Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 343

Church Whispers

See where blogging can get you? Here's a nice feature article on Whispers in the Loggia blogger Rocco Palmo.

Pro Life Movement Helps Women

Depression and abortion linked? Surely some mistake!--or so we would be led to believe by the main stream media and the health professionals. When treating women who are depressed do they ask if the woman was ever pregnant, and if the pregnancy ended in abortion? Probbly not.



The pro life movement is often blamed for being obsessed with the crime of abortion and being anti-woman and not caring enough for women in crisis pregnancies. However, the pro life movement, by definition are the only ones who are truly caring for women because it is only the pro life movement that encourages them to choose life, and to deal with an unwanted pregnancy in a way that is positive and will lead the woman to make a choice that will increase her self esteem by helping her make a positive choice.



The only way the pro abortion movement 'helps' women is to help them murder their child, and thus 'helping' them to disdain human life, and (if they have any conscience at all) to disdain themselves, to feel guilty, ashamed and often depressed and suicidal. Does the pro abortion movement 'help' women to 'get over' their guilt and 'move on' and treat the whole affair as no more important than having a tooth pulled? Then they are 'helping' the woman by feeding her a lie. She is therefore much more likely, when the dark clouds of depression loom, to blame something else and never find a cure because she has been told that the abortion would never cause depression or mental health problems. Their propaganda has 'helped' women therefore to wallow in depression and fear without having any chance of discovering the root cause and to find a cure.



Is there a cure for the depression and suicidal feelings that come from a woman having an abortion? Yes. Ministries like Rachel's Vineyard and Silent No More offer counseling and spiritual care. In my experience, a woman who has had an abortion can find healing and reconciliation through the sacrament of confession, and through a healing Mass which has the intention of praying for the repose of the soul of her lost child. This is a powerful form of healing which has helped many many men and women who have been through the trauma of an abortion.



When these ministries of help for women are added to the thousands of women's clinics that provide endless hours of counseling, adoption services, medical aid, financial aid and social aid for women in crisis pregnancies it has to be said that the pro life movement are the only ones who are truly helping not just women, but their children and families.



The pro abortion folks 'help' women in the same way that the Nazis 'helped the Germans' by eliminating a perceived problem: the Jews.

Abortion and Diabolical Lies

This latest study shows that women have an 81% increased risk of serious mental health problems if they've had an abortion. Who is reporting this? Nobody. The study was published in a UK journal, and at the same time in the UK we hear that the politicians are up in arms over a very modest amendment to a health services bill that will stipulate that women who are seeking an abortion should receive counseling from an independent source.



Notice that the amendment is not even proposing that the independent counselor be pro life. They are simply saying that counseling by an abortion provider is not independent--there is a conflict of interest. What abortion provider (who stands to make money out of the abortion) is going to advise against abortion? Still the amendment is likely to fail because the pro aborts are so terrified that some woman somewhere might actually receive advice to keep her baby or choose adoption. And what tack is David Cameron taking? He's actually saying the amendment should fail because it threatens to influence women wrongly and inhibit true choice. So choice is more enabled by having fewer facts and only one viewpoint? Geesh, the double think of these diabolical propagandists is mind boggling!



Meanwhile, my friend Valerie, who is our local pro life organizer tells me that the largest breast cancer charity--the ones with the pink ribbons everywhere-- contributes millions to Planned Parenthood. How crazy is that? Study after study indicates a link between abortion and breast cancer, and the largest charity trying to cure breast cancer donates millions to abortion providers. It's like the National Organization for Preventing Tooth Decay donating millions to the makers of candy and soft drinks--except that of course in the abortion debate we're not talking about tooth decay but killing babies.



The Devil just loves lying like this. He's so happy to confuse people and get them in situations where one ideology prohibits them from encouraging another truth and getting them to double contradict themselves and never see the inconsistency of the deception.

The Great Transaction

In the church today there is a heresy that doesn't yet have a name--or perhaps it does and I have not learned it yet. It goes like this: "Mankind is in search of meaning. In every person there is a God-shaped space. By looking within, by searching for one's own heart desire, we will eventually find meaning. We will have an encounter with Christ. We will realize that the Christian way is the true way. Then we will walk in this way with peace, joy and a fulfilled life." Let's for the want of a better term call this heresy 'personalism'--or perhaps it could be called "existentialist fideism" inasmuch as it calls for a kind of faith in one's own inner 'vision' or 'desire'.



