Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 86
July 28, 2014
Same-Sex Attraction and the Universal Desires of the Human Heart
Stills from the film, "Desire of the Everlasting Hills" (everlastinghills.org)
Same-Sex Attraction and the Universal Desires of the Human Heart | Carrie Gress | CWR
Fr. Paul Check, executive director of Courage, says the film, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, portrays a “special blend of humility, courage, and charity"
On the face of it, the newly-released film, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, has a typical plot. A man is looking for a soul mate to fulfill him, and then the soul mate is found—but something is missing: God. St. Augustine could relate.
What makes “Desire of the Everlasting Hills” different is that the one-hour-long film features three individuals with same-sex attraction—the people our culture tells us are fulfilled in their lifestyle, cannot change, don’t want to change, and so forth. But the movie reveals that they, like St. Augustine, have hearts that are restless until they rest in God.
The movie was produced by the Courage Apostolate, which ministers to people with same-sex attraction who want to live by the Catholic Church’s sexual teachings.
Asked why he made this film, Fr. Paul Check, the executive director of Courage and a former Marine Corps Officer, told Catholic World Report: “When I first started working within the Courage Apostolate, I recall Fr. John Harvey, our founding executive director, saying, ‘Our best ambassadors are our members.’ In the culture that we live right now, the best way to engage people, especially on a topic of such sensitivity, complexity and of a painful nature, is through story.”
With the stories of Paul, Dan and Rilene, Fr. Check explained, the filmmakers found “people who would like to share their perspective, while not claiming that their story is every man’s story, but just saying ‘look, here is my story.’” From there, the priest added, they can find a way to engage in conversation “in some places we wouldn’t be otherwise welcome.”
“We first showed the film publicly at a Christian LGBT film festival in Pasadena, California, in March called Level Ground,” he explained. “It was well received because of the production value—it is just a well-made movie—but also because of the authenticity of the stories.”
“The content of the stories made some people uncomfortable. We aren’t surprised by that. The preaching of Jesus made a lot of people uncomfortable too, so that just shows that fallen human nature is still alive and well in the world, unfortunately.”
The sometimes quirky, often funny, and at times shocking film, follows the lives of three people:
July 26, 2014
Christ is the Treasure Hidden in the Field
"The Hidden Treasure" (illustration from 'The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ') by James Tissot (1836-1902) [WikiArt.org]
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for July 27, 2014 | Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
• 1 Kngs 3:5, 7-12
• Psa 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
• Rom 8:28-30
• Mt 13:44-52
How good are you and I at recognizing something that is valuable, even priceless?
That question captures some of what the final three parables in Matthew 13 are meant to impress upon readers. These parables are all quite short, but along with the previous four parables they show how important it was to Jesus to repeatedly explain the mystery of the Kingdom from different but complimentary perspectives.
The parable of the treasure buried in the field and the parable of the pearl draw upon common but powerful experience: the joy of discovering what was previously hidden. Man, by nature, is a creature of curiosity, a seeker who believes there is something really worth seeking. And while his curiosity can be caught up for a time in natural wonders and pleasures, he always longs for more. He wants to discover who he is and why he exists. The answers to those essential questions can be given only by God.
Some of the early Christian Fathers saw in the parable of the treasure a metaphor for the Incarnation and how the truth about God is finally found hidden in a man—not any man, but the Son of God, Jesus Christ. “If any one, therefore, reads the Scriptures with attention,” wrote Saint Irenaeus, “he will find in them an account of Christ, and a foreshadowing of the new calling. For Christ is the treasure which was hid in the field, that is, in this world . . . but the treasure hid in the Scriptures is Christ, since He was pointed out by means of types and parables” (Against Heresies, 4.26.1).
The treasures of Christ and Scripture are intimately linked to one another, for Christ fulfills Scripture even as, of course, Scripture proclaims Christ. Both can be explored by the seeker of Truth. As Jesus stated earlier in Matthew’s Gospel: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7).
But why does the man who finds the treasure bury it again? Because by law the treasure belongs to the owner of the field, which means the man must purchase, or redeem, the entire field. His decision is a radical one: he “sells all that he has and buys that field.” In doing so, perhaps he makes a new start, renouncing his old, self-centered way of life for the pursuit of what is good, perfect, and holy—the person of Jesus Christ. “Indeed, the preaching of the Gospels has no strings attached,” remarked Saint Hilary about this parable, “but the power to use and own this treasure with the field comes at a price, for heavenly riches are not possessed without a worldly loss.”
