down, but its bitterness could still be tasted in the spiritual groundwater. A second difference was respect for priests, and their authority, still existed in the culture. A third difference was the local government, embodied in the mayor and municipal counselor, who supported his efforts in the religious and moral regeneration of the village because it promoted the common good. Fourthly, differences existed within the Church between then and now. For example, today's "culture of dissent" among some Catholic quarters and the problem of liturgical abuse were not so much part of Vianney's time.

Into this cultural milieu stepped the little priest from the village of Ecully, and he gave the people of Ars something they had never seen before. How did he do it? Our group detected eight basic features to his pastoral plan: 1) the conversion of his own life as a priest; 2) manifesting an approachable and available demeanor; 3) prayer and ascetical living; 4) channeling initial energy into those families already faithful; 5) giving special attention to the liturgy, preaching and catechesis; 6) addressing problems at their roots and not in their symptoms; 7) planting good habits of prayer and the works of mercy; and 8) doing it all with a strong priestly identity. ...

The primacy of prayer in ministry, which is so evident in the Curé of Ars, is an important lesson for parish priests. The cancer of Pelagianism among us is more prevalent than we like to admit. We are deceived into thinking that we can accomplish our priestly mission by relying on our gifts, our creativity and our activity. Especially among us younger priests, we are easily fooled into thinking that we need to jump into activity without realizing that only prayer and penance usher in the grace that will make it fruitful. Vianney reminds parish priests that the offering of daily Mass, constancy in the Liturgy of the Hours, fidelity to a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, making an annual retreat, and practicing self denial are the necessary foundation for the priest's mission of preaching, sanctifying and governing.

To his prayer, St. John Vianney joined penance. While maintaining the absolute necessity of asceticism in a priest's life, we are compelled to view the Curé of Ars' asesis through the lens of his time, his own personal temperament, and the tremendous graces given him. Too easily we hear about his excessive use of the discipline and dismiss his asceticism, while failing to learn its valuable lesson. Though we may sift through the details of his asceticism, we must agree about the fact of living ascetically. As the years passed, he moderated some of his harsher practices.

Father Vianney's example teaches that prayer and penance was the most, not the least, a priest could do for his people. He knew that the fruitfulness of his priesthood lay not in clever preaching, creative ideas or building team spirit, but first of all offering himself daily in love as a living oblation for his people. An effective pastoral plan would begin here or not at all.

Also see: Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the "Dies Natalis" of the Curé of Ars, by Pope Benedict XVI.

For much more about the life of the Curé of Ars, see Cure D'Ars Today: St. John Vianney, by Fr. George Rutler.

Michael O'Brien's "Theophilos: A Novel" is a Lily Award finalist

From CatholicWritersGuild.org:

The Catholic Writers Guild has announced the finalists for the first Catholic Arts and Letters Awards (CALA), also known as the "Lily Awards."

The presentation of the Lily Awards will take place at a special breakfast during Catholic Marketing Network's (CMN) annual retail trade show, which is held in conjunction with the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE August 3-5, 2011 in Valley Forge, PA. The conference is cosponsored by the Catholic Writers Guild.

The Lily Awards finalists are:

For adult fiction:
Murder in the Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes by Ann Margaret Lewis
Rachel's Contrition by Michelle Buckman
Theophilos by Michael O'Brien

For children's fiction/YA:
Alex O'Donnell and the 40 Cyberthieves by Regina Doman
Hiding the Stranger  by Joan Kelly
Tristan's Travels  by Karl Bjorn Erickson

The award winners will be announced at the CMN Trade Show Breakfast during the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE, Thursday morning August 4th at the Radisson Valley Forge Convention Center in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The breakfast begins at 7:15am.

Congratulations to all of the finalists. I'll link to the results tomorrow!

For more about Michael O'Brien's novel, Theophilos (also available as an e-book), see this Ignatius Insight interview:

Fr. Joseph Fessio, Paul George on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" August 4th

I just received the following press release:

Evangelist, Youth Minister Paul George writing YOUCAT study guide

George, Ignatius Press Founder/Editor Fr. Joseph Fessio on 'Life on the Rock' Aug. 4

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3, 2011 – Internationally known evangelist and youth minister Paul George, co-founder and director of ADORE ministries, is writing a study guide for YOUCAT¸ the youth catechism now available in North America from Ignatius Press.

George and Jesuit Fr. Joseph Fessio, founder and editor of Ignatius Press, will appear live Thursday night on EWTN's "Life on the Rock," which airs at 10/9C. They will discuss how YOUCAT will reignite the teaching of the faith among young people.

Set for distribution in less than two weeks at 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, YOUCAT already has proven to be a hit with young Catholics in North America. Since release in late April by Ignatius Press, the English-language edition of the book has been selected as a primary resource for all 2011 and 2012 Steubenville youth conferences. A game developed for use at the conferences and by youth and young adult ministers – the YOUCAT Challenge – also is receiving acclaim for its innovative way of opening YOUCAT to young Catholic audiences.