Like all heresies, it's not all wrong. It's just that it's not all right. Sure there is a God-shaped space in each one of us. Sure, the source and summit of all our desires is, in the end, the Christ who loves us. Sure, if we seek we will find, and if we search we will discover. If we ask we will be answered. However, what this new "existentialist fideism" does is places the human person at the heart of the search for God. It sounds nice and humanistic and all that, but it's not really in the Bible is it? It's not really the way of the saints. You don't find God telling the patriarchs to "search their inner being to discover the light." He says, "Obey me. Leave all, and go to the promised land."



Jesus doesn't tell the fishermen of Galilee to form a discussion group or to do group therapy in which you all discuss together where your inner journey is taking you. He stands up and says, "Leave your fishing nets and follow me. Do some wave walking. Come on. Do something. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." This new personalism is very often subjective in it's declared encounter with Christ, and as such it is unreliable.



I'm increasingly in favor of the simple transaction that the gospel and the church have always called for. "Repent and believe the Gospel." There's the basic encounter with Christ. A soul says, "God, I'm sorry for my sin. I want to do better and can't unless you help me. Give me the power of Christ and I will follow him." Within this simple transaction is all that is required. Not a lot of soul searching is needed. Not a lot of philosophical or theological discussion...not a lot of learning. Just simple obedience and humble acceptance of Christ. Just simple metanoia--turning from my own way to the way of Christ.



This is the only gospel I have to proclaim. It is the only gospel there is. I don't know of any other. It's the transaction I seek every morning, and within that transaction of repentance and faith I turn away from my self seeking and my tortured self examination and I realize I need Christ. Within that transaction grace is given and have the power to follow the Master.



Within this transaction the Sacred Heart of Jesus takes my heart in his and makes it one. Within this transaction my little life is gathered up into his cosmic life. In this simple transaction I am both lost and found.



This Great Transaction is the burning diamond heart of the Christian faith.



The rest is paper.

Clint Eastwood and Jesus

Jesus as a girly man is what Mgr. Charles Pope writes about here. He's right. Jesus in the sixties and seventies became a limp-wristed hippie peace and love type of guy. It reminds us that too often we re-make Jesus in our own image.



I guess because I was brought up in a fundamentalist church with preachers who knew how to 'shoot the gospel gun' and call sinners to repentance and preached about the wickedness of "them long haired hippie types with their tight blue jeans and rock and roll music" that I was never really attracted to the Jesus of Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. I always saw Jesus as a loner--a prophetic, even vengeful character a bit like some of Clint Eastwood's characters--maybe the preacher in Paler Rider.  He was the squinty eyed Jesus--eyeing up his enemies and dispatching them with a well chosen pithy comment. "Let the dead bury their dead" or "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's" are sharp and edgy.



Maybe what we need is more stern preaching in this soft and effeminate age. This Sunday's reading from Isaiah reminds the preacher that he must call the sinner to repentance. Now we don't like this very much because it makes people feel uncomfortable and uneasy. We're told it makes them feel guilty. So what's the big 'victim' thing about feeling guilty? If you've done wrong you should feel guilty. Guilt is like pain. If you put your hand in the fire it burns. Then you pull your hand out. Same with guilt. You do wrong. Guilt makes you feel bad. You stop doing wrong.



Saying that you shouldn't feel guilty or that guilt is bad is like saying that the burning sensation in your hand when you put it in the fire is wrong. How crazy is that? So guilt--although it causes us pain--is good for us. It keeps us in check. Increasingly in our society, however, there is no preaching about sin and punishment--not only because it makes people feel uncomfortable, but because many preachers don't really believe in punishment for sin anyway. God, like Jesus, has become the cotton candy God. All sweetness and fluff but no real content. However, how is anyone supposed to be aware of sin unless the preacher points out that it is a sin? There is a residual awareness of sin in our lives due to generations of a Christian society, but that is fading fast, and if the preacher doesn't speak about sin he's as negligent as the doctor who refuses to tell a patient that they have cancer because he's too cowardly to or because he think the patient might 'be traumatized.'



No, the doctor calls the patient in and says, "You've got cancer. We have to operate. Brace yourself." Likewise with the cure of souls. We call the patient in and say, "You're suffering from the cancer we call sin. Doctor Jesus needs to operate."