Buying the entire field in order to have the treasure reflects, in a way, how God has redeemed the entire world so that he might save those who accept the invitation to become his children, freed from their bondage to sin and the evil one. As children of God by grace, Christians emulate the perfect example of the One who was a Son by nature, giving up everything in order to have the treasure, to hold the pearl of great price.
At first glance the final parable might appear to be a sudden, harsh departure from the joyful images preceding it. What does the final judgment and the fiery torments of hell have to do with the Kingdom? It is this: we must choose, and we must act accordingly. There is no compromise, nor is there time to waste. We may die at any moment; we assuredly will meet our mortal end. We are the ones who will write the endings to the parables by the choices we make.
The question asked by Jesus of the disciples is also asked of us today: “Do you understand all these things?” If our answer is “Yes,” then we know what is valuable, even priceless. Which means one thing: its time to start digging!
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the July 27, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
The Drama of Faith: The Church and the Stage
Pope Francis celebrates a Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican June 29th. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
The Drama of Faith: The Church and the Stage | Mark P. Shea | CWR
The historical relationship between the Faith and the theatre is a complicated and revealing one
You enter a ritual space and take your seat in the midst of a large audience. At the front or perhaps the middle of the hall (often a vast and airy one, but sometimes a small and intimate one) is another part of the ritual space that is marked off from the area you and your fellow audience members occupy. In that ritual space are various pieces of furniture and props for use during the public act that is about to occur.
Music sounds. A chorus and a cast of ritually costumed figures appear and begin to go through a set of carefully scripted words and physical actions. There is a place in the script for audience involvement, with call and response between the figures in the ritual space and the audience. Various cast members recite words of poetry and prose and sometimes burst into song. One player in particular portrays, in a stylized form, the central hero of the drama, the tale of a conflict in which the hero passes through all the trials of life with which we ourselves are familiar: poverty, hunger, friendship, love, betrayal, suffering and death—and comes at last to a glorious and moving triumph. It is a tale in which, after a struggle and a grand act of self-sacrifice, the hero saves his friends from the powers of evil, the humble are exalted, the bad guys get their comeuppance or are themselves so changed by the conflict that they are reconciled with the hero in friendship and love. In the end, the hero receives his reward and the acclaim of great and small. Through participation in this drama, all involved have offered to them a chance at catharsis—purging—from the ills, spiritual and physical, which burden them as human beings. The audience members become participants in mysterious realities revealed in and through words that are made flesh before their eyes, and they experience a sense of contact with something transcendent. At the conclusion, there is an exeunt omnes (all depart), and the stylized ritual concludes.
So here’s a pop quiz: are you at a production of a play by Sophocles, or at Mass?
A Religious Art Form
The historical relationship between the Faith and the theatre is a complicated one.
July 25, 2014
Did We Really Need Vatican II?
Did We Really Need Vatican II? | Russell Shaw | CWR blog
Many of the common objections to the Council overlook the serious crisis it sought to address
Why did we need the Second Vatican Council? Did we need it at all? Hearing those questions, most Catholics who’ve thought about Vatican II would probably cite renewing and updating of the Church as solid reasons for the ecumenical council.
That answer isn’t wrong. But a half-century after Vatican II (it took place between 1962 and 1965) it’s clear that a much larger purpose was at work, with Church renewal and updating its handmaids.
You start to see that when you consider a common objection to the council:
"Other ecumenical councils were convened to handle particular problems. Early councils dealt with heresies about Christ. In the 16th century Trent had to respond to the Reformation. Vatican I in the 19th century faced the challenge to the authority of the pope and the bishops—but it was interrupted and didn’t say much about bishops.
"By contrast, there was no crisis requiring Vatican II. By the middle of the last century, the Church was strong and united in the faith. So this was a council that wasn’t needed. Wouldn’t it have been better to leave things alone?”
No, it wouldn’t. The Church faced a grave problem then—indeed, it still does—and an ecumenical council was required to address it. What problem?
July 24, 2014
Three Deadly Ideas
"Le Penseur" ("The Thinker", 1902) by Auguste Rodin (WikiArt.org)
Three Deadly Ideas | Thomas M. Doran | CWR blog
We tend to ignore the “ivory tower” ideas that college professors debate, wrongly thinking they have no practical effect on day-to-day life
Philosophy? Not for me, many insist. In fact, all of us have philosophies, whether we realize it or not, and whether we can describe them or not.
