Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 58
February 6, 2015
The San Francisco Mission
Left: Golden Gate Bride (Wikipedia); center: Altar at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco (www.staroftheseachurchsf.com); right: Fr. Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea Church (Fr. Illo)
The San Francisco Mission | Fr. Joseph Illo | Catholic World Report
Rich in money, San Francisco is poor in faith and cannot afford to run its own parishes. But the faith is growing in this lovely city of St. Francis.
A simple altar boy policy at my parish, Star of the Sea Church, has unleashed a media firestorm. Hundreds of parishes in this country, and some entire dioceses, do not permit altar girls, so why the outrage? It is because I tried this in San Francisco, the city I love, the city that was founded in 1776 as a Catholic mission, the city whose churches flourished for a time, but the city that has once again become mission territory.
Clergy often remark that the Church in America, and certainly in Europe, has reverted to mission territory. Africa and Asia, to whom we sent missionary priests for 300 years, are now supplying priests for American parishes. But not only priests. Here in San Francisco, my Sunday offertory cannot even meet minimal operating expenses; we must ask poorer parishes to fund us. In an effort to jump start the parish, we’ve increased our clergy from one priest to two, and we’ve invested in a first-class choral program. Our parish cannot afford these up-front costs, but many friends from former parishes in the Central Valley have sent money to help this “missionary church” in wealthy San Francisco.
People do not fill the churches in our cities like they used to, but the faith is growing in this lovely city of St. Francis.
Two months ago I implemented an altar boy policy that reflected the norms of the Catholic Church, particularly the 2001 directive of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship regarding female altar servers. This document says that “it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar.” If girls are invited to serve the Mass, “it would remain important to explain clearly to the faithful the nature of this innovation, lest confusion might be introduced, hampering the development of priestly vocations.”
I explained to our school parents the reasons why we are declining the “innovation” of altar girls, pointing to the essential connection between the Church’s male priesthood and the acolytes who participate intimately in their high priestly office.
Shades of Reality: Novels that reflect the truth of human relationships
Shades of Reality: Novels that reflect the truth of human relationships | John Herreid | IPNovels.com
One of the weaknesses of Christians when it comes to being challenged by trashy media is that they often spring to creating “alternatives”—generally works on the same theme or in the same mode as the garbage being counteracted, but with a Christian gloss. These works are almost always bad, ham-fisted, and artistically dull. I don’t think anybody should be interested in rushing out a work as an alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey, the immensely popular and incredibly trashy series that is now being released as a film.
Instead, here’s a reminder: Ignatius Press publishes fiction that reflects the truth about love and human relationships. Rather than fifty shades of depressing grey sameness, they present a full color spectrum of truth. Here’s a quick run-down of some of our books that involve stories of love.
February 5, 2015
Reality Matters
(Photo: us.fotolia.com | © Marek)
Reality Matters | James Kalb | CWR
The law that the Church becomes weak by pursuing worldly influence and strong by giving herself to truth offers hope for the future
Basic issues have basic importance. Does God exist? If He does, what is He like? If He doesn’t, can an objective moral order survive His absence? It seems obvious that such questions are crucial to all aspects of life, including our life together in society.
That conclusion has inconvenient implications. Christian societies, Muslim societies, and secularist societies are all different from each other. One excludes another, so we can’t favor them equally. It seems then that we must choose one over the others, or else live with a compromise that is likely to prove awkward and shifting—a situation, of course, that is often very difficult to improve upon.
That view of the matter makes people today uncomfortable. They would like to agree with the political philosopher John Rawls, who wanted basic questions put aside in public life as divisive, and claimed that could be done in a principled way to the satisfaction of all reasonable citizens whatever their outlook. Rawls devoted a great deal of effort to working out those views, and they have become extremely influential.
Catholics had already accepted much of the argument. After the Second World War thinkers such as John Courtney Murray and Jacques Maritain attempted to define ways in which the Church could give full support to a public order that leaves basic questions unresolved and relies instead on “articles of peace” or a “democratic charter” that people with different fundamental commitments could agree on. Such views made enormous progress in the 60s and later as the Church attempted to rethink her approach to the modern world.