The other reason preachers don't mention sin and punishment is because they are all too aware of the sin in their own lives. So maybe the remedy is for more priests to live austere lives of asceticism and self denial. Maybe we should not be so concerned for our material well being, our comfortable lifestyle and our retirement plans. Maybe we should live life on the edge more--be more prophetic and cut through all the comfortable, sentimental middle class Am-Church crap. That would give us the authority to preach about sin a bit more and maybe save some souls and help renew the church.



Just sayin'

Moonasteries

It seems that Domino's Pizza is the first company to have plans to set up a fast food outlet on the moon. You can read about it here. This is exciting news, especially as Domino's was founded by Catholic entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Monaghan. I've met Mr Monaghan a couple of times, but never thought to ask him whether the name of the pizza chain 'Domino's' means that the whole thing belonged to the Lord. If so, it would be a nice touch for a Catholic entrepreneur...I like secret symbolic meanings.



The idea of the pizza restaurant on the moon raises the question of why the pizza chain got there first. Shouldn't the first outpost on the moon be a monastery? In the Middle Ages the Benedictines and Cistercians went to the most barren and God forsaken bits of territory and redeemed them--draining the marshes, clearing the rock fields and planting crops and settling the land.



I'm in favor of the first moon monastery. In fact it could be called a 'moonastery'. I'd sign up to be one of the first astromonks. Talk about getting away from it all! I think there is something in this, and we'd have no problem with the architecture because there are plenty of architects who build Catholic churches that look like rocket ships, igloos and futuristic space stations already...In fact, maybe they could go and live there too, at last they will have found a suitable context for their architectural ideas and a suitable population to enjoy them.

Last Supper or Marriage Supper?

I attended Mass some time ago celebrated by an aged priest who was clearly of the 1970s 'we are church' brigade. He celebrated Mass reverently enough, but like many of his ilk, he altered the words when it suited his particular agenda.



When it came to elevating the host and saying, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Happy are those who are called to his supper." He said, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Happy are those who are called to share in this Last Supper." Now this interested me because, I must admit, I sometimes change the words here myself and (anticipating the new translation) say, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" The new translation is: Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb."



The contrast is between "Happy are those who are called to this Last Supper" and "Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." Now, we don't want to be too persnickety but the difference in the choice of words indicates an important difference in perspective on the Eucharist.



Is the Eucharist a re-enactment of the Last Supper? In the liturgical life of the church, the Eucharist is not actually a re-enactment of the Last Supper. The solemn re-enactment of the Last Supper is on Holy Thursday. The Holy Thursday liturgy is not only a re-enactment of the Last Supper, but also a commemoration of the establishment of the priesthood and the institution of the Mass.



The Mass is not therefore, (and never has been) a re-enactment of the Last Supper, but a re-presentation of the One, Full, Final Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. The Mass is a re-presentation of the mystery of the Death of our Lord--not a re-enactment of the Last Supper.



So why does a liberal priest impose on the Mass words of his own which are foreign to the sacrifice of the Mass? Because he does not like the idea that the Mass is a sacrifice. He wants it to be a fellowship meal, and the shift from sacrifice to fellowship meal is an attempt to make the Mass more 'people centered'. He want the Mass to be all about our fellowship around the table of the Lord, and the Mass as re-enactment of Last Supper fits that agenda better. Furthermore, and at a deeper level, he is uncomfortable with the whole idea of the death of Christ being an atonement for sin. He doesn't really like the 'primitive' idea of blood sacrifice 'appeasing an angry God'. He feels that a supernatural explanation of the cross as a cosmic sacrifice of the Son of God which expiates the sins of humanity is somehow 'inaccessible' to modern man. It is 'not helpful' and 'difficult for modern people to connect with.' A fellowship meal, on the other hand, is more understandable--more relevant and more politically correct for a 'fellowship meal' can carry all sorts of justice and peace connotations as well. Suddenly the Mass is all about "caring and sharing for one another and welcoming all to the table."



I am not saying these are concepts which are totally alien to the Mass, but they are subsidiary and secondary considerations of the meaning of the Mass. They are not primary.



So where does the Mass as 'the marriage supper of the Lamb' fit in? Well, this is an allusion to the Book of Revelation where the worship in heaven is said to be the 'marriage supper of the Lamb.' This builds on the nuptial imagery throughout the New Testament (especially in the Epistle to the Ephesians. In this language of mystery the church is the bride of Christ, and heaven is the final consummation of the mystical marriage between Christ and his Church. There in heaven the two are one. Bride and groom have been united in a mystical marriage of pure and eternal love.