Most have encountered the words Materialism, Nihilism, and Fatalism in their reading or television and film viewing. Our natural reaction is to ignore them as “ivory tower” ideas that college professors debate, but have no practical effect on day-to-day life.
Fact is, we are influenced by these ideas every day of our lives, and increasingly so, in the films and television shows we watch, in the music we listen to, in the books we read, and in the art we view. Not to mention the impact of these ideas on the moral state of our modern culture, so we ought to understand what these ideas, these belief systems, profess.
July 23, 2014
Former PP clinic director Abby Johnson: Texas Planned Parenthood clinic had abortion quotas
From the Daily Caller site:
Former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson says she has proof that a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic had abortion quotas — target numbers of abortions it needed to perform in order to meet its budget.
Johnson, who left the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas in 2010, released a budget statement for the 2010 fiscal year she said shows that the clinic was expected to perform at least 1,135 abortions that year.
Johnson’s group, And Then There Were None, whose stated goal is “to provide financial, emotional, spiritual and legal support to anyone wishing to leave the abortion industry,” released a photograph a few weeks ago of a Colorado clinic receiving an award for having performed more abortions in the first half of the 2013 fiscal year than they had in the second half of the 2012 fiscal year.
Watch Abby's powerful 3-minute video talking about the agenda of Planned Parenthood.
Abby's story is told in her book UnPlanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line, which is available in paperback from Ignatius Press.
Plus, the powerful 60-minute DVD, "Changing Sides: How a Pro-life Presence Changed the Heart of a Planned Parenthood Director", about her journey from Planned Parenthood director to pro-life activist is available now for only $3.00.
Time to Abandon the Genesis Story?
Time to Abandon the Genesis Story? | Dr. Dennis Bonnette | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
Legitimate science can never assert that Adam and Eve are impossible. It might claim that they are improbable, but never impossible. God’s omnipotence can always make short work of long odds.
Is the Genesis story of a literal Adam and Eve a tale that is no longer rationally defensible in the first half of our 21st century? 1
Do the findings of contemporary science exclude Catholic belief in a literal Adam and Eve?
What is the actual teaching of the Catholic Magisterium on this subject today?
While the texts of Genesis begin by referring to “man” in Genesis 1:26, by Genesis 5:3, we are told that Adam begot his son, Seth. Since generic “man” cannot generate an individual son, this latter text clearly refers to an actual individual man named Adam. 2
Informed Catholics know that Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical, Humani generis, insisted upon an actual Adam and Eve, and warned the faithful against embracing the conjectural opinion of polygenism, “which maintains that, either, after Adam, there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him, as from the first parent of all, or, that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.” 3 That same encyclical clearly stated that if scientific opinions “are directly or indirectly opposed to the doctrine revealed by God, then the demand that they be recognized can, in no way, be admitted.” 4
Still, Humani generis was promulgated more than half a century ago. In light of scientific views emerging since that time, particularly claims made on behalf of paleoanthropology and genetics, many academics—including priests who deal with evolutionary thought—now consider that belief in a literal Adam and Eve to be a form of archaic mythology.
Obama’s Executive Order and What it Means for Catholic Organizations
President Barack Obama speaks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, June 17, 2013. (CNS photo/Paul Faith, pool via Reuters)
Obama’s Executive Order and What it Means for Catholic Organizations | John Paul Shimek | CWR
Without exemptions for religious organizations, the new federal policy may hinder the work of Catholic social service providers and educational institutions.
I called it. One month ago, I warned readers of CatholicVote.org about a new executive order that would be coming out from the Obama White House. The article garnered more than 45,000 views and in excess of 5,600 Facebook “likes.” Then, I took to the air waves, appearing on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio network and the Relevant Radio network, among others, to warn listeners about the forthcoming order. I said this was going to be serious stuff. At first, out ahead of the curve, I was a lone voice. But, I ended up being right on all counts.
Yesterday afternoon, President Obama signed into law further amendments to Executive Orders 11478 and 11246. His amendments will come into full force in 2015. These new directives should concern Catholics deeply.
The first of those orders establishes, “It is the policy of the United States to provide equal opportunity in federal employment for all persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, handicap, age, sexual orientation or status as a parent, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a continuing affirmative program in each executive department and agency.” Furthermore, that order dictates, “This policy of equal opportunity applies to and must be an integral part of every aspect of personnel policy and practice in the employment, advancement, and treatment of civilian employees of the federal government, to the extent permitted by law.”