Rethinking seemed necessary. A liberal form of modernity had triumphed that appeared hard to reject completely because it seemed likely to dominate the social world into the indefinite future. Parallel to that triumph there arose a tendency in the Church to put less emphasis on the reality of God, since reality is essentially a public matter, and more on the subjective side of the Faith. Theologians began to speak of God as Mystery rather than Being, catechists and moralists turned away from doctrine toward experience and human relations, and celebrations of the Mass began to emphasize community and the response of the faithful at the expense of transcendence. What had seemed firm began to seem negotiable.
The apparent hope behind such tendencies was that lessened emphasis on transcendent absolutes would make the Faith more accessible to modern man, and enable the Church to cooperate in the construction of a peaceful and tolerant world in which Catholics could maintain personal and religious integrity as citizens of a free and open society. They would serve God by serving man, acting as a leaven and transforming hearts and minds.
The hope hasn’t panned out, and the transformation has gone the other way.
Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.
February 4, 2015
Cardinal Schönborn delivers clear, engaging words about what it means to follow Christ
San Francisco, February 4, 2015 – How can Christians really live what we believe as followers of Christ? How can our faith in Jesus transform our daily lives? In a new book from Ignatius Press, Following Jesus Every Day,
the renowned Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, uses simple but profound words and vibrant images from to show how the doctrine and the practice of the faith are fruitfully brought together.
Cardinal Schönborn addresses the basic questions of Christian morality, and how we live what we believe as followers of Christ. He shows how we are not left alone in the difficult task of coping with life’s challenges: God’s grace is a strong help for us. Thanks to this divine help, good moral conduct is possible— as we see in the shining examples of the saints.
The Cardinal leads from the basic question—What is ethical conduct, and how is it possible?—to the question of holiness: How are we to become saints? Each of his reflections on morality begins with human experience, and then leads into a discussion of the specific character of Christian morality. He explores many important questions about Christian moral living, referring to the teachings of Jesus Christ, as well as insights from the Church Fathers and the saints on such topics as sin, grace, freedom, virtue, conscience, holiness, and more.
Brant Pitre, Professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, praises Following Jesus Every Day, saying, “Many Christians today know what to believe but are less certain about how to live a life faithful to the Gospel. How do we truly follow Jesus every day? In this fantastic book, Cardinal Schönborn walks the reader step-by-step through the basics of Christian moral teaching by drawing on Scripture, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The result is an amazingly clear introduction to moral theology that should be read by everyone.”
“Here we have a beautiful exposition on Christian anthropology. Such a book is so important today as many of us have forgotten or never learned the true dignity of the human person in Christ. Cardinal Schönborn has written such a readable introduction to the true meaning of our lives, lives destined for holiness. Perfect for R.C.I.A., adult faith formation, and personal spiritual reading,” says Deacon James Keating, Ph.D. from the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University.
Jimmy Akin, apologist and author of The Fathers Know Best, explains, “All of us need help to live Christ’s teachings amid the challenges of life. In this very timely book, Cardinal Schönborn offers the insightful and practical help we need to build our lives on the firm foundation of Christ’s teaching.”
“Cardinal Schönborn shows his genius for explaining the truths of the faith in a vivid and attractive way, for convinced believers as well as the skeptical. These reflections beautifully demonstrate that Christian morality is reasonable and living a holy life is possible,” says Mary Healy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
About the Author:
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, is a renowned spiritual teacher and writer. He has authored numerous books including Jesus, the Divine Physician; Chance or Purpose?; Behold, God’s Son!; To Know Jesus as the Christ; and the series Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Product Facts:
Title: Following Jesus Every Day: How Believing Transforms Living
Author: Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
Release Date: November 2014
Length: 161 pages
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-785-0 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com
To request a review copy, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press, (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com
Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Beauty and the New Evangelization
Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Beauty and the New Evangelization | Dr. Matthew Ramage | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
“I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth…are the saints and the beauty that the faith has generated.”1 Throughout his career, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has, time and again, emphasized that the via pulchritudinis, the way of beauty, constitutes a privileged path by which to advance the New Evangelization. In a de-Christianized society that is often hostile to the Church’s truth claims and moral norms, Benedict believes that recourse to the universal language of beauty is indispensable if today’s evangelist is to compellingly present the Gospel to would-be believers. In this brief reflection, we will explore the concept of beauty in Benedict’s theology and suggest areas in which it might be fruitfully applied by the Church today in her ministry of evangelization.