The Mass is the re-presentation of the full, final sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, but if it is a supper it is not the Last Supper, but the Ultimate Supper--it is a foretaste of heaven. It is a glimpse of glory. It is a participation here on earth in the mystical and everlasting worship of heaven. It is the consummation of all things, the harvest of souls and the rapture of divine love within the human soul.



And these sublime ideas and these beautiful beyond words images should be reduced to some sort of fellowship meal? As if the Holy Mass were not much more than a pot luck supper?



Please. Give me a break.

Alternative Liturgy for the Establishment of a Parish Minister Person

Remember: Say the Black Do the Red





The people who are church gather in the shared worship space while singing a suitable hymn, protest song or praise anthem. Suggested music choices are We are Gathering in this Place, We Would Rather Gather, Gather them In,  Bill Gaither's Trio, Let Us Blather as We Gather, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, I Dreamed a Dream, and other suitable songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Oscar Hammerstein.





The Bishop Shall process into the shared worship space with the Parish Minister Person. The Parish Minister Person shall be suitably attired in a soutane of light blue, a surplice and not-a-stole. A saturno of matching hue may be worn by the Parish Minister Person. The Presiding Person (previously known as 'the Bishop' shall wear a cope and miter (unless he feels that these garments may be offensive and seem hierarchical to the Parish Minister Person) Other vestments may be worn by appropriate ministers. A procession by as many lay persons as possible is to be desired. These persons shall represent every group and ministry within the parish. When all are in their place in the shared worship space the Presiding Person stands before them.





Presiding Person: The Lord be with you. How are you all doing today? Have you heard the one about the priest who went into a bar riding a camel? Another opening crowd pleasing joke may be used according to the discretion of the presiding person and the liturgical season of the year.





Parish Minister Person: That is a good one Presiding Person, and may the Lord be with you too.



Presiding Person: Brothers and Sisters we have gathered here to welcome N. as your new Parish Minister Person.



All: It is meet and right so to do.



Presiding Person: I am sure N. has met all the requirements of my divine office to be appointed as the Parish Minister Person. N. has completed the training that is set before him/her and he/she subscribes to the same view of church as I do, so I now ask you as the people of God who are church: Do you think that N. is a very nice person and would you like him/her to by your new Parish Minister Person?



All: We do like N. very much.



Presiding Person: N. are you willing to take on the duties of being this Parish Minister Person?



Parish Minister Person: I am willing.



Presiding Person: Do you accept that you are not a priest or a deacon, and that you shall only pretend to be one all the days of your life?



Parish Minister Person: It is meet and right so to do.



Presiding Person: Do you promise to faithfully complete your duties by dressing as a priest, behaving as a priest and doing everything a priest can do in order to deceive the faithful and usher in as soon as possible the new Vatican 3 church that all of us long for?



Parish Minister Person: With the help of God I will.



The Parish  Minister Person then stands before the Presiding Person who kneels and kisses his/her ring thus symbolizing the submission of the Presiding Person and all hierarchical, patriarchal type people to the will of the people of God who are church.





Parish Minister Person: (for he/she is now in charge) Let us all share together the sign of Peace.





The people who are church exchange the sign of peace among themselves while a suitable hymn or protest song is chanted. A liturgical procession/dance may now take place if the local custom and room in the shared worship space allows. The procession/dance should involve carrying the newly anointed Parish Minister Person at shoulder height in the seda gestatoria accompanied by bearers of the peacock fans, but if the parish have not such accouterments they may use a kitchen chair and rainbow banners. This shall be done unless the Parish Minister Person be of overlarge girth in which case he/she may be conveyed in a wheelchair suitably decorated in liturgical colors. During the procession/dance the Presiding Person should lie prostrate. On return to the sanctuary the Parish Minister Person says with arms extended:





Parish Minister Person: The Lord be with You



All: And also with you!



Parish Minister Person: I may not bless you so instead let us all say:



All: May the road rise up to meet us, May the sun always be at our back, and may the Irish eyes be smiling until we meet again, and now may God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be with us forever more. AMEN.



The Parish Minister Person then removes the miter of the Presiding Person and imposes a large amount of ashes on the head of the Presiding Person as a sign of rejection of hierarchy and patriarchy. The Presiding Person then rends his garments (care should be taken that the Presiding Person is suitably attired in discreet undergarments so that the people who are church may not descend into levity) 





The Presiding Person now divested leads the procession to show penitence for being a hierarchical patriarchal sort of person. The Parish Minister Person shall be carried on the seda gestatoria surrounded by the bearers of the peacock fans, or rainbow banners as appropriate to the members there present. At the door of the shared worship space the Parish Minister Person, with arms extended shall say:





Parish Minister Person: All We Are Saying is...