In essence, Executive Order 11246 mandates the same measures, but with respect to federal contractors and subcontractors.
July 22, 2014
"This might be one of the best novels I’ve read in a couple of years."
So writes author and blogger Sarah Reinhard in her recent review for National Catholic Register of Robert Ovies’ new novel, The Rising, published this spring by Ignatius Press:
This isn’t a thriller. It’s not a horror novel. It’s a serious consideration of what that would mean for a normal kid and his family.
On the surface, this seems like it could be either heretical or awesome or even some combination of both. Ovies, however, forces us to go deeper. What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be dead? And what are the implications of a boy having this ability?
C.J.’s dad has an entrepreneurial streak, his mom is very protective, and it seems no one’s really concerned about him. For a nine-year-old boy, raising people from the dead could be a neat trick. For the rest of the world, it’s an opportunity to spit in death’s face.
And let’s not forget exploitation, because you know that would happen. The media and even the Church get in on the “what can you do for me?” side of things and, in the end, the hero of the story is the most unexpected person.
This isn’t just entertaining reading, though it’s definitely that. It’s also an examination of life and death. This book is really a consideration of human nature and maybe even divine nature. It’s a look at relationship and trust.
I couldn’t stop thinking about this book the whole time I was reading it. It’s fast-paced and yet it has a way of getting into your brain and making you think.
This might be one of the best novels I’ve read in a couple of years. It gets my highest recommendation. You won’t be sorry you read it!
IPNovels.com published an interview with Ovies in April, in which the novelist discusses his research, key themes, and the writing process. Here is more about the novel:
July 21, 2014
The Pope, Persecution, and Religious Freedom
A worshipper holding a rosary and crucifix prays during a July 4, 2014. Mass celebrated at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on the final day of the U.S. bishops' Fortnight for Freedom campaign. (CNS photo/Bob Roller )
The Pope, Persecution, and Religious Freedom | Fr. James V. Schall, SJ | Catholic World Report
The bluntness of Pope Francis’ speaking of actual persecution of Christians on the scale that it is occurring is most encouraging
“Persecution against Christians today is actually worse than in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than in that era. This is happening more than 1700 years after the Edict of Constantine which gave Christians the freedom to publicly profess their faith.”
—Pope Francis, “International Religions Freedom and Global Clash of Values,” (Conference, L’Osservatore Romano, English, June 27, 2014)
I.
The photo in the June 27th edition of L’Osservatore Romano shows the Holy Father with a layman in suit and tie. Standing to the side are another layman and a cleric who looks like he might be a bishop. None are identified. The tall layman and the Holy Father are seen holding out a basketball jersey on which is the name “St. John’s” along with the number “10”. It turns out that St. John’s University and Roman Libera University were holding a joint conference on religious freedom, and Pope Francis delivered an important, if brief, address to those gathered.
“The debate over religious freedom,” the Pope began, “has become very intense.” He recalled that the basic document for Catholics on this matter is Dignitatis Humanae,on religious liberty from Vatican II. “Every human being,” he said at the start, “is a ‘seeker’ of the truth of his own being and of his own destiny.” Thus, Francis began his reflection, as it were, from within each human person. “In the person’s mind and in the ‘heart’, thoughts and questions arise, which cannot be repressed or smothered, such that they emerge from a person’s intimate essence. They are questions of religion and, in order to fully manifest themselves, require religious freedom.”
Religious freedom thus is not a top-down matter but one that rises out of the facts of human existence seeking meaning. Religious freedom allows such reflections to flourish. As such, even though a chaos of differing and often contradictory views arise, we must have some object standard by which we can judge the validity of the vast differences of views.
If these questions of meaning were not asked, a “darkness” would engulf our history and existence. The Pope called religious freedom a “fundamental right.” One has to be careful with this word “right.” It can have many meaning, some of which would even undermine what Francis is driving at. Many Muslims consider a “right to religious freedom” to mean a world totally under the control of Allah—only in subjection to Allah is anyone “free.” The word “right” itself has voluntarist roots. That is, a voluntarist right could always mean the opposite of what it affirmed without any need to justify itself.
But the Pope’s point is that one should be free to pursue the truth of one’s being. We are not free just to be free.
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