The nature of beauty and its power to convert
It is commonly said that “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” There is certainly some truth to this saying. When it comes to some matters (say, whether you like a particular song or movie), there is considerable room for debate among people of good will as to whether a given work of art should be called “beautiful.” Yet, to relegate beauty solely to the realm of the subjective gives rise to grave problems when pushed to its logical conclusion. This can be seen by the fact that there exist certain realities that any sane person would recognize as not beautiful. For an extremely obvious example, take the carnage of Auschwitz—not the acts of heroism by those imprisoned, but the brutal acts of aggression perpetrated upon them. If one is to call that beautiful, then one has clearly emptied the word “beauty” of all meaning.
So what is beauty? As we will discover below, Pope Benedict provides us with something different from a textbook definition of beauty. But for now, a good starting point is St. Thomas Aquinas whose thought mirrors a large part of the reflection on the subject. Within this tradition, beauty is described as having three hallmarks: integrity, proportion, and clarity, or luminosity. A piece of art possesses integrity when it is whole (a painting is not ripped in half); proportion occurs when a thing’s various parts are all in proper relation with one another (the painting has not been drawn with twig-like limbs); clarity is that “shine” that allows for the self-revelation of the beautiful (a painting could possess integrity and proportion but lack adequate light).
For his part, Benedict draws on Plato to give us more of a phenomenological account describing the experience of beauty, rather than seeking to define its precise nature. He teaches us that the dominant effect of beauty is to give us a healthy “shock” that draws us out of ourselves, and the rut in which we sometimes find ourselves entrenched throughout our daily routine.
February 3, 2015
The Hundredth Anniversary of Thomas Merton's Birth
Trappist Father Thomas Merton, one of the most influential Catholic authors of the 20th century, is pictured in an undated photo. The 100th anniversary of his birth was on January 31. (CNS photo/Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University)
The Hundredth Anniversary of Thomas Merton's Birth | Fr. Robert Barron | CWR
Merton, although flawed, was one of the greatest spiritual writers of the 20th century and a man who had a decisive influence on me and my vocation to the priesthood
I write these words on the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Thomas Merton, one of the greatest spiritual writers of the 20th century and a man who had a decisive influence on me and my vocation to the priesthood.
I first encountered Merton’s writing in a peculiar way. My brother and I were both working at a bookstore in the Chicago suburbs. One afternoon, he tossed to me a tattered paperback with a torn cover that the manager had decided to discard. My brother said, “You might like this; it’s written by a Trappist monk.” I replied, with the blithe confidence of a sixteen year old, “I don’t want to read a book by some Buddhist.” With exquisite sensitivity, he responded, “Trappists are Catholics, you idiot.”
The book in question was The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton’s passionate, articulate, smart, and deeply moving account of his journey from worldling to Trappist monk. Though much of the philosophy and theology was, at that time, over my head, I became completely caught up in the drama and romance of Merton’s story, which is essentially the tale of how a man fell in love with God. The book is extraordinarily well written, funny, adventurous, and spiritually wise.
In one of the blurbs written for the first edition, Fulton Sheen referred to it as a contemporary version of St. Augustine’s Confessions, and it was fulsomely praised by both Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Moreover, it contributed massively to the startling influx of young men into monasteries and religious communities across the United States in the postwar era.