All: ...Give Peace a Chance.

Women Ministers in the Catholic Church

Anglican Female Clergy
I have written in previous posts about the stated intention of certain Catholic bishops and high ranking clergy in the United Kingdom to actually discourage priestly vocations because they have a liberal, feminist agenda.



Their argument goes like this: "We have too many priests rather than too few. This means that the church is still incorrigibly clericalist. The laity have still not found their voice. Lay women especially have been excluded and marginalized. Therefore we will discourage priestly vocations--especially from Anglican clergy converts, 'rigid' young men who are orthodox in their beliefs, and anyone basically who doesn't sign on to our seventies, polyester liberal agenda. Then we can pressure Rome to let us have women priests. But if Rome still won't let us have women priests we won't have any priests at all. Instead we'll have laypeople running parishes and they can be lay women. We'll make sure that the bishops appoint them and they are 'our' kind of women."



I was told it is happening here in the USA as well, and


Apart from the obvious retardation of such an idea (that the reserved sacrament is for lay people to help themselves to) they will take this inch and run a mile.



The lady "Minister of Parish Life" will wear a cassock and surplice and some sort of vestment which will be indistinguishable from a deacon's or priest's stole. She will light the candles, process in and conduct the communion service from behind the altar and it will look like a Mass for as much as most people will be able to see and understand. They'll probably get around the prohibition of laity reading the gospel and preaching by allowing her to read a homily prepared by a priest, or they will simply say, "She is not preaching. She is sharing a few thoughts..."



Then the laity will pipe up and say, "Dorothy does everything the priest does! Why is it that she can't say those few words of consecration? How unfair to Dorothy! How cruel and hurtful is this dreadful patriarchal Catholic church not to allow Dorothy to be ordained!" And Dorothy and her clergy supporters and her bishop will all look wounded and hurt and cry together and have a group hug and pretend to be victims.



Fasten your seatbelts. It's coming to a diocese near you!

Dawkins' Rage and WYD

Antonio Greets Pope Benedict from Rocco Palmo on Vimeo.





If I were Richard Dawkins I'd be hopping mad too. This article explains that he is fed up with the power of the Catholic Church and wants to organize a protest. What I love about these atheist-secularist protests is that they are so lame.



The Catholic Church mounts World Youth Day and over a million young people from around the world turn up to be public about their love for the Catholic Church. You know that million represent another ten million who would love to be there. They are young. They are positive. They are smart. They are energetic, and they are joyful. Watch the video of Antonio--a boy "born deaf and near death" for a shining example of what it means to be young, to be Catholic and to be pro-life.



In contrast have a look at your usual atheist-secularist gathering. They're old. They're dull. They're negative. They're tired and most of all they're angry. The more they organize their graying, baying crowds of worn out sexually exhausted has beens the better. They make our World Youth Day crowds look like the future. Which they are.



This makes me laugh out loud with joy, for Richard Dawkins in his impotent rage is now raining on his own parade. He is increasingly marginalized as a shrill and incoherent shadow of his former self. Once an eminent scientist his public persona is now of the wild eyed extremist--the sort of irrational atheist who would gladly suppress religion in the name of 'freedom', close church schools in the interests of education, and forbid religious education and enforce atheist indoctrination in the name of 'freedom of thought'.



In the meantime the strength of religion in our society strengthens. The Catholic faith is alive. It is young. In the developing world Catholicism along with other brands of Christianity is vibrant, supernatural, dynamic and socially involved. Every statistic and demographic reveals that rather than dying out, Christianity is on the cusp of a new spiritual crusade.



Call me triumphalist if you like, but Dawkins and his atheist cohorts are no threat. They represent the last gasps of angry old men in a nursing home who feel like life has cheated them, and viewing them in this way will help us with the proper response. We need to treat them like that grumpy old uncle in the nursing home who smells pissy, has egg yolk on his shirt front and does nothing but grouse about the other patients. You smile, take him a Christmas present, remember his birthday and treat him kindly.



In other words, we wish them all the best. If we have faith we have a great gift which gives us everything. Without faith their lives are empty. So we pray for their joyful conversion one day and await with hope the enlightenment in their hearts and minds that only the Holy Spirit can bring.



Viva Christo Rey!