YOUCAT adapts the content of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to a format intended to engage young people and young adults. It is an accessible and contemporary expression of the Catholic Faith. YOUCAT includes questions and answers, highly readable commentary, margin photos and illustrations, summary definitions of key terms, Bible citations and quotes from the Saints and other great teachers.

"I beg you," Pope Benedict XVI writes in the book's foreword, "study this Catechism with passion and perseverance. Make a sacrifice of your time for it." 

"YOUCAT is an amazing book," George said. "I've read it from cover to cover, and I'm thrilled to be part of the effort to provide a study guide for youth ministers and others to use in helping Catholics really break open this incredible work."

ADORE began in 2004 in George's home diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, La. Under the guidance of Bishop Sam Jacobs, George and Fr. Mark Toups began ADORE as an outreach to lead people into what they were created for – a relationship with God. ADORE ministries now are found in cities across the nation, and George travels extensively helping to fulfill its mission of reaching people, impacting cities, and transforming the world.

He holds a master's degree in theological studies from the University of Dallas. In addition to his work with ADORE, he also directs the Houma-Thibodaux diocesan Offices of Evangelization and Young Adult Ministry. He and his wife, Gretchen, have four children – Marie, Jacob, Sarah and Clare.

For more information or to request review copies of YOUCAT, please contact Alexis Walkenstein with The Maximus Group (561-445-5409 or AWalkenstein@MaximusMG.com) or Kevin Wandra with The Maximus Group (678-990-9032 or KWandra@MaximusMG.com).

Also visit www.YouCat.us for samples, reviews, and ordering information.

"Life on the Rock" airs on EWTN on Thursday, August, 4th, at 10:00 pm Eastern/7:00 pm Pacific; here is the EWTN schedule for this week.

The "New Atheists" and Dr. Edward Feser's "The Last Superstition"

The "New Atheists" | Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J. | Editorial | Homiletic & Pastoral Review | August/September 2011

Books promoting atheism have been selling very well in recent years. The main proponents, the "New Atheists," are biologist Richard Dawkins, philosophers Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, and journalist Christopher Hitchens. A recent closely-argued, philosophical refutation of their naturalism or "mechanical philosophy" was written by Edward Feser (The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism, St. Augustine's Press, 2010). Feser offers a brilliant, careful analysis of the New Atheists' position and shows that it is based on old philosophical errors and manifests a high degree of intellectual dishonesty, philosophical shallowness, and massive ignorance in the fields of history and theology.

Edward Feser knows what he is talking about, since he used to be an atheist. But after studying the arguments of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas he came to see that materialism and naturalism cannot survive serious rational analysis. Human experience is permeated with awareness of the reality of purpose and design in the world, which cannot be explained by claiming all that exists is matter in motion with no final purpose. Experience also shows that the human mind is essentially different from all material things because it grasps universal ideas that are independent of time and space. The obvious conclusion is that the human mind and soul are immaterial, because they can reflect back upon themselves when they know that they know. No material thing, tied to time and space, can do that.

The driving force behind the thinking of the atheists and materialists is opposition to religion. According to Feser, secularism is an "anti-religion" religion that has its own dogmas and morality, which is really immorality. The moving force behind this atheism is not reasonable argument, but a willfulness that there be no God. For, if there is no Creator God who is the First Mover of all things, then there is no purpose to the universe, no immortality of the soul, no natural moral law, no final judgment or accountability for how one lives one's life. In effect, it makes man into a little god who creates his own reality and is not morally accountable to anyone for what he does or thinks, especially in the area of sex.

Read the entire editorial at www.HPRweb.com...

Surreal Phrase of the Day: "Safer crack cocaine smoking"

I cannot even process this sort of craziness (via The Corner):

Vancouver health officials will distribute new crack pipes to the city's non-injection drug users this fall as part of a pilot project aimed at engaging crack cocaine smokers and reducing the transmission of disease such as hepatitis C.

Health officials already provide mouthpieces for crack pipes but not the pipe themselves. This means many drug users are sharing the glass pipes, which may be old or chipped, and are at risk of contracting a disease, such as hepatitis C, from cuts on their mouths, or respiratory illness or pneumonia from inhaling crumbling filters or the crack directly into their lungs.

"It's just understanding and knowing the health consequences of crack cocaine smoking," Gustafson said.

I'm sure that buying addicts new crack pipes sends a clear and firm message about, um, something or other having to do with, uh, well, smoking crack, which is, as everyone knows, better if you are using a new pipe. Or something.

See the Table of Contents for the August/September 2011...

... issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review, now up on HPRweb.com.