I was so thrilled by my first encounter with Merton that I dove headlong into his body of writing.
Those Blasted Bishops
Bishops arrive for the beatification Mass of Blessed Paul VI celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 19, 2014. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Those Blasted Bishops | Carrie Gress| CWR blog
Like Family, They May Not Be Perfect, But They Are Our Imperfections
While disgruntled criticisms of Catholic bishops are nothing new, there seems to be an increase of late, especially since the start of Pope Francis’s pontificate. There is clearly no denying that there are problems within the Church, but Catholic moral teaching makes it clear that murmuring against our bishops shouldn’t be taken lightly. Cheap chatter, intellectual pride, and unchecked emotions can often make it difficult to discern who is in the right and make such murmurs justifiable.
There are, however, six—at least—critical things to consider before engaging in public criticism of any bishop (including the Bishop of Rome):
1) The Necessity of Bishops
Throughout the Church’s twenty-century history, the primacy and necessity of the bishop has always been emphasized as the glue uniting the people of God to the Church of Christ. St. Ignatius of Antioch, in his letters from prison before being eaten by lions in Rome’s Coliseum, emphasizes over and over again the importance of being in accord with the bishop: “Defer to the bishop and to one another as Jesus Christ did to the Father in the days of his flesh, and as the apostles did to Christ, to the Father, and to the Spirit. In that way we shall achieve complete unity.” (Letters of Ignatius: Magnesians, 97) And later, “Flee from schism as the source of mischief. You should all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father.” (Letters of Ignatius: Smyrnaeans, 115). Ignatius, like others after him, refers to the essential familial relationship of disciples to the bishops like Christ to his Father.
Like a crack in the windshield, the first break with bishops will only lead to further cracks, as we have ample evidence from the Protestant Reformation. (Although there is no concrete number available because of all the overlap, a quick Internet search says that there are over 41,000 different Christian denominations. Talk about splintering.)
“Surely Ignatius never saw bishops this bad,” one might protest. A brief survey of history will confirm that, yes, bishops have been this bad before. Worse even.
2) The Pope Isn’t a CEO
February 2, 2015
Join Renowned Biblical Teacher Steve Ray for a New Adventure in 2015!
presents
ABRAHAM
Father of Faith and Works
NEW YEAR – NEW FILM – NEW ADVENTURE WITH STEVE RAY!
And ready for the “BIG SCREEN”
in Your Parish in 2015!
Have you been following the Footprints of God from Ignatius Press and Steve Ray?
If you have, you already know there is nothing else like these fast-paced, entertaining, educational documentaries on our salvation history. If you haven’t, you’re in for a real treat!
These eight films combine the elements of a biography, travel documentary, Bible study and apologetics course all rolled into a remarkable, family friendly adventure! Each one is a 90-minute, stand-alone masterpiece taking the viewer to another time and place. With ABRAHAM you will travel with Steve back 4,000 years to Iraq, Turkey, Palestinian Territories and Israel. Have you ever seen a ziggurat? You will!
And now this much anticipated foundational film in the series, ABRAHAM: Father of Faith and Works , has been released as an exclusive parish screening program. Parishes, schools and organizations will be able to purchase a package that will include DVDs to have for sale or to gift, a free DVD for showing, promotional materials, and a 12-month site license to show the movie unlimited times in your facility or in a theater!
License holders will have 6 weeks of exclusive sales of the ABRAHAM DVD before general sales will start on March 17th.
FOOTPRINTS of GOD Parish Screening Program
And for those who would like to show all 8 Footprints of God DVDs now available: JESUS, MARY, PETER, PAUL, APOSTOLIC FATHERS, MOSES, DAVID/SOLOMON and ABRAHAM, we have packages that include a 12-month site license to show all 8 DVDs as well as a free copy of each DVD to use for showing, copies of all the DVDs to sell or gift, and promotional materials.
Both of these parish screening programs make great evangelization tools and can be used as a fundraiser as well.
Click here to see an overview of the Footprints of God films.
For more information on packages and prices available as well as the forms to order your packages, please go to www.IPMovieNights.com and click on SPECIAL SCREENING PROGRAMS.
Questions?
Contact Diane toll free: 866-431-1531 ext. 5;direct: 734-455-1973;
or e-mail: dhanson@ignatius.com .
These programs are available only in the U.S. and Canada.
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Death with Dignity: Questions, Concerns, Dangers
(Photo: us.fotolia.com | © beerkoff)
Death with Dignity: Questions, Concerns, Dangers | Catholic World Report
Philosopher Robert Spaemann talks about the dangers that would result from the legalization of assisted suicide, and also discusses organ donation and the brain-death criterion. Interview by Julia Wächter (Diocese of Regensburg).
Regensburg, January 29, 2015 (kath.net/Diocese of Regensburg). Internationally renowned philosopher Prof. Robert Spaemann speaks in this interview with Julia Wächter about the paradoxical shifts in the concept of dignity, about the dangers that would result from the legalization of assisted suicide, and about the duties of the Church and of every individual human being.
Julia Wächter: The expression “death with dignity” is used both by advocates and by opponents of assisted suicide. How did we arrive at this apparent shift of meaning in the concept of dignity?
Prof. Robert Spaemann: A human being possesses dignity, not as an exclusively organic living being, but because he is a spiritual subject, an “I”. However, increasingly intense efforts are being made to separate the human being as a biological entity from an “I” that hovers over matter. Advocates of suicide say that this “I” will disappear with the occurrence of death. Consequently the human being, who would then no longer be a human being, would cease to have dignity. In this view he is not understood as a body-soul composite but rather—you would actually have to say—as a mere soul. That is of course paradoxical, because most of these people adhere at the same time to biologism and materialism. Actually they ought to be advocating the diametrically opposed theory. All modern ideology suffers from a deep internal contradiction, and this is apparent precisely in the double meaning of the word “dignity”.
Wächter: Assuming that a person who commits suicide is convinced that everything ends at death: how can such a person, despite the harshness of his existence, prefer what from his perspective is “nothingness”?
Spaemann: This person’s existence becomes increasingly unpleasant to him, and this leads to a calculated suicide [Bilanzselbstmord]. Someone weighs the advantages and the disadvantages and then decides which side outweighs the other. The person thereby makes himself into a thing. Here we need to recommend solidarity with the sinner but clear disapproval of the sin.
Wächter: Is it possible to justify, even for non-believers, the view that a human being cannot be the absolute master of his own life?
Spaemann: That is not a Christian invention. Even Socrates wrote that life is given to us as a gift. A non-believer, nevertheless, does not believe that a human being has a master. At most he might regard arguments based on the natural law as meaningful. Thus the prohibition against helping to kill can be elucidated in terms of the requirements of public safety. In relation to all his fellow human beings, a human being must be perfectly sure of his life. And he is no longer sure of it if there is a permission to kill. A human being is not the absolute master of himself but must respect others also. If he really is a non-believer, he may not even respect his duty toward his neighbor. Then arguing with a stubborn non-believer does not lead to success.
At any rate there are few people who are really certain that there is no God. Most people today [in Germany] are agnostics: “I do not know whether there is a God, maybe yes, maybe no.” With such a person you can still argue, for example with Pascal’s Wager: If nothing were at stake, it would perhaps make no difference whether God exists. But if it is a question of eternity and if someone harbors just a hint of a doubt about the utter absence of a God, then it makes sense to act as though it were true [that God exists]. Faith is a great joy and a consolation. What would you have lost if [it turned out that] God didn’t exist? Nothing at all.
Wächter: Is there an objective right and wrong in the case of dying, or can everyone decide for himself what is “dignified”?
January 31, 2015
Prophets and Demons: On Jesus and Exorcisms
Detail from "Curing a Possessed Woman" (c. 1390-1415) by Limbourg brothers [WikiArt.org]
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for February 1, 2015 | 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.)
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